My brother pointed out to me that in last week’s episode of his podcast, Ezra Klein namechecked solarpunk in a blink-and-you-miss it mention:
“One common argument I heard on the left - Lina Khan made this point actually in our pages - was that this proved our whole paradigm of AI development was wrong. That we were seeing that we did not need all this compute, we did not need these giant companies, that this was showing a way towards a decentralized, almost solarpunk version of AI development, and in a sense the American system and imagination had been captured by, like, these three big companies.”
The context isn’t as interesting as the quote. He was talking about different approaches to developing strong AI. It’s only interesting because he used the term “solarpunk” in such a casual manner in a discussion that wasn’t about solarpunk or even fiction. It reveals that it’s in his vocabulary, and that he’s ingesting this in his media diet. For those who don’t know Klein, he’s a very popular writer and journalist whose politics roughly resemble a quieter version of Elizabeth Warren’s.
After hearing this, the thought occurred to me that what I’m witnessing is an idea spreading from a fringe group into a mainstream concept. Eventually, if it gets big enough with mainstream progressive liberals like Klein, I bet it’ll one day get discovered and made into a boogieman on the right.
I wonder how long that will take? When is the first time I’ll hear a clip of like, I dunno, Ben Shapiro shouting, ‘Have you heard about this new thing they call SOLARPUNK??? It’s crazy! It’s like… imagine a cyberpunk dystopia: but they want THAT with like, vines and TRANS PEOPLE everywhere! Some ruthless Soviet dictatorship but without even the cool cars or wonderful corporate innovation! It’s just TRAINS and GARDENS instead! Ulgh!! [eyes bugging out for the thumbnail image]’
That might be interesting. I think that this idea has a viral quality, so perhaps I can look forward to that in 2025 or 2026. What do you folks think?
AOC is also namedropping Solarpunk. I think it is quite well known as a term with younger left-leaning people, but it rarely goes beyond a “green new deal” kind of understanding. But it isn’t really bad if people get to know about it that way.
I remember that. It was during a Q&A session in the fall of 2023.
I think we’re seeing an idea – or set of ideas or facet of an idea – spreading as a meme in the classical sense. For those unaware, Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” to describe a transmissible unit of culture: an idea that takes root and gets received, repeated, imitated, and spread.
Solarpunk is a big bucket (a genre of fiction, aesthetic, style of personal fashion, lifestyle, philosophy, etc.) but I think it really is a meme spreading quickly. Fundamentally, it’s a collection of beliefs that we can live in a radically different, less commodified world of respect for nature and community. And I think people are desperate to discover that such a concept exists and has a descriptor.
What’s also interesting, for those who don’t follow him, is that Ezra Klein self describes as an obsessively self-aware overthinker. He is meticulous in the construction of his thoughts and in the precision of his language. I would go so far as to say that he probably realized with full awareness that his use of that word was likely going to introduce thousands of people to a new word, and/or unconsciously inform people who’d heard the word that it was a respectable term to use in political discussion. I think that bodes well for the direction of our culture as a whole.