3 ms·

Solarpunk is a minor niche thing that gets too bogged down in political discussion. Cyberpunk benefits from being (at least not directly) political and more aes

Solarpunk is a minor niche thing that gets too bogged down in political discussion. Cyberpunk benefits from being (at least not directly) political and more aesthetic for 95% of content.

red-iron-pine 3y ago
it doesn't have to be political because it's already here, just without the metal arms and cyber-eyes. you're not debating the future since it's now just a standard local / state / national discussion topic. FAANG tech bros making 600k and on the other side of the city is the largest homeless population in the US. Human street poop and fiber optic connectivity as the two largest challenges in my brothers neighborhood. should we ban online social media platforms from being used by under-13s? does google or FB have to pay for ads in Canada? etc etc
chipotle_coyote 3y ago
The "punk" in "cyberpunk" isn't about aesthetics any more than punk rock is. The punk element wasn't just in the relationship of the fictional characters to their settings; it was in the relationship of the writers to mainstream science fiction. William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker--they were very deliberately responding to the more utopian, and by then rather dated, science fiction of the 1950s and before, the Heinleins and Clarkes and Asimovs. Cyberpunk is manifestly about the contentious relationship between individual freedom, corporate power, and state control. Solarpunk arguably is a minor niche thing, but any artistic/literary movement that calls itself "-punk" better damn well be political. Otherwise, it is rather missing the point. :)
- keiferski 3y ago
  Yes, I’m aware of its origins, but as I said, for the overwhelming majority of people, cyberpunk is an aesthetic genre, not a political one. The same is not true for solarpunk. This is easy to observe on the respective subreddits.

3 ms·

Solarpunk is a minor niche thing that gets too bogged down in political discussion. Cyberpunk benefits from being (at least not directly) political and more aes

by keiferski 3y ago

Solarpunk is a minor niche thing that gets too bogged down in political discussion. Cyberpunk benefits from being (at least not directly) political and more aesthetic for 95% of content.

red-iron-pine 3y ago
it doesn't have to be political because it's already here, just without the metal arms and cyber-eyes. you're not debating the future since it's now just a standard local / state / national discussion topic. FAANG tech bros making 600k and on the other side of the city is the largest homeless population in the US. Human street poop and fiber optic connectivity as the two largest challenges in my brothers neighborhood. should we ban online social media platforms from being used by under-13s? does google or FB have to pay for ads in Canada? etc etc
chipotle_coyote 3y ago
The "punk" in "cyberpunk" isn't about aesthetics any more than punk rock is. The punk element wasn't just in the relationship of the fictional characters to their settings; it was in the relationship of the writers to mainstream science fiction. William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker--they were very deliberately responding to the more utopian, and by then rather dated, science fiction of the 1950s and before, the Heinleins and Clarkes and Asimovs. Cyberpunk is manifestly about the contentious relationship between individual freedom, corporate power, and state control. Solarpunk arguably is a minor niche thing, but any artistic/literary movement that calls itself "-punk" better damn well be political. Otherwise, it is rather missing the point. :)
- keiferski 3y ago
  Yes, I’m aware of its origins, but as I said, for the overwhelming majority of people, cyberpunk is an aesthetic genre, not a political one. The same is not true for solarpunk. This is easy to observe on the respective subreddits.