I'm an IT person and it's all jumbled up.
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
1 points (100.0% liked)
Solarpunk
6605 readers
12 users here now
The space to discuss Solarpunk itself and Solarpunk related stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere.
Join our chat: Movim or XMPP client.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
College ruined books for me. I no longer wanna touch those things.
Parklife!
You do need time and money, apparently.
Yeah I think it's been found that there is a sweet spot for income and happiness. Having billions of dollars won't make you any happier, but I think it's something around $120K per year that provides everything needed to have a happy life without having to stress much about paying the bills.
Unfortunately the vast majority of people fall way below the level of income needed that's necessary to be able to have a stress free long walk and a good conversation that's not about how to make ends meet, etc.
Interestingly, my personal calculations agree with that general figure.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Need to add 'a long hot shower' to this list.
Fuck solarpunk. I buy carefully, not mindlessly, based on what I'm getting and for how long, with the intent of not having to replace what I buy. So let's get that out of the way, this isn't about the merits of environmental preservation or efficient use of our resources.
I need mass media because I ENJOY PLAYING VIDEO GAMES. I don't want to live in the fucking "gay space commune", I want to live in a world that feels good to me, and you solarpunk assholes seem to say people like me who escape from reality because they've NEVER been capable of supporting themselves should start a fucking garden?!
Newsflash. I. Don't. Like. Your. "Utopia". I never will. If you ever succeed in making your idea of a future a reality, I'll burn it to the fucking ground as my revenge on you bastards. I hate your idea because all it does is change how I am oppressed as a disabled adult to how I was oppressed as a special needs child illegally taken from my parents by a corrupt mental health system.
I'm a shut-in, with untreated health issues, someone who partakes in escapism, and even someone who likes the idea of programming but can't really do much (I tinkered on rendering polygons from text input last September and didn't even finish it enough to be usable for me).
I haven't seen much solarpunk but I've never thought to myself that it'd be worse for me. If I existed in an environment like that (particularly from birth or at least for a long time) I don't think I'd be the same escapist shut-in. I could see open-source games still existing, and maybe programming being better even if people are less likely to have videogames as their most common activity. I've taken care of already-growing plants before, but it seems to me like a lax solarpunk environment would offer more options/opportunity than employment currently offers. Probably actual opportunity to travel, too.
Even carrying over my current mindset and (lack of) capability, I can't see a solarpunk environment being even half as restricted as my experience now. I mean the whole idea is better community and technology used to help people (not strictly for money) so it seems to me you wouldn't be required to garden.
load more comments
(1 replies)
No one is talking about you, mass media and consumerism has nothing to do with anything you described. Video games as a whole does not equal consumerism or mass media. Micro transactions and other terrible patterns do.
When was the last time you saw a video game in a solarpunk story?
I didn’t even think there were serious solar punk stories, and even if so, aren’t all of them like technological utopias? Why would entertainment ie video games be gone from them? Even if they aren’t the focus (which makes sense) what reason would a solar punk society have to do away with video games?
@TeryVeneno I can't imagine a solarpunk universe *without* games honestly. In my head-cannon they're a vital part of education.
Agreed, it seems really odd for any such society to do away with something so beloved
Read "Project Hieroglyph" and the way one of its "optimistic" stories ("Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl") shows a multiplayer superhero game and the main character hates it. That's not how mental illness works, computers used to be GOOD for providing social contact. That's not education, that's "fix yourself".
I am not broken. I am unhappy because I don't want to live in a world where I face reality, whether that's "IRL" or "social media". You know why I like the 4th Matrix movie? It reminds us that this image isn't what the world provides, it's what the Matrix - real life - forces us to work towards. The Matrix isn't just the fake world, it's the fake world on top of a real one and the real escape is to change, not break, the system that binds us because there is nothing in the real but vast lifeless desert. Mars, the Moon... Dead rocks. There is no evidence of an afterlife nor any point to "accepting" a secular life you hate because you will still hate it and "scientific evidence only" doesn't fix anything or change who you are.
Also are you ok? I find it rather odd to be this intensely invested about what is generally a fairly niche community in solarpunk. Not that the mission and ideology aren’t worth being passionate about, but I mean we are talking about video games and green societies nothing crazy.
Mainly I'm a sci-fi author who hates the genre because almost everyone else wants it to be true and I'm the only one saying "it would literally be like the world is a prison to me" only to get the response "you're the only one not allowed to be happy, suffer so normal people are all equal".
Again I’m really not sure where this is coming from since the majority of solarpunk people I’ve talked to do not espouse the view you are describing. But in the interest of fairness; why would solarpunk which only aims to create a fair, renewable energy based, democratic post scarcity society focused on human happiness be a prison to you?
load more comments
(6 replies)
I’ll definitely have to give that a read, though some quick reading of opinions about that work are fairly mixed.
Also no one has said you’re broken or that you need to face reality. The whole point of solarpunk is that will be no world to face unless we take action. And none of that has anything to do with video games or anything you have described.
To be fair, I'm aware you're correct, it's a shitty book with very little actual optimism. It's not alone though, aside from the Necroverse I also have issue with the general attitude of solarpunk because it proposes that humans can't have a genuine affinity for a digital existence.
"You don't have to upload if you don't want to, and I will march with you against the singularity to defend that. March against me, though, and I will not be subject to your worldview willingly." I don't actually believe the singularity is likely, technology doesn't work that way, but that point still stands. Solarpunk demands you sacrifice what you have for "the greater good" even if you have very little to begin with.
Imagine if the evil cyberpunk megacorp, or the steampunk empress, or the dieselpunk dictatorship, or the biopunk megacorp, told you up-front what the costs really are. Nobody would buy into their machinations. Solarpunk tells you "You want satisfaction? Run away to the middle of nowhere and pretend electronics can be made at 1nm scale without semiconductor factories and never play with your tech toys ever again." and doesn't seem to care that outliers like me will say "Actually, I am satisfied. I'm angry because you want to take that away."
Scratch that. It doesn't have to care. "If everyone but the corner cases wants it, we can FORCE it to happen. Just like the conservatives did with cyberpunk." It learned, so to speak, what the Social Media Dystopia did to win. It bought an election of an ideology, because without the popular upvote a corporation can't become powerful in a world with online criticism. I'm trying to kill an idea before that idea truly becomes an issue, by pointing out that solarpunk is still dystopian.
Simple. Because most solarpunk is written by people who hate technology corporations.
To be fair, big tech is evil. Doesn't change my point.
All video games are made by technology corporations! Except for Open TTD of course.
Asshole, I never said that. I'm well aware TTD was originally a commercial product, that's my entire point. You can't make games for free, and yes, I value video games more than continued lifespan because art allows me to ignore a reality I despise for being defined by everyone else.
You don't have the right to fucking judge me for the tiny little quirk of liking a game, I only mentioned it because it was mildly relevant.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Um, but the majority of video games are not made by big tech? What is your point? Indie games are usually just better overall anyway. I’m really failing to see why any solarpunk society would stop people from making video games
Because solarpunk writers are rarely, if ever, gamers. Gamers are a niche subculture in the solarpunk works I've seen and as you're seeing, people in the solarpunk community seem to like it that way.
My confusion continues to compound. Many of the people in this thread have zero issue with video games or actually play them. I really gotta see a source for
solarpunk writers are rarely, if ever, gamers.
Explain why then, despite someone important mentioning video games occurs in the Necroverse (Transhumanist Cyberjock/Solarpunk story by "RichM90071"), no games being played are EVER shown.
I think that’s just cause video games are not great entertainment for grander story beats. They’re kinda like knitting or watching tv, something you do in your off time to relax or get away but not really flashy enough like gambling or an opera house to be featured.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Cool story, bro.
Bro, what does any of this have to do with solarpunk?
Just normal stuff...
So you think hurting people to make things the way you want them is acceptable? Because of video games? You are a dangerous man child (or maybe just a child).
You build my dystopia, you're imprisoning me. I am a cornered animal, do not fuck with me.
Ah confirmation.
Confirmation indeed. It's really too much to fucking ask that you NOT build another fucking prison? You, not me, are the sociopath. At least I reserve my angry rampage for if you succeed.
You judge me for liking what I like? You are literally trying to control my life by redefining society, and no, I'm not some rich skullfucker nor do I think people aren't entitled to the same basic level of comfort I enjoy regardless of race, gender, eromantic orientation or anything else; they may not have it, but if you wanted real equality then you NEED to uplift people's minimum living standard.
Apparently you care more about organic produce and trees than children or the homeless.
Who's talking about building a prison? You've imagined an enemy in solarpunk that has nothing to do with solarpunk and are getting upset at an internet stranger that has made no claims about wanting to stop you from playing video games.
You'll understand when your 13.
Then don't build it and we're fine. I'm angry because I'm disabled and Solarpunk is usually Ableist yet everyone is obsessed with social media detox and lumping all technologies in with it.
load more comments
(3 replies)
This is a Wendy's
Sooo being a Hobbit? Yeah I'm good with that
Imagine being this smug when yourself.