Solarpunk discussion

Hieroglyph is an anthology of stories, set in the near future, from some of today’s leading writers, thinkers, and visionaries that reignites the iconic and optimistic visions of the golden age of science fiction.

This sounds exciting!

This book has three intros (foreword, preface, introduction) and some lofty goals!

“...if we want to create a better future, we need to start with better dreams. Big dreams—infectious, inclusive, optimistic dreams—are the vital first step to catalyzing real change in the world.”

“As Neal Stephenson put it when he founded Project Hieroglyph: the collection should involve a moratorium on “hackers, hyperspace and holocaust.” Namely, it should avoid the classic science fiction hooks: a dystopian future or technology so advanced that the world it describes bears little or no relation to our world.”

What stood out to me was this:
“No magic wands, hyperspace drives, or galaxies far, far away—just big ideas about how the world could be very different with a few small adjustments.”

Now that is optimism!

The book also has website with resources for every story!
https://hieroglyph.asu.edu/book/hiero...

I’m reading the ebook on Scribd but I also used an audible credit for the narration.

🎉🎉Yay!🎉🎉

Atmosphæra Incognita by Neal Stephenson ★★★★☆
“There was carping on the Internet but the journalists and businesspeople who rode the helirail up to the top and sat at the bar taking in the black sky and the curvature of the earth—well, none of them doubted.”

Strong start with beautiful imagery. A vertical city touching space and future gateway to the stars. A ground-level legacy of green fields, prairie dogs, and bison.

If they can build islands now in shapes of palm trees and poems then this could happen.

I've already read and reviewed this one--but I won't spoil you yet. Enjoy! :)

I just remembered where I’ve read about verticals cities before: The Aeronaut's Windlass. A fantastic steampunk by Jim Butcher where each tower is a nation and the surface has become an extremely dangerous natural world of mystery.

Girl In Wave: Wave In Girl by Kathleen Ann Goonan ★★★★★
“Unlike earlier children, we have a new power. With the invisible power of literacy we can put ourselves in the place of others... We are far too addicted to the joy of learning and life to have time to contemplate the destruction of others.”

Brilliant! Through individualized teaching methods, and minor nanobiotechnical assistance, all children are able to read and learn with an ease previously known to few.

By empowering children, giving them the space and freedom to learn, they build, and pass on, a better world.

It reminded me of Vegan Stories. Children have good moral instincts about what’s wrong but we acculturate them to accept degrees of violence: adulteration.

The excellent notes section after the story pointed out that, “In 1963, Finland made a decision to make education its number one economic priority, and the highly effective educational system that emerged is the result.”

So now I have to read Finnish Lessons 2.0 and contemplate moving there.

Hei, nimeni on Lena.

By the Time We Get to Arizona by Madeline Ashby ★★★☆☆
It’s an interesting idea to promote border security by turning the desert into a solar farm - thus corporate security.

But this idea is highlighted in the notes section whereas the story is bogged down with abortion and a surveillance/points environment that’s ripped from an episode of Black Mirror.

Unfortunately this doesn't appear to be available at all in New Zealand - even at my library and Scribd! Too bad, because it looks like a good one - I'll keep hunting, but otherwise I'll have to join back in next month :)

Oh man. Hope you find a copy, this is interesting stuff. A collaboration between a University and science fiction writers.

Turns out Santa hides in many forms, so I'll be joining in after all! :)

🎉🎉🎉

The Man Who Sold the Moon by Cory Doctorow ★★★★★
“I realized that this is what a utopian, postscarcity world would be like. A place where there was no priority higher than pleasing the people around you and amusing yourself.”

Gorgeous. I did not know there had been a prequel to Walkaway! It may not be listed as such but it is.

With a 3D printer, open source programming, and a belief in the basic goodness of others, you can change the world!

The first days of a better nation... I love those words Rebecca.

Atmosphaera Incognita - such a strong start to this collection, I love the idea of a "super tower" that bridges some of the gap between ground and space. Neal Stephenson always does great research, but I agree with you guys that this tower felt actually possible - even more so than his tech usually does.
I'll have to look into the Aeronaut's Windlass, Lena, that sounds like a fantastic story. Updraft, by Fran Wilde, had a similar idea of humans living in towers tall enough that the ground was never seen. Definitely more on the fantasy side than sci fi, but a really good book.

Girl in wave: Wave in girl - I am SO PASSIONATE about everything this story was talking about. But I'm so torn, because I really, really don't think dyslexia is something to fix; dyslexic people just have brains that work differently, and their creativity is completely integral to some of the biggest creative/problemsolving moments in human history. Instead I think we need to abandon the idea that you can teach every child in the same way - the last 100 years have proven it doesn't work. I definitely think society should be the thing adjusted!
In cool news, there's an experimental school here in NZ that's trying to do just that: https://summitpoint.school.nz/school/...
I did think it was interesting that (view spoiler)[she didn't paint again the same way - I know she mentioned it was her anger, but just from the author's notes and some of the research mentioned at the end, I do think maybe her creativity was a sacrifice she made at the altar of literacy (hide spoiler)].
However, love the vision of universal literacy and a world where humanity has the time to embrace its creativity, instead of working itself into the ground just to survive.

Fiona wrote: "Atmosphaera Incognita - such a strong start to this collection, I love the idea of a "super tower" that bridges some of the gap between ground and space. Neal Stephenson always does great research,..."

It did feel real. I’ll have to look at Updraft. Book people are so cool, any scenario we can probably remember a book that has it in the plot. Just give us time.

The Summit School sounds like they are really trying. I hope it works out. It wasn’t until they put it so blandly that American schools were designed to integrate and homogenize immigrants to prepare them for factory jobs that I felt the slap of DAMN.

Right? Me too - the obeying bell signals and not questioning the information presented, it really was like a slap.

There's a really interesting doc on Netflix if the "how we learn" part interested you, The Beginning of Life. The neurologists they have on there are some of the best in the world, and it's just so fascinating.

Never knew dronepunk was a thing - that's a very cool idea!

By the time we get to Arizona - This was definitely focused on the people, rather than the technology, and from the authors notes detailing her personal immagratory experiences, I can understand why. So far though, it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the series - I too would have liked to hear more about the actual solar panels in the desert.

The Man Who Sold the Moon - love me some Doctorow, I always come away from this Walkaway universe with the urge to drop off the grid and live the creative life. He's such a passionate writer, and his genuine belief in what he's writing about shines through every single word. Loved it!

Fiona wrote: "The Man Who Sold the Moon - love me some Doctorow, I always come away from this Walkaway universe with the urge to drop off the grid and live the creative life. He's such a passionate writer, and h..."

I’ve been watching lots of videos on YouTube and Netflix on Burning Man, big chunks of Walkaway are from that culture. Things like default, cuddle puddles, and the gift economy.

Johnny Appledrone vs. The FAA by Lee Konstantinou ★★☆☆☆
This one might have flown over me. I believe the big idea was to litter the sky with drones as micro-satellites to create a secondary, and more private, internet.

No.

Just use the darknet and leave the sky for the birds and the planes.

Degrees of Freedom by Karl Schroeder ★★★★★
“Soon every citizen on- and offline would have access to the kind of political second sight that previously, only rare people like Rob had possessed.”

I loved this optimistic story about data mining and open source programming. It pairs well with Designing Regenerative Cultures where there is an emphasis on formulating important questions before looking for answers.

The sort of programs described could make monumental differences in our daily choices.

Currently it would seems such tech is used for hate: https://youtu.be/xH-oScnJXB0

Two Scenarios For The Future of Solar Energy by Annalee Newitz ★★★☆☆
“They were whole industries devoted to “pest control,” which actually meant destroying all the bugs and molds and animals and microbes that I just devoted my morning to keeping healthy.”

This was story was 1/3 a snapshot Solarpunk City story and 2/3 notes. It just didn’t give the effort of the previous stories.

A Hotel in Antarctica by Geoffrey A. Landis ★★☆☆☆
I agree with Rebecca.
This was a slice of a story with no meat. I would love to read about a hotel in Antarctica because of how much I enjoyed Antarctica: A Year on Ice. Pity that was not part of the story.
Also, advanced apologies to Fiona because this audiobook made a hash of the New Zealand accent. It was painful.

Lena wrote: "A Hotel in Antarctica by Geoffrey A. Landis ★★☆☆☆
I agree with Rebecca.
This was a slice of a story with no meat. I would love to read about a hotel in Antarctica because of how much I enjoyed Ant..."

Ohhh dear. I don't think anyone could manage to get it more wrong than Sir Anthony Hopkins though, in The World's Fastest Indian - it was amazingly bad!

Not one I’ve seen and surprising since he’s such a good actor.
You can be the judge about how bad the audiobook narrator is.

Rogue Drones Shut Down Airport
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...

Periapsis by James L. Cambias ★★★☆☆
Teen drama science fair competition for citizenship. Not particularly exciting but, yes, I would probably watch it.

This is the second time Alcubierre drives have been mentioned in my reading. The world of Dark Run used them.

Rebecca wrote: "Periapsis - The story needed more development and I think it could have used more emphasis on the technologies. I think the author had some good ideas. It just needed more."

Agreed.

The Man Who Sold The Stars by Gregory Benford ★★★★☆
“A strange new world, he thought.”

I enjoyed this story of an industrialist who doggedly purses his childhood science fiction dream until he stands on the beach of a new world.

Rebecca wrote: "The Man Who Sold the Stars - This story is essentially a timeline of the main character’s life defined by his technological/business achievements. I enjoyed the descriptions of the space tech. I wi..."

Definitely not an elgalitarian story. I may have maliciously enjoyed the reference to countries that massively overconsumed their area falling apart but it was a good reminder of our interconnectedness. One area affected others and so on. The fall of those regions caused a world wide depression leading to authoritarian regimes.

Entanglement by Vandana Singh ★★★☆☆
“There are people who don’t care about dead polar bears, or even dead children in trash heaps. They don’t see how our fates are linked. Everything is connected. To know that truth, however, is to suffer.”

A near-future grassroots collection of first-person stories about making positive changes. The fake icebergs were particularly interesting.

But it dragged. Especially the part in India.

I finished this one off on our trip up to New Plymouth and back, and really loved it. The stories definitely had a tendency to the lengthy, and definitely ecopunk over solarpunk. But the way that these stories seemed so grounded in reality, and described futures that actually sound possible was really different and really inspirational.

Glad you liked it! Yes, these are stories hoping to inspire real life change/projects for a better tomorrow.

Lena wrote: "Glad you liked it! Yes, these are stories hoping to inspire real life change/projects for a better tomorrow."

And they definitely had that grounding of reality, but it didn't turn it into a book of essays, if you know what I mean? And hey, thank you so much again for this one :)

Sure thing!

Elephant Angels by Brenda Cooper ★★★★☆
A future where an interconnected world comes together to protect elephants. I hope this happens before it’s not too late.

Lena wrote: "Elephant Angels by Brenda Cooper ★★★★☆
A future where an interconnected world comes together to protect elephants. I hope this happens before it’s not too late."

Loved this one. Elephants are one of the most fantastic, empathetic, intelligent creatures, so I'm with you on hoping this happens!

Covenant by Elizabeth Bear ★★★★★
“Where I die as a noun and only the verb survives.
I run. I am running.”

Damn this was good. I’ve always meant to read Elizabeth Bear and now I she’s a must read for 2019.

I was not expecting a bit a of criminal psycho drama in this collection but I welcomed it.

Run girl, run!

Lena wrote: "Covenant by Elizabeth Bear ★★★★★
“Where I die as a noun and only the verb survives.
I run. I am running.”

Damn this was good. I’ve always meant to read Elizabeth Bear and now I she’s a must re..."

100% recommend Elizabeth Bear - she's slowly becoming one of my most reliable authors. She's got a really enveloping way of writing, it's really easy to get lost in her universes.

There was even a veiled Star Trek Four reference, I found that endearing.

Quantum Telepathy by Rudy Rucker ★★★☆☆
“You might say that - telepathy is a sexually transmitted disease.”

It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything like Cronenberg’s eXistenZ. More than eco-positive this was bio-strange. But it could also be the first step to Nalini Singh’s psynet.

I appreciated this but didn’t enjoy it.

Transition Generation by David Brin ★★☆☆☆
While the imagery was lovely the story was the least based on science. Hell, if felt downright lazy in comparison.

The Day It All Ended by Charlie Jane Anders ★★★☆☆
“...but if we claimed to be making overpriced, wasteful pieces of crap that destroy the environment? Then everybody would need to own two of them.”

Gasp! Are iPhones overpriced because they secretly contain Save the World Mode?

Doubt it.

Tall Tower by Bruce Sterling ★★★☆☆

I appreciated the animal-human bond central to the story. I wouldn’t leave without my horse(dog) either.

But this wasn’t a good story, especially compared the other tall tower story based strongly on science. This was aliens and religion and a strange suicidal ending. WTF?

Finished!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Rebecca & Fiona, thank you so much for reading this with me! I know the holidays are a busy time.

Thank you for sharing your impressions, friends!

Here's my review too:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...