There is ‘solarpunk’:
“Solarpunk is an art movement that envisions how the future might look if humanity succeeded in solving major contemporary challenges with an emphasis on sustainability problems such as climate change and pollution.[1]“
And there is ‘cyberpunk’:
“Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopianfuturistic setting that tends to focus on a “combination of lowlife and high tech“[1] featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.[2]“
There is also something called ‘cypherpunk:
“A cypherpunk is any individual advocating widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a route to social and political change.”
Today, ‘cypherpunk’ is associated with cryptocurrency – as in this week’s big news on blockchain:
Cypherpunk Holdings: Blockchain, Digital Currencies and privacy
But it does have a longer, more interesting history – certainly less dystopian than cyberpunk:
“Read any of the classic cypherpunk writings and one thing is clear: the internet offered us freedom. While the open source and peer-to-peer (p2p) movements are still alive and well in certain corners of the internet, most of us have chosen corporate rule instead… We hail the likes of Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, etc. as examples of the “sharing economy” instead of looking towards true sharing economy options such as Cell 411 ridesharing or Couchsurfing.org which operate in a truly peer-to-peer anti-corporate fashion… While we were offered open source and/or encrypted options such as Linux, GIMP, Icedrive, CryptDrive, Open Office, CryptPad, Riseup, Protonmail, etc., many still chose options like Windows, Photoshop, Google Drive, Google Docs, Gmail, etc. thus lining the pockets of corporate fatcats and further centralizing their control over the internet instead of embracing decentralization and empowering smaller creators and communities to share and collaborate with each other to create a multitude of amazing platforms…”
Center for a Stateless Society » The Internet Offered Us Freedom, We Chose Corporate Rule
Yes, there is disappointment – but also determination:
“As advancements in technology continue to raise new and important questions about data and privacy, it seems that the existence of a community like the cypherpunks is only natural. It was the cypherpunks who are behind the different technologies that led to cryptocurrency. The mainstream appeal of crypto serves as a testament to the success of the cypherpunk movement. In all, it seems that the cypherpunks are only marching forward, and they are not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Who Are the Cypherpunks And What Are They Advocating For?
image: Free photo Communication Network Web Networking Internet – Max Pixel