Solarpunk technology

Currently, talking to a face is the ultimate guarantee that you are communicating with a human (and on a subconscious level makes you try to relate, empathise, etc.). If humanoid robot technology eventually surpasses the Uncanny Valley, discovering that I'm talking to a humanoid with an LLM and that my intuitions had been betrayed would undermine the instinctive trust I give to the other party when I see a human face. This would degrade my social interactions across the board, because I'd live in constant suspicion that the humans I was talking to weren't actually human.

It is for this reason I think it should be the law that humanoid robots must be clearly differentiated from humans. Or at least that people should have the right to opt out from encountering realistic-looking humanoids.

The design on this seems less than ideal, as I imagine the clear plastic door reduces the efficiency somewhat, and it's much more complicated and costly to make compared to a traditional Pot-in-pot design, which uses the same principle.

A more advanced version of this concept that could work in any humidity (the clay designs only function in dry, non-humid regions) was seemingly in development by a company called Coolar, but haven't updated anything since they released this presentation. But that design certainly wouldn't be within the grasp of the people who most need it, compared to the clay designs.

EDIT: After a bit more investigation, the upright fridge design by Mitt is indeed pretty lame. It can cool interior temperatures down by 8 degrees C compared to ambient, which is about 14 degrees Fahrenheit lower.

In comparison, the pot-in-pot 'Zeer' design can reduce internal temperatures by up to 22 Celsius, or 40 degrees Fahrenheit. So... I'm starting to think this upright 'fridge' is more of a novelty than it is practical.

So if you're curious about these, live in a climate where it is usable, and want to try building one, here's some instructions on building the Zeer design instead.

Healthcare is solarpunk.

Hi all!

I’m new here. I represent a little movement out of Africa, but I am myself Scandinavian.

Currently I’m working on a video exploring the role of technology in shaping a radically different society aligned much more broadly with solarpunk ideas. I’m specifically interested in how blockchain, DAOs and AI could potentially revolutionize the future of consensus making, but I’m also acutely aware that this is a polarizing issue. What are your views on this?

Due to a quirk of geology, the purest quartz in all the world comes from the picturesque town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The mineral, created deep within the earth when silicon-rich magmas cooled and crystallized some 370 million years ago, is essential to the production of computer chips and solar panels.

China, India, and Russia provide high purity quartz as well, but what’s mined there does not match the quality or quantity of what lies beneath the Blue Ridge Mountains. With Spruce Pine among the scores of Appalachian communities reeling from Hurricane Helene, the sudden closure of quartz mines that have supplied chip manufacturers for decades has rattled the global tech industry. But this quartz is vital to the solar industry too. And while industry experts expect companies to withstand the temporary closure of the town’s two mines, it highlights the precarity of a clean energy economy that relies on materials produced at a single location — especially in a world of increasingly ferocious natural disasters.

Helene’s impact on Spruce Pine “absolutely lays bare the danger of having a monopoly in any part of the supply chain,” said Debra DeShong, head of corporate communications at solar manufacturer QCells North America. QCells, which manufactures photovoltaic panels in Georgia and is building an additional facility that will manufacture the components needed to assemble them, is evaluating whether the Spruce Pine mine closures will impact it.

Just to be clear, the noise and air pollution that a switch to drone shows away from fireworks shows would save, would be incredibly significant. I don't think the cost makes it viable yet, but it's something to aim for.