#solarpunk relationship to technology

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

In this episode, Christina talks with hacker and enthusiastic solarpunk Paweł Ngei about the power of solarpunk narratives to open our eyes to the ways in which we do things and invite us to critically examine them. Why is tech built this way? Who are we disenfranchising by not having more or different designs for things? Who are we handing over too much power over our lives to mindlessly letting them thrust their tech into our lives without us knowing how it works?

For more info about and thoughts from Paweł, can check out his blog (https://alxd.org/), be inspired by his podcast (https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts), read his short story about a disabled inventor at https://glider.ink/, or read his review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (https://alxd.org/ministry-for-the-future-review.html#ministry-for-the-future-review).

Other links Paweł recommends are about the book A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys and to a great solarpunk engineering wiki: https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia

[cognitivejustice]

By accepting as inevitable humanity’s demise by its own hand, post-apocalyptic fiction places no responsibility on the living to course correct.

Solarpunk looks towards a post-capitalist future of renewable energy. It rejects climate “doomerism” and shows what our collective future could look like if we heal our relationship with the natural world.

Far from Star Trek’s “full luxury space communism,” where humans race across galaxies via endless sources of energy, the technology in solarpunk is imminently achievable. In the anthology Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias, science fiction writer and democratic socialist Kim Stanley Robinson describes this genre as rejecting “the inevitability of the machine future.”

Instead [solarpunk] asks, “What is the healthiest way to live? What is the most beautiful?”

Rather than Elon Musk’s tent cities on Mars, these fictional worlds “cobble together aspects of the postmodern and the paleolithic, asserting that we might for very good reasons choose to live in ways that resemble in part the ways of our ancestors.” 

[eatthesunshootthemoon]

Prop art for Project Fish. Some things you'd typically see at a Li-Luan port.

These props are inspired by things you'd normally see at urban areas within south-asian communities.

I dug deep into what’s been inspiring me to create art for Ormauk recently, and a lot of it has been my relationship with nature as an adult, but especially more so when I was a kid. I grew up a short walk away from the beach. The town that I lived in was outside of the city, but you couldn’t really classify it as suburbia. There were empty plots of land filled with guinea grass growing taller than us kids. Unfinished foundations of houses that sat undisturbed for most of my life; overgrown and abandoned. There was a small pasture for cows behind my house where frogs croaked their hymns when rain fell and created ponds. Overhead cables and graffitied electrical transformers had a specific vibe that I just don't see where I live now.

I wanted to show my version of solarpunk, and it finally clicked with me how I can achieve this; by mixing those snapshots of my childhood with thematically designed technology that fit that south-asian culture I’m trying to emulate. A bit of what exists now and what could exist.

[imbecominggayer]

New Writing Characters!

I'm currently working on something else because my brain is obsessed with characters. (god save me <3)

In the setting of a cyberpunk city an era away from now, society has rapidly developed and continues to evolve as superheroes pave the way. The main character is a woman named Roku Antoiny, inspired by Roku and the rococo art period, specifically female artists and key figures such as Marie Antoinette. Roku is a dark ingenue and failed actress whose previous manager suggested becoming a vigilante and then using the fame from that, after a big dramatic reveal, to up her career.

Seeing that she has nothing left to do, Roku goes for it, becoming te heroine Rococo and working her social skills, love for disguise, ambition, and assortment of talents to bag future sugar daddy Harvey Caberval, who is inspired by the Baroque art movement and artists such as Caravaggio, a baby born on the coldest day on Earth and saved out of his mother's womb when she died of hypothermia. Harvey is a part-time streamer and businessmaker who is working to be the richest man in Vizja against rivals.

During Harvey and Roku's "Romance" period, the wacky, wider cast of characters is shown, including:

Hulu Rauslain, an african-american man inspired by a combo of Hulu and Dadaism artwork looking to settle down with his on-off again girlfriend, Ynesé, despite their combined commitment issues and the fact that Ynesé, inspired by surrealism, specifically The Lovers by Rene Magritte, permanently wears a face covering.

Youtu Shanowen, inspired by native american cyberpunk, a Choctaw woman and terraformist advocator and businesswoman looking to protect and create vegetation after the rapid industrialization, cybernetic shit of the Earth and other planets.

Flic and Net Parliaton, twins, F being a boy and N being a girl. Flic is inspired by recycling art movements such as El Anatsui, and is an activists who works with Youtu. Net is a classical musician, inspired by Afrofuturism, who shares a rivalry and enemy relationship with Roku since Roku was jealous of her.

Yuu Shunyoji, a frenemy of Roku since Roku is insane and insists on maintaining one-sided rivalries, and is also an actress. They/Them. They were inspired by Nihonga artwork.

Some Enemies Include:

Parmoretto Longneck, a rival of Harvey for richest man in the city and inspired by the Mannerist movement a la Madonna with a Long Neck.

Anghelward Helio, an aesthetic supervillain who wishes to return the world back to a previous state of technology, the 2020 era of technology, as he believes that the social, cultural, religiousness of the "now" is horrid. He was inspired by that victorian time period where artists were drawing the idealized middle age because they believed it was a golden time in british history.

Ono Girl, an abstract movement inspired that wishes to use Harvey's house as a part of her next performance art against the westernization of immigrants and commercialization of the now.

Ante Raphloral, inspired by Pre-Raphaelic Brotherhood which wishes to take down what he considers the "reality distorters" of truth: Actors.

These are not the only characters or only art movements. There's the Rayonist adoptive parents of Harvey and more characters coming along. These inspirations are also combined with different cyberpunk and cyberpunk related aesthetics like Steampunk for victorian characters and solarpunk for naturalist characters and such

Feel free to reccommend some art movements! <3

[solarpunk-nightbird]

For decades we dreamed dystopia, and in March of 2020, when COVID crashed upon U.S. shores, it seemed like we had dreamed it so well we wished it into being. While wealthy reactionaries are building actual bunkers and prepping for environmental collapse, fantasizing about which shade of hopelessness our apocalypse will take is a luxury we can no longer afford. By accepting as inevitable humanity’s demise by its own hand, post-apocalyptic fiction places no responsibility on the living to course correct.

These days, climate change isn’t over the horizon, it’s here. The virus that shuts down the globe? We had that, too. Dystopian fiction? That’s so 2012. It’s time we collectively dream of something else. A better world is possible, but if artists and writers are to contribute to that better world, we’re going to need to balance our splendid hellscapes with gardens of earthly delight. We need to envision futures that are livable and happy, and we need to imagine how we get there from here. What’s more, we need to make those worlds as thrilling and engaging as any post-apocalyptic zombie-strewn nightmare.

Fortunately, we don’t need to invent a new literary genre to show us the way to a better tomorrow. Just as there is a left-wing climate movement demanding humanity break from fossil fuels to create a bright future for life on Earth, so is there a parallel climate fiction that allows us to imagine that better world. In steps solarpunk, left-wing literature’s answer to the dystopian novel. Solarpunk looks towards a post-capitalist future of renewable energy. It rejects climate “doomerism” and shows what our collective future could look like if we heal our relationship with the natural world.

Far from Star Trek’s “full luxury space communism,” where humans race across galaxies via endless sources of energy, the technology in solarpunk is imminently achievable. In the anthology Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias, science fiction writer and democratic socialist Kim Stanley Robinson describes this genre as rejecting “the inevitability of the machine future.” Instead it asks, “What is the healthiest way to live? What is the most beautiful?” Rather than Elon Musk’s tent cities on Mars, these fictional worlds “cobble together aspects of the postmodern and the paleolithic, asserting that we might for very good reasons choose to live in ways that resemble in part the ways of our ancestors.” 

-via Current Affairs, March 25, 2024

[signalseed]

Signal 6: Our Ground Zero is Stolen

For Activists on Stolen Land

Before we speak of our bright green futures,

we must acknowledge where we stand.

On the stories written in soil watered with tears.

This garden we dream of?

It begins on land that was taken — by force, by treaty, by lie.

It begins on Indigenous land.

To grow a just future,

we must learn from those who have always known the land.

Not just stewardship, but kinship.

Not just sustainability, but reciprocity.

Nick Estes (Lower Brule Sioux) – co-founder of The Red Nation teaches us:

“Land Back is not just a slogan

or a demand for the return of territory.

It’s a vision for the future based on Indigenous values

of sustainability, mutual aid, and care for the Earth.”

To decolonize isn’t just to feel reverence.

It is to return.

Return land. Return power. Return relationship.

This doesn’t mean abandoning the future —

it means reclaiming a future worth having.

Decolonization is not regression to the past;

it is the fertilization we need to grow.

It is the grounding we need to rise without repeating harm.

When roots are deep, branches can reach farther.

The future we long for isn’t built in labs or lifted from tech dreams.

It’s built with hands in soil, with mutual aid, with ancestral memory,

with solar panels and traditional knowledge working side by side.

It’s a solarpunk that doesn’t just reuse —

but re-roots.

A future where technology is humble.

Where progress means care.

Where land is not a resource, but a relative.

Where Indigenous voices lead, and all others listen.

This is not fantasy.

This is the blueprint of a better reality.

Land Back is not a metaphor.

It is the soil of justice.

And our roots must go deep.

—Signal Seed

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Would you happen to have or know anyone who has solarpunk resources for in deserts? I live in Vegas so I'm not sure if some things I see will be able to help me here :)

Hi! Thanks for getting in touch. Just wanted to preface this by saying I don’t live in a desert, I never have lived in a desert, and I don’t know a lot about deserts (I come from one of the rainiest places in Europe lol). So I may not be the best person to ask.

That said, I have seen some cool stuff floating about. The whole liquid trees debate that circulated recently was a good example - obviously these are redundant in a temperate climate where trees can grow, but in a desert a machine that captures carbon and generates electricity using algae would be pretty useful! I have also heard of various anecdotal stories of people greening or farming deserts, though I’m a bit more iffy about that - should we be changing the ecosystem?

Large swathes of uninhabited desert, with their constant hot sun, could be really good places for big solar parks, though, and the panels in turn could provide shade for plants and animals.

I’d recommend reading up on the lifestyles of indigenous and traditional desert societies across Africa, Asia and the Americas, looking at what technologies they use to keep cool, supply drinking water, etc. Lots of desert plants can have edible or medicinal functions that people don’t know about, so looking into them would be pretty neat - I know people have talked about vegan cactus leather and stuff though I worry that could become mass-commercialised and damage the desert.

Ultimately yeah, I think solarpunk desert narratives and movements are really cool and very under-appreciated. These places have a unique relationship to sunlight and solar power, and more of the planet is going to be desertified due to climate change, so I think they should be at the forefront of the movement. I don’t know much about them at all but I’d love to learn! If you find anything out about how we can apply solarpunk in the desert please do get back in touch and let me know, and who knows, perhaps you can start a solarpunk movement in Las Vegas!

[dailyanarchistposts]

The Politics & Art of Solarpunk

Although solarpunk never had a particular political ideology assigned to it, it’s been embraced by liberatory ideologies of all flavours. From social ecologists to post-civ anarchists to green socialists.

The philosophy of solarpunk and the politics of anarchism are practically built for each other. Anarchism emphasises personal freedom and collective liberation from hierarchies, authoritarianism, and exploitation. It seeks, as an ongoing project, common ownership, voluntary cooperation, horizontal organization, and mutual aid. Anarchism has generally been ahead of its time on many political issues, from queer to women’s liberation, and its approach to ecology has been no different.

Solarpunk can easily be synthesized with anarchism, and many of its various strains, as it explores the possibilities of liberatory technology, the localization of production, an end to destructive and wasteful consumption, and a reorientation of our relationship with society, work, nature, and ourselves.

It all sounds pretty gooey and feel good. But I want to briefly address those that have lost hope in a better world. Who are stuck thinking that this, largely, is the best that we can do. There’s this idea in politics these days that imagination has no place in our “pragmatic”, no-nonsense world. Which is just false. Humans are flexible creatures, capable of a whole range of social arrangement. If everyone limited themselves to the confines of what is, we wouldn’t be where we are today. It’s time to take some steps forward, with a variety of tactics in hand.

One of which is art. Art has a tremendous influence on us. Music, books, paintings, TV shows, movies, etc, they shape our ideas of what humanity is and what humanity can be. While there haven’t been many major examples of solarpunk art and entertainment yet, I think we can change that. There are interesting stories to be explored and debates to be had, through art. Imagine a novel that explores the different sides and dimensions of the debate on meat consumption in a solarpunk world or a comic that follows a community’s journey as it seeks to rewild and resuscitate the surrounding ecology.

Or picture this. Maybe alongside a game that imagines a horrifying endgame that maintains capitalism, like Cyberpunk 2077, we imagine an uplifting, yet still challenging game that exercises our ability to balance the needs of our local ecosystem and deal with the difficult decisions and conflicts that arise as we reorient our place in the world. Could call it Solarpunk 2033 or something. There’s a free idea right there.

[nathysillygirl]

I mean, I imagine a lil introduction hurts no one

Name: Nathy

Pronouns: she/her & they/them

Birth: 02/2005 (currently lvl.20)

Region: Pindorama

Sexuality: Bisexual

Relationship: Open, polygamist, taken by 10 cuties and looking (preferentially T4T)

Directs and Asks: Open, I only bite when people ask me to <3

Gender: Travesti/demigirl, depending on which school of queer theory you decide to base your analysis on

Likes: Anarchism, Socialism, Neurodivergency and fandoms [wip]

Dislikes: people when they are high, drug/war/CSA glorification and means of accumulation (Capital / Power) [WIP]

Alignment: Solarpunk, the development of a Social Ecological, hierarchyless, radically democratic society through the use of the self created grassroot solar technology

What you might find:

Do It Yourself (DIY):

being a social ecologist I do enjoy learning and teaching how to create and recreate stuff by ourselves, until now we are already able to purify titanium, produce and storage hydrogen and create 99.99989% pure silicium for solar panels at home

Rats:

squeak 🐁🏳️‍⚧️

[wip]

[poorsapadvocate]

Solarpunk fans continue to eat well at the Wholesome Direct.

Full list of games with links under the cut. I tried to single out games that appear to focus on nature, technology, and community. However, I only have as much info as these trailers, and sometimes I get them wrong (like Venba--fantastic game, absolutely not solarpunk.) There’s rarely a game that I don’t care about at the Wholesome Direct, so check it out for yourself. The limited edition merch this year is going towards the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, so go buy some maybe!

Sally: Sally is a life-sim game about community and belonging. Embark on a grand journey aboard a magic flying ship. Navigate daily life as a kid with a diverse crew unique to every game. Craft, cook, farm, build and explore the skies as you become who you want to be amongst your found family.

Caravan SandWitch: Embark on a journey across vast landscapes in Caravan SandWitch, a captivating narrative-driven exploration adventure.

Space Sprouts: Embark on a journey filled with cozy cosmic chaos and dive deeper into the mysteries of your solar punk spaceship with each replay. Get entangled in the ship's unique physics and make this place your new home.

Crab God: Crab God is an atmospheric underwater strategy game. Guide your Crabling colony through wild ocean depths, and defend the egg of the next Crab God. Restore and protect diverse coral reefs, making a difference in the real world as you progress in-game. Make waves, praise the claw!

Spilled: Clean up ocean waste in this relaxing & satisfying cozy game! Recycle, earn coins, upgrade your boat, repeat! Explore and clean up new areas with more waste and new challenges!

Tukoni Forest Keepers: Tukoni: Play as the forest spirit Tukoni as you meet unique characters, solve captivating puzzles, brew fragrant tea and explore a magical world filled with kindness.

Ete: Été is a relaxing painting game set in Montréal. Color the city to explore, create artworks on canvas, collect stamps in your album, decorate your studio, fulfill commissions from your neighbors, and unleash your inner artist!

Into the Emberlands: Venture out into the Emberlands and uncover an ever-changing world filled with surprising encounters and mystical creatures! Save villagers who got lost in the Miasma, collect resources and rebuild your village to create a safe haven for your people.

Fantastic Haven: Restore the equilibrium of magic by saving endangered fantasy creatures. Build your shelter to welcome and protect them, explore unique regions, rally neighboring populations to your cause and rehabilitate creatures in their natural environment.

Bonus:

Garden of the Sea: A chilled-out life sim where you play, craft, and explore across magical islands. Build a house, grow a garden, nurture animals, adventure across the surrounding ocean, and make yourself at home!

FruitBus: A journey of flavors and friendships awaits you in your cozy, customisable food truck! Forage for fresh ingredients to create your own menu, then feed tummies and souls with home-cooked meals. Change the world, one apple at a time. (this ad made me tear up)

Broken Lens: Broken Lens is a cozy game where you will discover the story of a little robot with a sight problem. Explore manifold cute environments at your own pace and investigate to understand what happened to them. Will you be able to uncover all the secrets?

Map Map: Embark on a cozy treasure hunt as cartographer of an adventure crew. Use your sense of direction to make maps, help your companions and explore idyllic islands.

Discounty: Manage your own supermarket! Organize and restock shelves, check customers out, make local trade deals, and befriend a quirky cast of characters. Salvage a failing shop in the once-thriving town and grow it into a thriving business empire. But be warned: not everyone in town wants you to succeed. (seems to be more on the dystopia side, but still focuses on relationships with community and the environment.)

Kamaeru: Foster a sanctuary for frogs and restore the biodiversity of the wetlands in Kamaeru, a cozy farming sim where you raise frogs by playing mini-games and decorating your habitat. Hop right to it!

Sopa: Miho steps into the pantry to fetch a potato for his grandma and falls into a magical world full of wonders. Meet quirky characters, venture through the depths of South America, and learn the importance of the things we pass along in this unforgettable emotional narrative adventure.

The Palace on the Hill: A heartfelt story of ambition, struggle, and friendship told from the perspective of a young boy in fictional 90s rural India. Explore ancient palace ruins, set up your garden, cook Indian food, run errands for quirky characters, and learn about your history by making art.

Moonstone Island: Moonstone Island is a creature-collecting life-sim set in an open world with 100 islands to explore. Make friends, brew potions, collect Spirits, and test your strength in card-based encounters to complete your Alchemy training!

Bonus Bonus: Okay look it wasn’t on the Wholesome Direct this year and it probably won’t be very solarpunk…but Davy Wreden is releasing a tea-shop sim game and it’s either going to be the best or the worst game of my life so I need someone else to know about it

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

If technology wasn’t such a central aspect of solarpunk, we’d all just be hippies redux. Yet not all tech, right? Because solarpunk is also about living the good life while building a just, inclusive, and sustainable society. So, what is solarpunk’s attitude toward and relationship with tech? How do solarpunks decide what’s worth it and what’s beyond the pale? And what’s all this about appropriate technology?

[mooblesandsoups]

Songs like sunlight

An mcyt battle of the bands au

Some people really like my snowbugs WIP and now I'm using it as an excuse to talk about my au because I like this au. (Btw feel free to ask questions about the au please I'll love to talk more about it)

CW: the entire entertainment industry, implied workplace abuse and talks about disabilities

World building/plot

SLS or The battle of the bands au is a secret life au that takes place in a dystopian world aesthetically based on ideas like cyberpunk and solarpunk.

After all of earth's greenery was almost destroyed as caused by the industrial revolution people turned to music and other arts to not only cope but to separate more from the technology that was destroying the earth.

Centuries later earth us flourishing with greenery (however their water supply is definitely not better) everywhere you walk you see everything from people on scooters to bikes to street artist showcasing their work to anyone who'll listen, of course nothing can be perfect and Companies have used the rising growth of music to its benefit.

The biggest music company in the world is Watchers Inc. A music company that has been booming since the introduction of their latest singer a masked singer only known as X by fans as well as controversies with former members... However this mysterious singer isn't their reason for popularity oh no it's how they choose their next talents.

Every decade Watchers Inc. Hosts a battles of the bands competition, choosing a selection of popular indie artist to compete for a prize, with the winner being offered a spot as a talent for Watchers Inc. Alongside their prize.

This year is particularly special with the introduction.. And reintroduction of some familiar faces now battling to win a grand prize, which band will come out on top? What secrets will be revealed? What kind of relationship will bloom? And which will have their failures and personal lives broadcasted live in front of millions.

Bands

As mentioned previously this au is secret life based as that was what was currently out when I first started this au do of course I enjoyed playing around with dynamics and how they all started theirs bands/careers.

Gem & The Scott's- indie/alternative music (can't explain but think of black sheep by metric. That. Specifically the one in Scott Pilgrim)

Starting off with gem and the Scott's, gem and impulse met each other because of a family friend leading to their eventual friendship. Soon enough gem had an idea, let's male a band. Both gem and impulse had a fascination for music considering it's how they became friends, so it just felt right in gems eyes. However they needed one more member and luckily she knows exactly who to ask.

Next thing Scott knows as he's relaxing at a bar enjoying his break from music when a random ginger woman runs up to him and ask to join her emo band. And he said yes for some reason so I guess it worked.

Mounders- folklore music

The mounders were founded by pearl a few months after her band's contract was terminated by Watchers Inc. So she decided to start fresh and gather some of her friends to set up a proper band.

Due to Pearl's previous success it wasn't too difficult getting back into business with some assistance from her bandmates and suddenly everything is good again.

The Roomies- pop? (Maybe? Like Oliva Rodrigo kinda pop not finalized)

The roomies aren't technically an official band Grian is considered a independence artist by many and switches around bandmates a lot because of his contract with Watchers Inc. However he trusts etho and Cleo the most and preforms with them as much as he can because they treat him like an actual person.

The heart foundation- Jazz (Dont ask me details I don listen to jazz music)

Couple of dudes work at a bar and play jazz music. I don't know what else you want they're just silly guys with a bit of PTSD

Big dogs- rap (because its funny)

Jimmy and Martyn were both in the acting business for awhile which is how they met. Jimmy has been and actor since childhood and Martyn only started during adulthood while doing music on the side. Soon enough Jimmy ends up ranting to Martyn about acting and how he's tired of it after doing it for so long so Martyn asks if he wants to become a musician with him and Jimmy agrees then the big dogs were born.

Scar & Lizzie- Lizzie is pop (but like theater kid pop if that makes sense) and scar is yet to be decided (maybe country?)

Lizzie and Scar are both individual performers both choosen through a popularity vote by the fans and watcher staff.

Extra fun stuff

This was mentioned in the WIP above but Scott is legally blind, however he was not born blind. He basically got the bad genetics in his family and eventually starts going blind over time. Its really not too important to the plot (besides some backstory stuff and self esteem issues) but it's an interesting detail that I'm doing lots of research to get right.

Lizzie and Joel are married in this au! I'm only bringing this up because my friend came up with a funny idea that Lizzie was unarguably the more popular of the two but Joel bragged about his popularity more.

Skizz owns the bar the heart foundation works at the boys typically do seperate performances and performances together while also helping around the bar itself however Skizz is known to hire small bands to preform as well.

The setting SLS takes place in is as mentioned very green but there are spaces around dedicated to paintings and art in general, like cleared up spaces dedicated to graffiti or street artists having their own spot to work.

Almost everyone in this world is a hybrid of sorts, I try to have fun using lesser used hybrid headcanons but some are just a bit basic. Is there lore reasons they're hybrids? No I just think it's cool.

Since this is a secret life au all the winners of the previous games are Grian, Scott and Pearl (they won together), and Martyn. Grian, Scott and Pearl had all taken the offers to join Watchers Inc. But only Grian remains meanwhile Martyn stayed independent and just took his prize and left.

On the topic of the winners it should be mentioned that all the winners do know each other in some way, Grian is cousins with Pearl and therefore knew Scott by association, Pearl and Scott are former band mates but are still close, Martyn and Scott are friends from highschool so pearl knows him by association, Grian met Martyn at a bar an became friends.

And that's all yall getting for now!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Stinkpump Linkdump

Next Tuesday (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."b

Once again, I greet the weekend with more assorted links than I can fit into my nearly-daily newsletter, so it's time for another linkdump. This is my eleventh such assortment; here are the previous volumes:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

I've written a lot about Biden's excellent appointees, from his National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chair Rohit Chopra to FTC Chair Lina Khan to DoJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

But I've also written a bunch about how Biden's appointment strategy is an incoherent mess, with excellent appointees picked by progressives on the Unity Task Force being cancelled out by appointees given to the party's reactionary finance wing, producing a muddle that often cancels itself out:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/08/fiduciaries/#but-muh-freedumbs

It's not just that the finance wing of the Democrats chooses assholes (though they do!), it's that they choose comedic bunglers. The Dems haven't put anyone in government who's as much of an embarrassment as George Santos, but they keep trying. The latest self-inflicted Democratic Party injury is Prashant Bhardjwan, a serial liar and con-artist who is, incredibly, the Biden Administration's pick to oversee fintech for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC):

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/did-the-occ-hire-a-con-artist-to-oversee-fintech

When the 42 year old Bhardjwan was named Deputy Comptroller and Chief Financial Technology Officer for OCC, the announcement touted his "nearly 30 years of experience serving in a variety of roles across the financial sector." Apparently Bhardjwan joined the finance sector at the age of 12. He's the Doogie Houser of Wall Street:

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2023/nr-occ-2023-31.html

That wasn't the only lie on Bhardjwan's CV. He falsely claimed to have served as CIO of Fifth Third Bank from 2006-2010. Fifth Third has never heard of him:

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-occ-crowned-its-first-chief-fintech-officer-his-work-history-was-a-web-of-lies

Bhardjwan told a whole slew of these easily caught lies, suggesting that OCC didn't do even a cursory background search on this guy before putting him in charge of fintech – that is, the radioactively scammy sector that gave us FTX and innumerable crypto scams, to say nothing of the ever-sleazier payday lending sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

When it comes to appointing corrupt officials, the Biden administration has lots of company. Lots of eyebrows went up when the UN announced that the next climate Conference of the Parties (COP) would be chaired by Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, who is also the chair of Dubai's national oil company. Then the other shoe dropped: leaks revealed that Al-Jaber had colluded with the Saudis to use COP28 to get poor Asian and African nations hooked on oil:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67508331

There's an obvious reason for this conspiracy: the rich world is weaning itself off of fossil fuels. Today, renewables are vastly cheaper than oil and there's no end in sight to the plummeting costs of solar, wind and geothermal. While global electrification faces powerful logistical and material challenges, these are surmountable. Electrification is a solvable problem:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/09/practical-visionary/#popular-engineering

And once we do solve that problem, we will forever transform our species' relationship to energy. As Deb Chachra explains in her brilliant new book How Infrastructure Works, we would only need to capture 0.4% of the solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface to give every person on earth the energy budget of a Canadian (AKA, a "cold American"):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects

If COP does its job, we will basically stop using oil, forever. This is an existential threat to the ruling cliques of petrostates from Canada to the UAE to Saudi. As Bill McKibben writes, this isn't the first time a monied rich-world industry that had corrupted its host governments faced a similar crisis:

https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-corrupted-cop

Big Tobacco spent decades fueling science denial, funneling money to sellout scientists who deliberately cast doubt on both sound science and the very idea that we could know anything. As Tim Harford describes in The Data Detective, Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How to Lie With Statistics was part of a tobacco-industry-funded project to undermine faith in statistics itself (the planned sequel was called How To Lie With Cancer Statistics):

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

But anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. When the families of the people murdered by tobacco disinformation campaigns started winning eye-popping judgments against the tobacco industry, the companies shifted their marketing to the Global South, on the theory that they could murder poor brown people with impunity long after rich people in the north forced an end to their practice. Big Tobacco had a willing partner in Uncle Sam for this project: the US Trade Representative arm-twisted the world's poorest countries into accepting "Investor-State Dispute Settlements" as part of their treaties. These ISDS clauses allowed tobacco companies to sue governments that passed tobacco control legislation and force them to reverse their democratically enacted laws:

https://ash.org/what-is-isds-and-what-does-it-mean-for-tobacco-control/

As McKibben points out, the oil/climate-change playbook is just an update to the tobacco/cancer-denial conspiracy (indeed, the same think-tanks and PR agencies are behind both). The "Oil Development Sustainability Programme" – the Orwellian name the Saudis gave to their plan to push oil on poor countries – maps nearly perfectly onto Big Tobacco's attack on the Global South. Nearly perfectly: second-hand smoke in Indonesia won't give Americans cancer, but convincing Africa to go hard on fossil fuels will contribute to an uninhabitable planet for everyone, not just poor people.

This is an important wrinkle. Wealthy countries have repeatedly demonstrated a deep willingness to profit from death and privation in the poor world – but we're less tolerant when it's our own necks on the line.

What's more, it's far easier to put the far-off risks of emissions out of your mind than it is to ignore the present-day sleaze and hypocrisy of corporate crooks. When I quit smoking, 23 years ago, my doctor told me that if my only motivation was avoiding cancer 30 years from now, I'd find it hard to keep from yielding to temptation as withdrawal set in. Instead, my doctor counseled me to find an immediate reason to stay off the smokes. For me, that was the realization that every pack of cigarettes I bought was enriching the industry that invented the denial playbook that the climate wreckers were using to render our planet permanently unsuited for human habitation. Once I hit on that, resisting tobacco got much easier:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/03/i-quit/

Perhaps OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais is worried about that the increasing consensus that Big Oil cynically and knowingly created this crisis. That would explain his new flight of absurdity, claiming that the world is being racist to oil companies, "unjustly vilifying" the industry for its role in the climate emergency:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/27/opec-says-oil-industry-unjustly-vilified-ahead-of-climate-talks-.html

Words aren't deeds, but words have power. The way we talk about things makes a difference to how we act on those things. When discussions of Israel-Palestine get hung up on words, it's easy to get frustrated. The labels we apply to the rain of death and the plight of hostages are so much less important than the death and the hostages themselves.

But how we name the thing will have an enormous impact on what happens next. Take the word "genocide," which Israel hawks insist must not be applied to the bombing campaign and siege in Gaza, nor to the attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. On this week's On The Media, Brooke Gladstone interviews Ernesto Verdeja, executive director of The Institute for the Study of Genocide:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/genocide-powerful-word-so-why-its-definition-so-controversial-on-the-media

Verdeja lays out the history of the word "genocide" and connects it to the Israeli government and military's posture on Palestine and Palestinians, and concludes that the only real dispute among genocide scholars is whether the current campaign it itself an act of genocide, or a prelude to an act of genocide.

I'm not a genocide scholar, but I am a Jew who has always believed in Palestinian solidarity, and Verdeja's views do not strike me as outrageous, or (more importantly) antisemitic. The conflation of opposition to Israel's system of apartheid with opposition to Jews is a cheap trick, one that's belied by Israel itself, where there is a vast, longstanding political opposition to Israeli occupation, settlements, and military policing. Are all those Israeli Jews secret antisemites?

Jews are not united in support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians. The hardliners who insist that any criticism of Israel is antisemitic are peddling an antisemitic lie: that all Jews everywhere are loyal to Israel, and that we all take our political positions from the Knesset. Israel hawks only strengthen that lie when they accuse me and my fellow Jews of being "self-hating Jews."

This leads to the absurd circumstance in which gentiles police Jews' views on Israel. It's weird enough when white-nationalist affiliated evangelicals who support Israel in order to further the end-times prophesied in Revelations slam Jews for being antisemitic. But in Germany, it's even weirder. There, regional, non-Jewish officials charged with policing antisemitism have censured Jewish groups for adopting policies on Israel that mainstream Israeli political parties have in their platforms:

https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats

Antisemitism is real. As Jesse Brown describes in his recent Canadaland editorial, there is a real and documented rise in racially motivated terror against Jews in Canada, including school shootings and a firebombing. Likewise, it's true that some people who support the Palestinian cause are antisemites:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/is-jesse-a-zionist-editorial/

But to stand in horror at Israel's military action and its vast civilian death-toll is not itself antisemitic. This is obvious – so obvious that the need to say it is a tribute to Israel hardliners – Jewish and gentile – and their ability to peddle the racist lie that Israel is Jews and Jews are Israel, and that every Jew is in support of, and responsible for, Israeli war-crimes and crimes against humanity.

One need not choose between opposition to Hamas and its terror and opposition to Israel and its bombings. There is no need for a hierarchy of culpability. As Naomi Klein says, we can "side with the child over the gun":

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/11/why-are-some-of-the-left-celebrating-the-killings-of-israeli-jews

Moral consistency is not moral equivalency. If you're a Jew like me who wants to work for an end to the occupation and peace in the region, you could join Jewish Voice For Peace (like me):

https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org

Now, for a jarring tone shift. In these weekend linkdumps, I put a lot of thought into how to transition from one subject to the next, but honestly, there's no good transition from Israel-Palestine to anything else (yet – though someday, perhaps). So let's just say, "word games can be important, but they can also be trivial, and here are a few of the latter."

Start with a goodie, from the always brilliant medievalist Eleanor Janeaga, who tackles the weirdos who haunt social media in order to dump on people with PhDs who call themselves "doctor":

https://going-medieval.com/2023/11/29/doctor-does-actually-mean-someone-with-a-phd-sorry/

Janega points out that the "doctor" honorific was applied to scholars for centuries before it came to mean "medical doctor." But beyond that, Janega delivers a characteristically brilliant history of the (characteristically) weird and fascinating tale of medieval scholarship. Bottom line, we call physicians "doctor" because they wanted to be associated with the brilliance of scholars, and thought that being addressed as "doctor" would add to their prestige. So yeah, if you've got a PhD, you can call yourself doctor.

It's not just doctors; the professions do love their wordplay. especially lawyers. This week on Lowering The Bar, I learned about "a completely ludicrous court fight that involved nine law firms that combined for 66 pages of briefing, declarations, and exhibits, all inflicted on a federal court":

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2023/11/federal-court-ends-double-spacing-fight.html

The dispute was over the definition of "double spaced." You see, the judge in the case told counsel they could each file briefs of up to 100 pages of double-spaced type. Yes, 100 pages! But apparently, some lawyer burn to write fat trilogies, not mere novellas. Defendants accused the plaintiffs in this case of spacing their lines a mere 24 points apart, which allowed them to sneak 27 lines of type onto each page, while defendants were confined to the traditional 23 lines.

But (the court found), the defendants were wrong. Plaintiffs had used Word's "double-spacing" feature, but had not ticked the "exact double spacing" box, and that's how they ended up with 27 lines per page. The court refused to rule on what constituted "double-spacing" under the Western District of Tennessee’s local rules, but it ruled that the plaintiffs briefs could fairly be described as "double-spaced." Whew.

That's your Saturday linkdump, jarring tone-shift and all. All that remains is to close out with a cat photo (any fule kno that Saturday is Caturday). Here's Peeve, whom I caught nesting most unhygienically in our fruit bowl last night. God, cats are gross:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/53370882459/

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/02/melange/#defendants_motion_to_require_adherence_with_formatting_requirements_of_local_rule_7.1

Stinkpump Linkdump

[eatthesunshootthemoon]

Just wanted to share some work-in-progress stuff that we're working on at the moment. After I finished concept sketches of the town, @yardni-art has been wonderfully bringing it to life with his gorgeous pixel art!

Trying to depict a solarpunk town without the usual bright atmosphere has been pretty challenging, but is essential that we get it right if we want to make something unique. It's been a fun process so far trying to design a small and charming town with its own flavour of technology and relationship with its surrounding environment.

[bramblesramblesintoshambles]

Punkcore - Fiction and Punk Philosophies

Time for a little ramble about the types of stories which usually have "punk" as a suffix. I had a conversation with some people about this and wanted to discuss what we ended up talking about. First off, to explain this title, we explored a difference between core and punk as suffixes. Our general conclusion was that you could have two stories with the same near future tech orientated aesthetic and not have both be Cyberpunk. For instance, Batman Beyond could be described as Cybercore because while it does discuss corporate corruption and the detriments of capitalism it isn't the central focus of this show. Meanwhile, for Blade Runner the human relationship to AI and the role of technology in their dystopia is foundational to its premise. There's a tackling of politics within the premise, which is crucial in determining whether a story is core or punk.

Now, different forms of Punk media will tackle different issues. Cyberpunk such as "Cyberpunk", Blade Runners, or The Matrix tackles humanity's relationship to technology, AI, autonomy, our bodies, and corporate greed in some respect. Solarpunk obviously discusses our relationship to the environment, duties of stewardship, communal responsibility, spiritual wellness, and responsible agriculture. Steampunk can often engage with ideas of colonialism, imperialism, early stages capitalism, class or other social hierarchy, repression, as well as the dangers of autocratic political structures. Other themes and ideas can be explored within them, it's perfectly possible to have a Cyberpunk lean into Solarpunk if it discusses how technology and corporate greed has impacted the environment. However, a story with all the aesthetics of Steampunk which focuses entirely on an issue of environmentalism could be argued to be a Steamcore story with a environmentalist narrative. The Mortal Engines is an example of a Steamcore world with a story built around a Solarpunk issue of scarcity and climate change.

Why does it matter what themes are discussed alongside which aesthetic? Well simply put it's because those aesthetics belong to those political issues. Most people who look at Steamcore would tell you it's got a late Georgian to Edwardian aesthetic (exaggerated definitely, yet recognisable). The issues of colonialism, social division by class, autocratic politics, imperialism, are all heavily associated with that era. It was in this period that the British Empire was at it's most active, so to borrow those aesthetics and discuss another topic pulls the punk out of it. The aesthetics themselves are inherently tied to the politics they are borrowed from, so you can certainly have a Cybercore story about repression and class but you aren't engaging with the politics of that aesthetic. Arcane is a great example of Steampunk as it engages with all the politics of its aesthetic very well. Similar to how "Cyberpunk" engages with the themes and ideas behind its aesthetics to be Cyberpunk.

Not all stories will discuss these politics in the same way. Whereas Steam/Cyberpunk fiction will often present a world negatively impacted by the politics of these aesthetics, Solarpunk tends to take a different route. As it stands, a world shaped by the issues Solarpunk discusses would not be very habitable for humans. A great number of Solarpunk stories instead describe worlds, cities, communities which are more utopian than dystopian. However, these narratives will always typically contrast a comparatively Utopian present to the Dystopian past in which there were significant environmental issues. Solarpunk engages with the politics of its aesthetic as a hopeful alternative to the climate crisis of modern times. The worlds presented are not without strife or complaint, but typically there is an emphasis on restoration than degradation.

Of course punk stories are as varied as the way punks can dress. But if you want some quick examples to dive into different genres of Punk then let me recommend:

Cyberpunk: Blade Runner, Tron, Carol and Tuesday (I'm of the opinion it's Cyberpunk, it's also a little Astropunk).

Steampunk: Arcane, and "The Northern Lights" by Philip Pullman.

Solarpunk: "The Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers" by Sarena Ulibarri, and "Foxhunt" by Rem Wigmore.

Astropunk: Haven't talked about this one but Gundam is very much Astropunk, as is Star Trek but it tackles the issues similarly to Solarpunk by means of contrast.

As always these are opinions, they can be wrong, my recs can by bad blah blah blah. I'm just relaying a convo and the thoughts, but if you wanna talk about it I'd enjoy that.

[elysiumtower]

Hello!! We are looking for writers who enjoy are interested in creating relationships with characters cross-fandom, and who would like to partake in the story and events within the group. Special interest in people who want to write as any character from our requested characters list.

Note: any writer approaching should be 20+ (older preferred)  

If interested, please review the following links- and send us an ask/dm, or like the post and you will be contacted. Don’t hesitate to ask if you have questions.

We are currently accepting new writers!

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Elysium is an 18+ Multifandom Discord Roleplay set in an enormous, isolated tower where magical technology, virtual reality, cyberpunk, and solarpunk blend into one. The mysterious Artificial Intelligence running the Tower has pulled you from your own worlds and trapped you inside. Will you find love, a home, a chance to start a new life, or an opportunity to claw your way to power whatever the cost? We welcome both light slice-of-life and romance stories, as well as darker, angsty adventures. What you make of Elysium is up to you.