Thispunk.

trying to catch trains, trying to find the correct room at university …

Naughty mushrooms doing theirs again, they are so good. I got remembered I never was the uninspired believer in a mechanical world I had become, and turned back to animist knower - a lot of what you write resonates very much with me! Congrats to getting out of the rat race, faraway friend. Cautious as well with the little prankstershrooms. Remember grounding inbetween flights. So many people are getting out - once we get together we will be unstoppable!

Society is collapsing as we speak and my best case scenario is this one because I do whatever i can to create a soft landing spot for me and my local community.

Yes, and also closeness changes with time. It has been like this in my family. I’ve felt more close to one or the other of my parents over the years depending on what I was doing but I don’t remember having a problem with it. That said, my parents made sure to treat us both equally as kids, and if they felt closer to one of us they didn’t let it show.

I’d describe my feelings around the current solar boom as cautiously positive with a good sprinkle of skepticism.

I’d like to see billionaires investing in education towards self-regulating communities. I’d like to see them heavily investing in funding coops, not buying up startups. Billionaires investing in renewables means more money in billionaire’s pockets, because they will just sell the clean energy back to you for a profit while remaining the owners of everything and then some.

I’d carefully agree that more solar panels are good, but I’ve now lived through enough eco hypes to not have at least a few concerns. In the worst case we will now quickly and thoughtlessly plaster solar panels over hectares and hectares of useful farmland, important ecological reserves, and poor people’s homes, just because line go up. And probably trash them all in ten years when maintaining them proves too costly, or the next hype comes along. In the best case we actually start polluting less and use the time we buy to seek for more energy-saving ways of living in general.

Do your friends have a website? I’m always curious to find good ideas to steal for other communities!

Haha insane, I swear this popped into my head out of nowhere yesterday.

Well not entirely nowhere, but I work with plant dyes. So far I’ve only dyed wool, but I suddenly had the idea to create some T-shirt printing process with what grows around here. A dye bath and ink are rather different things though, so I’d be curious for ideas how to turn plant pigment into ink, or where to look?

I’ve never even seen normal silkscreen printing done, but vaguely understand the idea. I’d try different fabrics stapled to a wooden frame as sieve, and maybe use wax to cover the non-print areas?

For a non natural method - could 3D printing be interesting for making sieves?

And what is an emulsion?

No. I don’t want one giant Billionaire-backed project. I want a million small scale projects backed by local communities.

I wonder how to take on the efficiency question when considering waste heat. Would and older model generating more heat be the better choice? Has anybody started to dig into the complexities of calculating efficiency for circular systems?

Hmm I would personally categorize both the portable hydro as well as the capsule as junk gimmicks. I would want something reliable and farm-worthy for permanent use.

I love the French for being the most outspoken people among the European countries and having a ton of good initiatives going on. But don’t idolize them, most of their population is just as braindead and complacent as the rest of us Europeans, and their general unwillingness to speak English like most other Europeans hinders the spreading of their radical initiatives in the rest of Europe. (Sorry for the blatant generalizing. Not every French, not every European, …)

Okay but which nation isn’t?

I find nations problematic because they are units that are too large and therefore are controlled by groups not easily overseen and almost impossible to make accountable by the population.

The USA is not only a nation but an empire, which is like a nation with an integrated, violently imposed pyramid scheme.

If only we could find a way to organize into independent smaller units that federate into larger units and remain tolerant of the differences of the smaller units. Ironically that is what the USA seems to have attempted to do with their united states thing?

I’ve looked into some models I can purchase, but haven’t played with them. I like the rams because they are so low tech even a stupid like me can handle them, and the energy supply is direct. The one I’ve set up the other day (dumped into the river and tied to a stick) is still pumping.

I also love solar thermal, for the same reason. To me it just seems to make more sense to develop tech that doesn’t transfer energy from one form into another a million times, because that is something pitifully underdeveloped in our electrical monoculture. That’s why I keep building and advertising the rams.

For my daily life micro hydro power would be a useful addition, really want to get into that when I have time.

Great to hear! I guess others who are not in leadership roles would like to hear more about guys like you, and would like to know that some of you are also taking the time to teach other leaders take a different approach to work management and leadership culture.

I’m curious what would be your reply to this? Do you think a society can regulate or educate this problem away?

c/iamverysmart c/iamaclosetfascist

I snorted, slightly ashamed of myself

oh no you just reminded me