I like doing economic analysis of #sciencefiction work (man needs a hobby, I guess). Looking for advice: what do I read next? Preference for recent work depicting #solarpunk economic systems.
@alberto_cottica Solarpunk books which mentioned economies (even if not fully fleshed out) that I know:
LX Beckett's Gamechanger and its sequel, Dealbreaker (the latter is more sci-fi) - several different currencies "multiplying" each other values, carbon-based pricing (flights more expensive than human labor etc)
Ruthanna Emrys' "A Half-Built Garden" - mostly negotiations and civilizational specializations between high-tech capitalists and sustainable anarchists
@alberto_cottica@SolarpunkPrompts we're planning one more which focuses on LCA-based economy, but it will take a few months to get to it. If you're interested, I could share my notes on it so far ;)
That depends. Are your notes readable to an external person such as myself? And: maybe it would be nice to people whose curiousity might get piqued to be able to actually buy the book!
@alxd Emrys's "Garden" is already in that list (though the economics is not the most developed part of that book). Gamechanger seems like a good suggestion, thanks!
@alberto_cottica METAtropolis is a fascinating shared world with lots of inbuilt economic exploration. It includes @KarlSchroeder 's "to hie from far cilenia" which is one of the most wonderful things I have ever read, and reimagines reality overlaid with different AR/MR worlds, and overlaid economics.
@davidcampey nice to meet you, David. Tell more, if you will? I am finishing "Gamechanger" as recommended here, though I am not sure there's enough economics in there to work on. @KarlSchroeder
@alberto_cottica
The economic ideas in "To Hie From Far Cilenia" are all expanded on in the novel Stealing Worlds-- though looking back on them both, "to hie" may better present the transformative personal journey of living in such a world. I have a soft spot for that story too. @davidcampey
@KarlSchroeder@davidcampey hello Karl, I finished "Stealing Worlds" and I prepare to write an entry about it for the wiki. Great work on the econ! Two questions:
What year did you write that in? Cannot find it in my e-book version.
Any hindsight - powered comments about the book's vision of crypto as enabling the diffusion of power?
The book was published in 2019, which is why you find no pandemic references in it. If the date is not in a copyright statement at the front if the book, you may have a pirated copy.
Some members of the crypto open source development community have recently been telling me that the ideas are current and spot-on. But you must understand, blockchain is only one small aspect of next-gen governance. See my
story "Degrees of Freedom" in Hieroglyph antho for more. @davidcampey
What I meant with 2 was that AFAIK all blockchain tech has delivered is speculative assets and, not to put too fine a point on it, scams. As an economist, this is important data for me to think about, though of course you as an author have the creative freedom to imagine a world where this was not the case.
@alberto_cottica Becky Chambers' short books A Psalm for the Wild Built and A Prayer for the Crown Shy are far future utopian books, the second discussing the economic system quite explicitly. I didn't see them in the edgeryders list.
@alberto_cottica on a separate note, I should finally finish writing a review of Kim Stanley Robinson's economical fiction "The Ministry For The Tourism in Zurich".
I hate it wholeheartedly for completely ignoring fascinating changes in India, in the Global South, and violently masturbating to Swiss blockchain which Will Magically Make Everything Work™
@alberto_cottica I have a few threads bashing it mercilessly, but my criticism boils down to:
It's a book which aims to absolve neoliberals allowing them to wash their hands. It's enough to be happy that they pushed IMF towards sustainability with Magical Blockchain. They don't need to look critically at their own lives, careers and societies and imagine them working differently. Let's not even look at how the world is changing to accommodate, we can stay in the Eternal Switzerland.
@alberto_cottica for bonus points, all the violence is done by the Brown People™, because Europeans, Americans are just too good for that.
We not only can't see what India is doing, how their society is restructuring, we don't even see groups working towards sustainability in other places. The very essence of what I consider Solarpunk to be - is absolutely absent from The Ministry, which instead showcases another cafe in Zurich and praises its landlords and architecture.
@alberto_cottica there's a whole example where KSR put a list of "organizations that helped change the world", but it's just a list of names, with absolutely nothing between them. I really struggled to read it as anything but really bad satire. "Hey, The Ministry & IMF is seeing your sacrifice". Now go be non-capitalistic somewhere else please, we have some more blockchain to implement.
@alberto_cottica
Also: infrastructure and disasters. Every time there's an environmental disaster in the Global South, EVERYONE DIES.
Every time KSR puts a disaster in the Civilized West™, everyone survives, the infrastructure proves superior yadda yadda.
There's a whole chapter of how a completely flooded Los Angeles was Not A Big Problem because Americans Help Each Other and their (as we know, crumbling) infrastructure is superior.
@alberto_cottica
Have you read my 2019 novel "Stealing Worlds"? It introduces the idea of AI-driven 'self-administering common pool resources' among many other things.
@alberto_cottica me: The Caryatids – Bruce Sterling
Sci Fi novel set in 2060 or something. Action on three continents as four cloned sisters work out their family conflicts amidst a global struggle between two or three dominant global factions. The odd thing about this novel was how pleasurable it was to read!🍸😺
@alberto_cottica may not be enough economic detail for you to work on but I thoroughly enjoyed the near-future solarpunk Hopeland by Ian McDonald, featuring kickstarting a post-crisis economy through Icelandic geothermal.
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