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I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I was once a dyed-in-the-wool techno-utopian. Fully Automated Luxury Communism? Solar-powered robots growing and preparing our food, so we all can simply relax and play and create? I was once fully signed-up.
But it was hard for me, even then, to ignore the dystopian possibilities of high technology; science fiction is full of dark visions that seem inexorably to ooze across the porous barrier between fiction and reality. I had grown up aspiring to be a scientist or technologist who helps lead us into a bright, thriving future; the idea that I might instead be contributing to a future of exploitation and resource overshoot threatened to undermine the very foundation of my then-identity.
I was therefore thrilled, back then, to discover the 'solarpunk' movement. Solarpunks recognized the terrible potentials of emerging technologies for control and exploitation; but they believed that many of these technologies could, if thoughtfully designed and deployed, bring great benefits to everyone. They were committed to the possibility of a high-tech future in which everyone thrives. As one popular solarpunk manifesto put it:
"We’re solarpunks because the only other options are denial or despair."
Solarpunk allowed me to retain my identity as a technologist, and still believe that I was contributing to a positive future.
And then I read Chris Smaje. And then Richard Heinberg. I found the Doomer Optimism Podcast. And through that podcast, Dougald Hine. Neurons migrated slowly ... then in droves ...
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. It had been years since I'd thought of the solarpunk movement. Rafi, and old friend from my solarpunk days, got back in touch. He was organizing a solarpunk conference to be held in a few months.
Reconnecting with Rafi, I wondered: is there a core spirit in the 'solarpunk' movement that might survive energy descent, and the inevitable unraveling of high technology? Is there a solarpunk without technology at its core?
Rafi and I explored some of these questions in the conversation above. Hope you enjoy!
On reflection, after the conversation ...
I entered the conversation with Rafi thinking that my once-darling Solarpunk had become a sadly outdated sensibility. Solarpunk's optimism around building a humane, high-tech future, and Solarpunk's critique of (fictional and real) dystopian technological trajectories, all seemed moot in light of recent analyses suggesting that our most likely future will be incapable of providing us with steel or cement, let alone microchips.
Now, after reflecting on Rafi's observations, I've come to think of Solarpunk's critique as more enduring, and perhaps even Romantic (in the sense of 'Romantic Anti-Capitalism', a movement entering my awareness via the indomitable Chris Smaje): Solarpunk, as it urges us to revise our relationships with the technologies that surround and shape us -- might be viewed as deploying values and intuitions not unlike those which guided the Romantics resisting the rise of industrialism, and enclosure, early on ...
This line of thinking has even suggested a possible approach to an ongoing problem I've been facing -- a problem that I'm sure others at the Long Table have been facing, as well: how to convince other folks of the urgent necessity of Making Good Ruins (TM)?
On the one hand, there seem to be myriad, urgent technical interventions we ought to be making in order to prepare for the imminent and inexorable Unwinding of Modernity. On the other hand, nearly every scientist or engineer I've tried to convince of the material and energetic constraints we face has responded with some flavor of denial, disguised as an unassailable faith in the power of Human Ingenuity, etc.
What if, however, the following thesis is (mostly) true?
Thesis:
-- are nearly identical.
E.g.:
You might be worried about the existential persistence of the writings you've currently got stored only in digital form, because you anticipate that our ability to produce and maintain digital storage media in the future might be in question. You therefore might decide to print your most precious writings out on acid-free paper.
You might be worried about the writings you've currently got stored only in digital form, because you don't fully trust that the machinations of global capitalism will ultimately conspire to provide you with useful and affordable digital storage media, going forward. You therefore decide to print your most precious writings out on acid-free paper.
If this thesis is true, it would mean that I could spend my energies rallying folks towards projects that promote more 'convivial' relationships with the technologies they rely upon, instead of trying (mostly in vain) to convince them of the necessity of preparing for collapse.