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Alex Johnston's avatar

Dude this is so cool!! Massively creative and important work. You’ve gotta get this into popular mechanics next!

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Linda's avatar

Parts of this are fascinating and other parts are deeply dystopian. You discuss the Anthropocene but fail to mention the Indigenous practices of living in harmony and learning from nature. Instead jumping to “harnessing” the capability of plants to provide for humans once again. There’s a significant body work in Science and Technology studies and Philosophy of Science noting how destructive anthropomorphic interpretations of nature have been. Survival of the fittest emerged as the nature metaphor of the 20th century instead of symbiosis. You sort of seem to get it but then turn away to focus on the technological potential of the knowledge of plants.

The plant-forward projects you point to in the Middle East are paid for by authoritarian rulers who regularly trample on the rights of women and use indentured workers to make their projects come alive. These are the antithesis of Solarpunk.

By coupling Andreessen and Thiel with solarpunk you undermine an ethos of social punk which is to move beyond social and economic hierarchies. By stripping out the DIY component of solarpunk, the picture you paint is simply a playground for the affluent driven you hope by benign AI engines coupled with the knowledge of plants.

This reads like the green component of Balajee’s Networked States.

Which is honestly depressing because there is some interesting technology here that could be incorporated into building a better world for everyone. On the plus side you shared it so perhaps you are seeking a wider set of feedback or are simply interested in broader reach of the technology.

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