this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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Solarpunk
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In a solarpunk society, some groups are going to be making the solar panels, others the train tracks, others the computer chips. People have all this free time on their hands, some of which they can spend making things better for everyone. So given people want sensory foods, there will definitely be communities dedicated to growing and processing foods that work for people at a sensory level, and those communities can even be autism-focused with well-defined norms and procedures that minimize the need for social complexity.
This comes close to reinventing monastic orders. Many monastic orders focus on producing specific sensory products - cheeses, beers, mandalas, books, clothes, etc. - often with very legible rules about how people are expected to behave if they want to live in that community, with predictable days, calm environments, and controlled sensory stimuli.
There is a cool sci-fi book about this idea. Not exactly Solarpunk, but some aspects are overlapping.
Now I really want to reread Anathem.