Futurism
A gemlog about the future; specifically, solarpunk, climate, and sustainability.
I am a considerably tech-interested person, so a lot of my fiction, and especially solarpunk fiction, includes tech elements. In Eirlys's world, certain pieces of technology have found new roles. Some modern tech has been advanced in a humane direction, some of it has been cast to the wayside, and some of it is alive and kicking almost exactly how it is today.
I've never quite liked my birth name. It sounds kinda, "bleh." It's been nothing more than a minor bother my whole life, only really coming up when I hear my name. So, a couple months ago I started trying to think of name ideas. Eventually, in a hit of inspiration, I came up with Hal, and recently I've started to use it.
2024-09-08 — The Fediverse, or the Social Web
I haven't been able to find much solarpunk literature, so I was pleasantly surprised when this micro-story appeared as a reply to a post in my feed, which asked what the Fediverse might look like in 2030. The story reminds me of what I wrote about in Peace & Violence, which was my inaugural entry into solarpunk fiction. It also gave me something new to write about for this gemlog, which I haven't written for in a bit.
2024-07-20 — The ultimate virtual reality tech
A "holodeck" is a type of virtual reality device that completely contains the user. Multiple people can use it at once. It can unlock telepresence unlike anything we've ever seen. But it relies on its user's body, which may not be as able as expected. Invasive Neuralink or BMI style VR solves a lot of the issues with holodecks, including its physical space constraints. But they are invasive, and the privacy and security issues should be obvious to anyone with a brain.
2024-07-14 — From the mountains to the city, part 2
I'm being influenced by the siren-songs of Stardew Valley, The Peripheral (mostly, the closer future), and now, spending the week in the mountains. My grandma's house is close enough to other places, downtown and the shopping center, that I _could_ just (e-)bike there. I've gotten pretty familiar with the area from the last couple visits, too. The small town allure is, however, in stark contrast with my conscience, solarpunk ideals, and humanity's best interests.
This weekend I'll be heading off on vacation. I've elected to leave my laptop at home, although I still intend to bring everything else: phone, Steam Deck, headphones, and VR headset among them.
2024-07-04 — Food and veganism
Food is great! Everyone loves it, even though we all have preferences, and often they clash. I'm no vegan (hate me for it later), but with an odd set of circumstances I've been thinking about the topic quite a bit today. There is a noticeable overlap between the solarpunk and vegan communities, and today I'm daring to address it.
2024-06-24 — Radio vs the Internet
Radio has always been a small interest of mine. My broadcasting capabilities are currently limited to GMRS and a tiny low-power FM transmitter I use as a toy, but I also have a couple RTL-SDRs I like to toy with too, mostly receiving FM radio but also monitoring GMRS, listening to ham nets, and discovering other broadcasts.
While I've been writing for Futurism, the place of radio in a solarpunk or anarchist future has come up a couple of times. Today, I don't want to talk about how it would be regulated, but how it might be used.
2024-06-20 — Short Story: Waffle House
Even though we've changed over time, the bright yellow signs still stand tall. We're known for a lot of things, but after the Pacific Nuclear Crisis, we're known more than ever for being a refuge of safety. Because if the Waffle House closes, there's nothing left for it to serve.
I've been thinking about this strategy for a while now. It uses our existing systems to get rid of the wasteful suburbs. In short, build new inner city housing, bring people in from the suburbs, and keep moving that outwards and inwards until there are no more suburbs. To accomplish this, a system of development and residence incentives and disincentives would be put into place.
This is a follow-up to "From the mountains to the city, part 1".
2024-06-16 — From the mountains to the city, part 1
In about a month I'll be on vacation in a small town in the mountains. Last year, I had some thoughts about the experience of a small town compared to where I live. Recently, I went into the city for my brother's graduation, so I want to write about what I think it would be like to live in the city, compared to the suburbs.
In our current capitalist legal system, designed to protect the rich and criminalize the poor, piracy is the "theft of intellectual property." This is done by copying. Literally just copying. It doesn't make the creator money, though, which is what matters the most to the capitalist class. And, better yet, you can only get it reliably enforced if you're rich enough to buy copyright protection or a patent (although laws about this vary worldwide).
The cities and towns of the future might end up going back to mostly trolley traffic, shared with bicycles and other forms of micromobility. This would not just be better for the people who live there, but it's overwhelmingly better for the environment. I expect BEVs will still be around, but they'll be mostly for ambulances, fire trucks, moving vans, construction vehicles, buses, and maybe taxis.
Recently, I wrote "Peace and Violence," a story set in a solarpunk future. Besides the themes that ended up in the story which I never planned on adding in, some intentional choices were made in it, particularly in how she interacts with her friends, the technology she uses, and the world she lives in.
2024-05-27 — Short Story: Peace and Violence
The following original short story contains sensitive topics, including sexual violence. Reader discretion is advised. Standard Futurism content will resume after this.
2024-05-25 — A State-Free Society
Solarpunk ideology, thanks to Solarpunk Grampy, gets me thinking about the political structures of their world. For example, there appears to be some structure in place to facilitate direct-democratic voting. But a lot of their ideology in their future revolves around the rejection of authority, replacing it with peer pressure and the collective will of the local community. While I still think that as long as there is a way for some man to gain power over another person, they're going to, assuming we figure out how to move past that, how would such a society operate?
2024-05-24 — Boundaries: Region names and political geography in a solarpunk future
I guess I'm no authority on solarpunk, but I'd like to take a swing at thinking about what we will or should call certain places. What should we do about currently contested regions? What about situations where multiple places have the same name? What will we call the future's equivalent of countries, states, provinces, cities, towns?
I was just reading the solarpunk Wikipedia page and I noticed it mentioned earthships, which I learned about in 7th grade science class: a house built out of recycled and natural materials which is self-sufficient. I then started reading that page too, and now I have some thoughts.
2024-05-18 — How solarpunk has affected me so far
Welcome to Futurism! I thought it would be nice to start Futurism, my solarpunk-themed gemlog, with a few thoughts about how the ideology of solarpunk has influenced my life and my thinking so far.
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