this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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Stellar, a very convincing vision of how we can move towards a Solar Punk world. (stellarworld.com)
submitted 23 hours ago by Ruigaard@slrpnk.net to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
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Just finished the stellarbook, by James Arbib and Tony Seba (from RethinkX). They make a very interesting case on how we can move from our current extractive societies to one of abundance. It touches on many themes that are well known in the solar punk community, still it brought together a clear overview and model of where we are now and how to get to a better world.

I was wondering if anyone here has read it as well. And what your take is.

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[–] solo@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

I was wondering if anyone here has read it as well. And what your take is.

Personally, I will not read it because:

Meet the authors

James Arbib is a technology investor and the founder of Tellus Mater, an independent philanthropic foundation dedicated to exploring the impacts of disruptive technology and its potential for solving some of the world’s most challenging problems.

Tony Seba is a world-renowned thought leader, author, speaker, educator, investor and Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

In relation to the content of the book, I wouldn't be too surprised if these two capitalists suggest misleading technological "solutions" to a problem that is not technological in nature, but systemic. Meaning, the problem is the eternal growth of the capitalist system on a finite planet, and there is no techno-fix for that. Also, I'm pretty sure they are making baseless claims about humans and human societies to back their proposals.

Anyways, now that I said all that, may I suggest another reading? Totally free and priceless :)

What is Solarpunk?

[–] Ruigaard@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Hahaha, thanks for the reading tip.

The interesting thing in their book is, they acknowledge the end of the road for capitalism/extraction. Technologies like solar, wind, batteries (and recycling thereof) offer a great alternative with near zero marginal costs, they apply the same logic to labor in the form of robotics and AI (of AI I'm still skeptical). If these technologies will be further implemented will undermine incumbent industries. And can replace them entirely with almost free energy and labor. But they do caution that there needs to be a shift from the capitalistic outrol of this tech (as is happening now) to a communal benefit of them. As well a change of private ownership to a new communal model. The potential abundance can make this happen, starting in tech-eco hubs and spread from there. It's definitly about a techno, system and societal "fix".

Honestly I get your skepticism and that of other commenters, but as someone who works (and plays) in the sustainability field for a long time now, this book made a lot of sense.

That being said, I will keep on reading a lot of different sources on the subject as well and refine my opinion further.

[–] solo@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

If I understand you correctly in the part you talk about labor, robotics and AI, it reminds me of what was said by capitalists when automations started being employed in factories, meaning many, many decades ago.

At the time the capitalist narrative was saying to workers stuff like "we know you work hard, but thanks to the technological advancements in automations your children will work less and have a better life". We very well know this never happened, only the rich got richer, to the detriment of everybody else and the planet as a whole.

So, allow me to say, this approach is not new.

[–] Ruigaard@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 hours ago

Fair point

[–] thesmokingman@programming.dev 4 points 7 hours ago

I came up with something that I called the Seba Technology Disruption Framework, which says that technology disruptions happen because of a combination, so a convergence of technology cost curves, business modelling innovation and product innovation, of which are enabled by this convergence of technologies

Essentially what I forecast as you know in Clean Disruption, was there were four technologies and one business model; solar, batteries, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and ride hailing that were disruptive in their own way, but combined would disrupt all of energy and transportation, that the disruption would be over by about 2030.

After that I decided to start a think tank called ReThinkX, because it turns out that my disruption framework does work, and it does work not just for energy and transportation, but also across the board. One of my hypotheses was that every single industry bar none, every single industry is going to be disrupted by this combination of technologies, and business modelling innovation and product innovation

We made the prediction that it was the convergence of autonomous electric and on demand transportation that would disrupt all of transportation, and the tipping point was going to be 2021. Essentially on the day that level 4 autonomous vehicles are approved and ready, which we assume will be 2021, the cost per mile of transportation will be 1/10th, 10 x cheaper than the cost of owning a car.

as the years went by and my numbers for solar, for batteries, for PVs and so-on, have proven to be right then they’re paying more attention. Essentially that has changed the whole narrative about how quickly this disruption is going to happen, that this is not an energy transition, that this is a disruption both energy and transportation

A really stupid fucking interview seven years ago

Don’t let a bunch of VC-bought, Silicon Valley capitalists ruin an ideology antithetical to their goals. Stay away from this “disruptive” bullshit.

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago

Judging by the website alone, this looks shadier than the Venus Project.

[–] Wether@lemmy.ml 4 points 13 hours ago

This looks like such capitalist drek. No more self-appointed 'thought leaders', please.

[–] will_a113@lemm.ee 12 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Are there any non-Amazon purchase options?

[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 5 points 20 hours ago

no.

[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 0 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

extractive to abundance

buy the book

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 11 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

That's no excuse, Walled Culture is available as a DRM free, gratis ebook. If they wanted to make it free, they could've.

[–] Womble@lemmy.world 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Wanting to live in a better society doesnt free you of the requirements of living in the current one. Insisting all writing must be freely given away is equivalent to saying only the independently wealthy get a voice.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I'm not wealthy by any means, but I've made the choice I'm not going to sell information to people. If necessary I'll sell my labour to companies, which may include creating information, but outside of a job if I create something, it's free for anyone to use.

People can have standards, unless they would literally die otherwise in which case do what you can to survive. But I doubt the authors of that book are in such a situation.

[–] Womble@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

That's a an admirable stance for you to take. It's not admirable to insist that everyone else is held to what you personally are willing to hold yourself to.

[–] Ruigaard@slrpnk.net 6 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Thanks for your cynisism, but they do have a lot of free reading as well regarding the topic at RethinkX.com. Besides, realistically book publishing isn't free yet, so I get they use a paid channel for book readers.

[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 15 points 21 hours ago

kinda related: I get that you gotta make money in this world, and I'm happy to pay for a book, but it always makes me so sad when authors don't offer DRM-free eBooks, especially when the content is about ending capitalism. This is even worse because, not only do they only have a DRM-laden option, but they also only selling it on Amazon.

It's really frustrating how common this is.

[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 7 points 21 hours ago

Nah, they just do not trust me to donate if their material is good, best case scenario. I dont have enough time to read all the good stuff published by people who respect their audience to pay for this... Wait a minute, not even to them but to hardcore unethical publishing house?!

[–] emuspawn@orbiting.observer 2 points 16 hours ago

Asking your local library to acquire a copy might sting a little less, even if they do purchase it through Amazon.