A rant on why I think we need realistic Solarpunk, plus some other things 1/2 ☀️

Felt compelled to make this. It will finally stop floating around in my head 🎉

Podcast over here if you're interested: https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts

#solarPunk #hopePunk #art #myArt #comics #sustainability

@the_lemonaut @qlaras You just reinvented the Mundane SF movement from 20 years ago.

A rant on why I think we need realistic Solarpunk, plus some other things 2/2 ☀️

@cstross @the_lemonaut @qlaras This variation on solarpunk, under the solarpunk name, has been pretty prominent for a decade or so (though it’s being brilliantly summed up and illustrated here in my absolute favorite iteration of itself.) Most the major citations date to the early twenty-teens.

@cstross @the_lemonaut
TIL! (Or re-learned. That Wikipedia article feels slightly familiar...)

Always interesting when concepts come back under a new name, and comparing the changes.

@jmtd @the_lemonaut KSR himself doesn't want to call himself a Solarpunk writer and I would agree with him. While he writes about Climate Change, his books are rarely grassroots, organic, he's more interested in structures, economies, Blockchains and AIs.

I wrote a very thorough (and critical) review of his Ministry for the Future at https://alxd.org/ministry-for-the-future-review.html

@the_lemonaut Reminds me of...

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Robert A. Heinlein

@cwicseolfor @qlaras

Hey @cstross - first, let me thank you for your books, Accelerando inspired me to be who I am today!

I'm one of the writers of the @SolarpunkPrompts podcast @the_lemonaut mentions and wrote quite a few essays on the movement.

Solarpunk doesn't claim to be anything new, it's just a label people are rallying around to imagine how a future could look like if we are to become a sustainable civilization.

Something which is still way too hard to imagine.

@alxd @cwicseolfor @qlaras @cstross @SolarpunkPrompts I would propose: (and this may be controversial, I’m open to being told I’m wrong) that if solarpunk is to be worth an ounce it cannot be only an artistic movement. It must be something that is, as @the_lemonaut proposes, a behavior or a design that materially impacts the world. Otherwise it’s just another demonstration of what Vonnegut said about Vietnam.

Maybe I’m full of shit

@Jetengineweasel @cwicseolfor @qlaras @cstross @SolarpunkPrompts @the_lemonaut

Or maybe it already is a movement, one which couldn't find a name before, all these technologies from the Global South, open source and open culture values from Wikipedia to Appropedia, Safecasts and more? ;)

I wrote about it extensively at https://lenses.alxd.org/ !

I came to Solarpunk because I had no other language to tell the real stories I saw.

@the_lemonaut I really appreciate this

My exposure to solarpunk has been a) a yogurt commercial, b) thanks to super-technology, cats are enthusiastic partcipants in the weekly commune meetings*

In theory I liked the genre but I didn't see anything I really identified with. Subbing to the pod for more.

Hard-solarpunk? Though "hard" has the wrong connotations

* Extremely unrealistic, obviously the cats would skip them

@neilk I'm one of the proponents of such hard solarpunk - and while I don't know if we have a label, together with @the_lemonaut and a dozen other artists we created https://storyseedlibrary.org/ to promote more grounded climate future art! :)

@alxd @the_lemonaut I tried listening to this but I realized it’s intended for writers

I’m not sure I approve of this tbh. There are two independent premises that are assumed true: that there is an optimistic future, and that it has the solarpunk aesthetic. Then we’re supposed to construct rationalizations for it

I could understand the prompt to be optimistic xor to write about future communitarianism but both simultaneously? idk. Le Guin would never.

@neilk, not sure what the problem is in this situation, or whether you're being serious at all (apologies if you are). Why is a suggestion to write speculative fiction that combines multiple premises bad? Is giving a prompt "write a story set in a world where robots have gained sentience AND where humanity has colonized Mars" automatically unviable? Why? 🤔 These premises don't exist to divine the future. Also...the podcast is called Solarpunk Prompts. What else could the premises be?

@the_lemonaut Perhaps I should not have said anything. You have a project and it gives you hope. There is lots of undiscovered country even within the parameters you have set

In my defense. I’m very suspicious of anything that constrains the artist to affirm a vision of the future. Been there done that. My reference to Le Guin was that she could only offer “ambiguous” utopias because she understood people all too well

https://inventwithpython.com/theguyialmostwas/

@neilk, it's is A version of A future, and also nobody is forcing anyone to fit the stated parameters. If they feel like it too limiting they can just...not follow them 🤷 And they don't have to follow them forever in every piece they make

Creative prompts specifically suggest frames within which people can create, if they find the idea interesting or compelling. There is also the concept of creative limitation.

I am very curious to know what you had expected to see from this podcast instead

@the_lemonaut It’s what I expected but it raised some other things in me

I think it’s just not for me. I should have let it alone

@neilk @the_lemonaut

Out of curiosity - if I told you about a (possibly utopian) country, would you believe that it's achievable within the next few decades?

It's powered by 80-90% renewable energy. 65+% of people work in co-ops, which generate at least 33% of the GDP. The transport is not even public, it's communal - local co-ops own it. Public healthcare. Every child speaks 2-4 languages from the very beginning. Three major religions exist there without big tensions.

@the_lemonaut I think we need it all. Yes, much more of the realistic stuff like @alxd and @tomasino add to Solarpunk Prompts.

But also, what's often labeled "other ways of knowing," not solely "Western" science. In this sense, magic in spiritual systems and indigenous cultures *is* tech & science. (Just not the kind taught in universities!)

@BrightFlame @the_lemonaut @alxd @tomasino Very much agreed. However, I think this more realistic type of solarpunk gets a bit more marginalized because it can be difficult and discouraging to write, as it does make you consider the shortcomings of the present. It's way more fun to write happy positive whimsical things like talking animals, utopian slices of life, or about spirituality/cultural traditions that you know and are comfortable with etc. But solarpunk needs the dreams, otherwise the actions will be directionless and certainly not as well informed. I think other types of solarpunk prompt us to critically reflect and even get outside our own framework of being so we can then take into consideration those other ways of being when designing practical solutions.

It's very yin-yang; I don't think one can exist without the other, and one leads into the other and back again

@solarpunkpresents @the_lemonaut @alxd @tomasino

You all have inspired me to think about a sequel to THE WORKING that adds to the how-do-we-do-it-now story. Where do we go from here?

I'd not intended THE WORKING to have a sequel but once it was out to the world, ideas poured in about following the coven and the wider community into their next chapter.

I'll be listening to @SolarpunkPrompts for inspiration!

#solarpunk

@the_lemonaut love this so much! This is the impulse behind Solarpunk Parents Podcast for me ... How can we ensure we're making a better future? Let's talk to people who are doing that right now, so solarpunk can see a way forward / what needs doing!

Also, your art style is so fun, very aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable (to me at least!) -Ariel

@the_lemonaut This is great!

Would it be okay for me to print these out a couple of times in zine-y format, so that I can give them to others and/or leave one in a few places? (At no charge to them)

@joepie91, yes, go right ahead! As long as I'm credited, I don't mind 😌