Mir’s Comments (group member since Jul 16, 2020)

Mir’s comments from the Solarpunk group.

I noticed Bright Green Futures: 2024 is free on Amazon. Though I'd pop it here in case anyone sees despite this group being, er, in hibernation?

There's a new site (including a magazine) that might of interest to this group.
new-maps dot com

They want "short stories that take place in the Earth’s realistic future. Not a paradisiac or apocalyptic end of days, nor an easy continuation of the last few decades’ business-as-usual with somewhat different fashions, but an era in which our ecological and energy bills have come due, and we and our descendants have proceeded to do what people always do: figure out creative ways to keep doing all those things that make up life"

Hákon wrote: "Interesting. I’ve actually never read JRRT, I’ve got both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit on my shelves, but never got around to read them. Which is probably because I like reading short books, mo..."

Start with The Hobbit! It's a much quicker read, in addition to being first chronologically.

Lol, following the spirit of the book rather than the letter. Nice.

Instead of reading this, take a nap.

Glad I didn't get around to it yet. I'm surprised to hear it came from a preach-y point of view, since I don't associate American Christianity with napping at all -- more with getting up early and working too hard to have free time. The whole "idle hands are the devil's workshop" mentality.

Yes, really pretty. I'll check out the artist's instagram.

Yes, that's a great anthology but not solarpunk.

Rossdavidh wrote: "Lena wrote: "The passive aggressive solar home: https://youtu.be/5uz40RvqsmE"

Awesome. The basis for a great horror short-story."

There's a solid story in Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories in Extreme Futures about passive-aggressive health-monitoring technology.

Becky wrote: "I was excited to read this, but I ended up being a little underwhelmed. I liked Chambers' vision of robot consciousness and I thought Dex' journey to become a tea monk was interesting. But I didn't find Dex a terribly compelling character, even though I could identify with their malaise..."

I'm late to this read and just started, but I'm so far feeling the same way. I liked the robot prologue, like the initial-world-building, am underwhelmed by Dex on first meeting.

I'm finding Dex pretty immature and self-centered. You just *decide* to switch to a job that's essentially counseling but decline to do any training on the subject because you have some personal vision of learning it spontaneously?! No concern for the people who actually need counseling? I felt so badly for the woman who needed help dealing with the loss of her pet and relationship and got this useless twerp.

Lena wrote: "Upgrade by Alex Silver DNF
I tried this thrice and lost interest. No idea what about it is Solarpunk."

I liked the second half more, where the MC is trying to fix what they messed up. But agree it seemed to not fit with the other stories.

Fiona wrote: "I think there's value in seeing that sometimes a fix is the break though, I actually really liked that moment of "this is fixing it [breaking up], what we had was broken"

Yes, I also liked that point. I suppose the environmental restorations equivalent would be "don't keep pouring money and effort into this program or tactic which isn't producing results." (Don't throw good money after bad, as my grandparents would have said)

Lena wrote: "Who Shall Reap the Grain of Heaven by J.G. Follansbee ★★★☆☆
Well, that was depressing. A industrialist relies on religious organizations to fix the environment and forgive him his sins."

I liked that the author took a different approach, but I can't say I enjoyed the story. It would be useful if more religious orders got involved in environmental restoration, though.

Dameon wrote: "Multispecies Cities and Sunvault were similar."

I think there's a general recognition in Solarpunk that technological innovation and scientific improvements won't be enough unless we make a shift to a more respectful and cooperative society.

Fiona wrote: "Ice in D Minor, by Anthea Sharp - This was gorgeous, and a really novel idea; I enjoyed it a lot."

It was like a prose poem. I enjoyed it, although I know nothing about music.

Hákon wrote: "Mir wrote: “I think it's an issue of fear, not just selfishness."

I think you’re right. It is easy to write it all off as selfishness, but some of the climate change denial that I’ve read seems to..."

Also in the US, remember we have a lot of weath disparity and not much in the way of support for things like unemployment or medical debt. So people are afraid to make good long-term choices that might cause financial hardships.

And to be fair to humans, there's always risk that what looks like the bet long-term plan will be ruined by some unpredictable factors, especially as climate change destabilizes weather patterns. I think it's an issue of fear, not just selfishness.

I also liked how Garcia presented improvements as a long-term process that sometimes sacrificed short-term gains. I think this is one of the things people have a hard time doing.

I read this antho last year, so whenever other people want to discuss.

Yes, otehr spec fic mags periodically having cli-fi issues. Very encouraging!

Rossdavidh wrote: "Lena wrote: "Colorado Composts Its First Human Remains https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-......"

...legally, setting aside any serial killers who may have done this first.

I watched a movie about that, years ago.