alxd

joined 1 year ago
 

Professor Ada Palmer, a well-acclaimed historian of ideas, set the action of her science fiction series “Terra Ignota” several hundred years from now. The world she imagined presents vast societal and cultural changes, but the topic of climate change is treated much more implicitly. Within the context of professor’s books - and the now growing genre of climate fiction - let’s discuss why it’s so hard for us to imagine and describe the climate change of the XXI century.

 

Welcome to the 2025 edition of the collaborative solarpunk art project! This year’s theme is Life of Learning, focusing on education, teaching, mentorship and research in a better climate future!

The goal of the project is to welcome everyone to collaborate together, share ideas and get inspired by each others’ works! This is not a contest - there are no prizes and no winners, outside of everything we learn from each other and the visions of a better world we create!

[–] alxd@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago

I think it would help :) I did my part, the site is up - and will have new art every so often. Now we just need to spread it!

 

Among the flood of AI-generated content all over the Internet it’s hard to imagine a coherent vision of a better future, especially one hopeful in the face of the Climate Catastrophe.

I believe that to be able to create a sustainable civilization and stop destroying the planet we need to find a new story for ourselves. Such a story could only be crafted by humans, as no neural network is capable of creating coherent symbols for values absent from our mainstream, Western culture.

For the last few years I witnessed many well-meaning writers and academics try to write about a better climate future - be it under a name of Solarpunk or any other - and struggle to find art illustrating their work. It saddened me to see them turn to the most thoughtless AI-generated images, trees growing from concrete buildings - just to represent something.

I hope that with this Library, thanks to the artists who generously donated their art under copyleft licenses, we will be able to go towards meaningful symbols, planting them like signposts towards a better future.

For anyone stuck looking for a story idea, good conflict or tension in a realistic near-future setting, I hope that the seeds will kickstart their creativity. Be sure to also check out the Solarpunk Prompts podcast by the awesome tomasino for even more writing inspirations!