It is. The difference is cyberpunk is “this is what will happen if we don’t fight back against the system” and Solarpunk is “this is what we could have if we DO fight back against the system”.
There are also problems in solarpunk worlds, they’re just different from our own present day issues. It’s like, we solved the climate crisis, but there is still an ever expanding frontier of injustice to rally against.
It only looks like a Utopia if you have 000 hope for the future
I get what they’re saying though. It’s so unimaginable that we switch to sustainable tech with the current economic and political apparatus as-is, that it makes that kind of post-climate-crisis world seem Utopic.
Anyway solar punk is about the audacity of imagining a future where we win on even that one tiny point, if not (necessarily) dismantling capitalism, fixing inequity, fascism, etc etc.
Maybe now but that is not what it meant in the 80s when cyberpunk and cypherpunk were coined. I am sure the punks are quite pissed off that their movement has been reduced to an aesthetic.
Is solarpunk really punk though? Its like saying Utopias are punk.
It is. The difference is cyberpunk is “this is what will happen if we don’t fight back against the system” and Solarpunk is “this is what we could have if we DO fight back against the system”.
There are also problems in solarpunk worlds, they’re just different from our own present day issues. It’s like, we solved the climate crisis, but there is still an ever expanding frontier of injustice to rally against.
It only looks like a Utopia if you have 000 hope for the future
Solarpunk seems positioned pretty firmly against the established corporate world. If being anti-establishment isn’t punk, I’m not sure what is.
In this scenario, solar energy is the establishment though.
That’s not what establishment means
I get what they’re saying though. It’s so unimaginable that we switch to sustainable tech with the current economic and political apparatus as-is, that it makes that kind of post-climate-crisis world seem Utopic.
Anyway solar punk is about the audacity of imagining a future where we win on even that one tiny point, if not (necessarily) dismantling capitalism, fixing inequity, fascism, etc etc.
It is inherently NOT punk.
How so?
You know how the stuff -gate means scandal? -punk means fictional genre, or aesthetic.
Maybe now but that is not what it meant in the 80s when cyberpunk and cypherpunk were coined. I am sure the punks are quite pissed off that their movement has been reduced to an aesthetic.