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From Cyberpunk to Solarpunk: Technics and the Cities of the Future
- closedloop129 4y agoRegarding the theme of surveillance, I am surprised that the surveillance failure at Notre Dame isn't explicitly mentioned. >This powerful fire has awakened our dystopian imagination and somewhat echoed the church’s current identify crisis Notre Dame burned down because there was surveillance, but it was not correctly wired and the wrong location was checked [1] >At 18:20 the fire alarm sounded and guards evacuated the cathedral; a guard was sent to investigate, but to the wrong location [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris_fire
- lbriner 4y agoI don't think having fire detectors or a strange and esoteric control panel is what most people would call surveillance.
- Valgrim 4y agoIt feels more like Gilliam's "Brazil" and less like Orwell's "1984".
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoAre you aware of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasyl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasyl ? I've found it to be entertaining. It also fits into the dystopia/surveillance spectrum.
- greggsy 4y agoMost commercial surveillance installations are ancient, or rely on ancient ancient infrastructure - there’s not always a need to upgrade if the security guard is able to at least see some blurry figures on a screen from his desk, which is probably enough in many cases.
- rob74 4y agoJapanese and South Korean cities may have "Cyberpunk" aesthetics, but other Cyberpunk elements (brain implants anyone?) haven't materialised yet, so talking of "Cyberpunk 2.0" is a bit premature in my opinion...
- ArekDymalski 4y agoI think it's rather cyberpunk that have Japanese esthetics not the other way around :)
- greggsy 4y agoI know several people with RFID implants. The Apple Watch collects health metrics, among a other things. A guy had a Bluetooth speaker implanted to cheat exams in India. I think the most dystopic example is the Poor sods whose bionic eyes ceased functioning when the company folded.
- rob74 4y agoYeah, ok, an RFID implant is cool, but it's just something embedded under your skin, so a far cry from a computer interface implanted in your brain...
- vvillena 4y agoImplants are not a thing because there's already a much better alternative in the form of highly portable devices that can be easily replaced. Unless there's a specific use case where a device needs to be inside the body, it won't happen.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- LewisMumford 4y agoTbf the 2.0 aspect was almost purely aesthetic, but saying that in that article there is a specific mention of things like phones and other tech that's so ingrained in the society in way that wouldn't have been imaginable in the 80s during the OG cyberpunk period.
- jacknews 4y agoI love the word 'technics' to describe technology, it rhymes with 'ethics' etc, and sounds very 1960's scifi, Dune, etc.
- winnit 4y agoDoesn't it rather rhyme with 'ethnics'? 'ethics' is to my ear, a half-rhyme...
- tomc1985 4y agoI've always thought it was pronounced like 'techniques' and at first thought the author was talking about the turntable/hi-fi brand
- axolotlgod 4y agoI prefer tethics lol
- trinsic2 4y agoI like that better than technics. :D
- LewisMumford 4y agoIt's to distinguish from technology which has more of a specific philosophical meaning. Technics can refer to practice (e.g. techniques) as well as objects.
- goodpoint 4y ago> cyberpunk’s nihilistic dystopian vision has run out of steam Cyberpunk is NOT advocating for dystopia, it's WARNING US about it.
- _Microft 4y agoElon Musk has entered the chat.
- causi 4y agoThat's exactly the type of savior complex mixed with breathtaking miscategorization you get from solarpunk advocates. They want a cool name and an aesthetic to go along with a socio-political movement so they pretend other artistic movements and styles are also some type of socio-political movement. Imagine seriously believing that steampunk enthusiasts see steampunk as a way to remake the world. my personal favourite solarpunk inspired designs, was Vincent Callebaut Architectures’ proposal for the new roof of the Notre-Dame Cathedral after the fire Imagine being so fucking smug you want to radically alter the reconstruction of a priceless historical building to make a political statement.
- kingkawn 4y agoThat redesign looks pretty cool tbh
- causi 4y agoSure does. They should go build it. Somewhere other than on top of the eight hundred and sixty year old cathedral.
- tremon 4y agoWhy? The original roof is lost, and while we can painstaking recreate it, it still won't be the same roof. So why can't we upgrade such a historical landmark to be a beacon of the future?
- barathr 4y agoMumford wrote a fascinating history of technology nearly a century ago -- Technics and Civilization -- in which he tried to identify key technologies to each technological era going back many hundreds of years.
- photochemsyn 4y agoI have to say, solarpunk has always seemed like a silly concept. Where's windpunk in this picture? The long-term energy picture for civilization ultimately has to embrace the closed-loop model, in which exhaustible resources - ancient deposits of fossil fuels and uranium ore - are not the basis of the energy supply. In that situation, there are really only about two plausible energy sources: inputs from the local gravitationally contained fusion reactor, aka "the Sun", in the form of sunlight and wind, and geothermal inputs from the hot interior of the Earth. Utilizing such energy sources over the long term has several constraints: you want to stabilize the chemical composition of the atmosphere, to avoid things like runaway heating or cooling, you want to ensure that soil - in which food grows - is stable and not polluted, you want to ensure that fresh water is available, you want to avoid stripping all the oxygen out of the ocean, and of course, this all means stabilizing the human population on the planet at a level that makes all this possible over the long run. And, leave enough of the planet's wilderness around to support biological diversity, that seems important too. Maybe we call it 'steady-state-closed-system-sustainable-with-room-for-other-species-punk'...
- maurits 4y agoIve been to Songdo twice, and to this date it remains my most notable or bizarre asian experience. I found it absolutely fascinating. I walked endlessly over empty 4 lane car roads, gazing up at huge towering empty skyscrapers build on undeveloped waste-land that stay dark at night. Because they are void of inhabitants. Its to big to be walk-able for most people, the bike lanes are symbolic at best. Unlike, say Singapore, the metro stations are few and far in between, leaving but the car. Commuting to Seoul is equally painful. There is no fast direct link. The 'smart' bit is completely lost on me.
- jl6 4y agoIf the essence of punk is rebellion, then solarpunk's punkitude lies in its rebellion against relentless contemporary pessimism. Doom, grievance, and cycnicism are now so mainstream that radical optimism and the imagination of a better future are what it takes to be revolutionary.
- dv_dt 4y agoI think the rebellion is more about the current economically driven social system than pessimism. Though there is some part of that in there.
- LewisMumford 4y agoAbsolutely. Any future requires speculation and imagination before practical application. Both go hand in hand.
- makx 4y agoI think that's a pretty contrived "after-the-fact" explanation for why it's called "~punk", that reduces the whole of punk culture to just mean "rebellion". But the truth is, just like every scandal is now called "~gate", new genres are just called "~punk" because it sounds good. Not because they have anything to do with punk culture. Where is the "rebellion" in "steampunk" or "dieselpunk"?
- blamestross 4y agoTotally, but perhaps by chance if not intent, the interpretation of "hope as rebellion" fits and is evocative, so let's use it.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoCan I haz Nukepunq? Wiff mootänntz, räydeeäyshun storrmz, and telepathic brain burtstazz?
- kang 4y agoanything to stay away from sustainable tech
- dr_dshiv 4y agoWhat is a solar punk book to recommend?
- pkdpic 4y agoThe Ministry for the Future
- pyrale 4y agoUsually, solar"punk" has zero amounts of punk in it, so you won't find books similar to what other -punk have done. As they state: > At its core, solarpunk is the ecological antidote to cyberpunk. I really wish the people behind this aesthetic would move to a name better reflecting their aspirations. Solar-nouveau, solar utopia, whatever.
- beaconstudios 4y agoSolarpunk has pretty strong anti-capitalist leanings. It doesn't have the punk element of being "low-life" like cyberpunk is, but the commonality between the two genres is that cyberpunk imagines the world that unlimited corporate power would create (from an 80s perspective, hence the neon and ascendant Japanese themes), and solarpunk imagines a world where the negative side-effects of capitalism (exploitation, alienation, environmental damage etc) are mitigated. It's like the optimistic mirror image to cyberpunk.
- krapp 4y agoArguably, if it's optimistic, it isn't "punk." That "low-life" alienation and rage against the system is what makes it punk - the "cyber" part is just aesthetic. Anticapitalism isn't punk in a world where the anticapitalists win.
- 91edec 4y agosolarphunk
- beaconstudios 4y ago
- euroderf 4y agoProblem-solving infused with optimism.
- blamestross 4y agoOptimism is necessary if insufficient for success. In the face of unmitigated existential threat, irrational optimism is rational.
- chrisweekly 4y agoIn order to build the future we want, it's necessary to imagine it. Right?
- trinsic2 4y agoThis is why I like the idea of solarpunk architecture being the catalyst for social/political change. "Life cannot be delegated; it must be integrated. Solarpunk is not just about beautiful green futuristic cityscapes, it is about projecting an image of the future free from authoritarian technics."
- LewisMumford 4y agoThe lived environment isn't sufficient to catalyse political change, as seen in Singapore, but it's definitely a start. Projecting a better future is the first step in making it into reality. If these ideas start to pervade the public consciousness, engineers and designers will start integrating them into their projects and this could be politically subversive in and of itself.
- euroderf 4y agoMethod(ical) acting: "What's my motivation ?"