YottaRock Industries

Lately, there has been more turmoil simmering under the surface. The way that people say "I'm Fine" is closer to that of an angry girlfriend or a depressed man on verge of suicide rather than that of general neutral feeling. The idea that all moods come with the implied asterisk of *given circumstances of this

this is becoming a recurring issue. The looming something that will change everything, that no one can name right now. It is as if society as a whole is holding its breath waiting for the great upheaval. From open corruption in western politics, to heatwaves that are just treated as "it's hot", to financial instability at all levels while those at the very top celebrate the first trillionaire. Something, this thing, is just not right.

From what I have been reading, we are a few moves from a massive bubble pop that will take out most of the economy, flare trade relationships more, likely start a large war or two, and the general public will have to pay for it, again. It is the same "meh" feeling that was around in the great depression. People say it's going great, or its fixable, with the enthusiasm of someone rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

In reality, this current system, paradigm, etc. is not only dying, but dead. We just live in its corpse, puppetting it to feel a bit better. The belief of better living through science as promised in the 50s to 70s is gone, and the one running the show just want to recreate that without seeing what caused those conditions in the first place.

But this article is about hope. How can one have hope against __this__?

Throughout all of written history, there is always an outside group that keeps going, that knows things change, and that they can implement that change for the better. These work outside the systems and just are. Ideas are taken from them sometimes and integrated into the mainstream, the biggest example of this is Rome's adaptation of Christianity from being the literal executioner of Christ, as he represented an ideology against the state at his time.

Most are not that extreme, but still can impact the world today. One of these movements is the punk movement. Originally coined in the 70s, right when things started going downhill, it is the people that know that change is inevitable, that people matter, and that __this__ too will come to pass.

There are many sub categories of punk, but they all have their roots in this one. Focused on antiestablishment, antiauthoritarian, and a diy format, they are difficult to fully integrate, but it is on the edge that living occurs.

Some examples: * punk -early form, usually though of as mohawks and black leather. Theirs is the root definition * Steam Punk -a focus on steam technology not just as a way of operation, but as a headcannon alternate history where people were put first * Atom Punk - again technology, but focused on making it for the everyman. Think Jetsons * Diesel Punk - easily mixed in with Mad Max, this is the big engines of the 40s and the relationships people have with this. * Cyber Punk - a dystopian look at when people are ignored, and tech is elevated at all costs. * Solar Punk - a utopian look at where nature is put first, then people, then technology.

I am focusing on Solar punk and how this can be used to structure a society going forth.

Solar punk itself does not have a strong definition, there is no one thing that coined its operation. The closest is the world of Studio Ghibli movies, but solar punk predates that. Solar punk and cottage core bleed in in the aesthetics, but solar punk runs deeper, into a way of life.

Solar punk focuses on human living through the lenses of the following: * Humanization * Nature first * simple and robust * purposeful work * library of knowledge * barter and share * removal of monopolies

Humanization. Meaning to bring humanity back into the picture, to make people first. To not think about ROI, but people impact. How is the regular person going to live in this? And not just regular, how are those usually marginalized because they cannot be an identical cog fit into this? Not just designing for neuronormative White Anglo Saxon Protestant male, but everyone.

Nature first. The biggest mistake humanity has made since the industrial revolution is thinking that we are outside nature and physics because of it. We are a part of nature, whatever we do, we still live on this planet. We should take care of it, not just out of goodness of our hearts, but knowing that it is the only thing keeping us alive.

Simple and robust. This is the one that goes against everything today. We have huge complicated systems that are extremely fragile. The can of peaches you have may have grown in Africa, canned in Asia, and eaten in North America. As COVID 19 showed, systems like this are very weak to any changes. We make them as it boosts profit on each step, but does not help people or nature. Solar punk focuses on the need to localize, and simple specializations. Grow what is needed, make a little extra to share. Not cash crop everything so there is no food if the boat sinks.

Purposeful work. A good chunk of the economy is bullshit jobs. Jobs that are done to have other jobs exist. Most upper middle management and above falls into this. Spreadsheet farming, reports that just live in filing cabinets, etc. They don't matter, yet we treat them as the best thing and a goal to achieve. When we describe who we are, we start with our jobs, but it should not take ten minutes to describe what you do. A good test I saw, if you cannot imagine a cartoon pig doing your job in a children's book, it is not purposeful.

Now comes the scary bit. How does an economy work in solar punk? The short answer is that it is stagnant. Not from failure, but on purpose. For thousands of years, the term economy did not exist, it was simply food in, things out, and a person can only do so much. Given a set amount of energy in, there is a finite amount of work that can be done. Sure, it can be made more efficient, but only to the maximum. But what are you optimizing for? Most paperclips? There is a limit on the number of paperclips needed. This goes for digital goods too. That is part of the mess we are in, we are making so much stuff, we purposely make it weak so it needs to be replaced, or we make programs and bots that crawl the internet to make it seem busier than it really is. We target the wrong metric with economy. Economy make more than last year is the wrong thing as we can see today. The economy is doing well, no person is. The economy was meant to serve people, now it serves banks, and the top.

Instead, a solar punk economy focuses on 2 things. Knowledge is free and made to be shared, otherwise it dies, and if I have something you need and you have something I need, let's trade directly. No third party needed. This is the restoration of a trust based economic system. For most of human history, this is how we lived. A small group that worked together that shared resources to survive based on our skills. Compare that to everyone needing a bullshit job to work for not enough money as the value is funnelled up into the top of the company and you know no one.

Finally, solar punk focuses on decentralization. In a solar punk world, megacities would not be a thing. Larger communities with a shared purpose, like running a steel mill or other big industry, and their support structure, yes. The sprawl seen in Toronto, no. Most renderings of solar punk focuses on massive cities with monorails and towers separated by massive parks. It looks good on renderings but sucks to live in. See Dubai for example. There is no community. Community comes from small scale. A solar punk town is human sized. You walk or take a bus or tram to your friend. You talk, you live, and you continue on. The gathering has a purpose, both the temporary one, and the permanent gathering we call towns.

Decentralization also creates redundancy. Multiple people making similar things allows for one to stop and people to not get lost due to it. It is directly antimonopoly, and intellectual property is not a thing. You make it, you release it to see it change and improve. While this works mainly for code and similar things (github fork already does this), this gets applied to everything. There is no patent rush. We are all going to benefit from this. We are all just living anyways. Why not enjoy it together?