Good question OP. I never thought of this and I’m enjoying the answers.

Briefly, my own answer would be: I would hope and expect that we can still communicate when essential using technology.

Food textures are a problem for me. I’d expect a solar punk society to prioritise not being ableist (and minorities should be elevated too).So just as I can go to my local market now and get diced food marinated in a sauce I like, I’d expect that to continue as a service.

The solar punk part might be how it’s done (emissions etc) and who gets paid. But I expect niceties such as our food prefs to still be available.

Most off the wall yet interesting question I’ve seen in ages.

this is an anarchist perspective on solarpunk, so please bear that in mind:

i don’t think solarpunk can ignore the needs of neurodivergeot people and claim to have dissolved all hierarchy. i think your question actually is a fantastic prompt for us to suss this out and figure out how to handle it. my experience has been that neurodivergent people do not avoid social connection, but instead typical modes of social connection. i think a lot of it will come down to neuronondivergent people (i dislike the term “neurotypical” as it’s often used by bigots as a label for themselves as a form of supremacy against neurodivergent people) being receptive. i’m AuDHD so my experience with this will be different from yours, but a lot of it has come down to discussing these things with my social connections and creating methods of discussing them with people who think differently from us.

so much of it comes down to recognizing that the current hegemony is inherently abilist. if we are to undo this hegemony, we have to find ways of living and being that are fundamentally opposed to this hegemony. we must also recognize that it falls more on the maintainers of the hegemony to adapt, and less so on the people who suffer under the hegemony. solarpunk must center LGBTQIA+, minority, immigrant, indigenous, and neurodivergent people and show a world where they thrive.

Solarpunk is not just about being friendly and building community (I’d say that is a side benefit and an eventual necessity). From an individual standpoint, it combines the love of nature, animals and plants of hippies with the unplugged DIY joy of punks with a bit of freeganism (including construction materials). You can still do all of that and hate most people and that is fine…they will probably judge you anyway for riding a bike, plogging, making your own clothes, thus not fitting in…fuck’em.

this is a really important perspective and i’m super glad you made this post, thank you for undeleting

A deleted post will still remain visible to the person who posted it (it’ll have a little red trashcan icon next to the title to show it’s deleted), but it should no longer be visible to anyone else. And as Cris_Citrus mentioned, a deleted post can sometimes take a while to federate out to other instances so that it’s deleted on their end too.

I also don’t think it’s a bad question, and it appears to be generating an interesting and useful discussion, so thanks for posting it :)

This is a great question. There’s a framework/way of thinking called the Social Model of Disability that would be a very important part of solarpunk culture.

The Social Model says that it’s not the person who’s disabled, it’s the society that disables them by not having the right supports built in to meet their needs. Everybody has the same general needs, and people with disabilities have extra needs on top. The people are fine as they are. Disabilities aren’t necessarily something to be “fixed.” It’s society’s responsibility to make sure everyone has what they need. If a person is disadvantaged, it’s because the society they live in is failing them, not because they have different needs.

It’s the embodiment of people actively looking out for each other at every level of society. Neighbors taking responsibility for helping their neighbors recover from surgery by doing chores while they heal up, people working as personal care assistants getting paid enough to live comfortably on, specialty health services being available in rural communities the same way they are in cities, sidewalks having safe curb cuts for people who use wheelchairs to not get dumped out of them when they try to do something as simple as crossing the street, and facilities being designed to truly include everyone and offer them the same experience instead of “separate but equal.”

Introverts and people with communication challenges aren’t expected to talk to their neighbors and ask them for help; their neighbors should be observant enough to notice where they’re struggling and step up because they already have a friendly relationship and talk from time to time. It’s an absolutely massive shift from the way we do things now, and it is so long overdue.

In terms of food, I don’t think we’d be limited to unprocessed local goods. We’ll still have the energy to transport and cook food, and we’ll always have people who like to develop new recipes. I haven’t thought about ways to bake that in to society yet, but now I will!

In terms of talking, I think that one can forgo democracy and just take orders, but I also believe that people have a responsibility to not contribute to a labour pool ready to take orders because that leaves the system volatile to capture by a hierarchical current. But I guess you can be smart about where you take orders from and make sure you are taking them from a democratic body. And wishes of a council can be published in easily parsible formats.

Assuming that the hypothetical anarchist solarpunk society is rather small and tight-knit, I’d imagine that autists would have it easy. You know a guy who’s unusually interested in trains? Send him off to train (lol) under a master engineer, and he’ll never work another day in his life around people who don’t understand him. Obsessed with history? Work as a historian.

I imagine that these societies could have a more transparent social fabric and, thus, a simpler job system. Everyone would know each other or know someone that knows them. With no corporations to obfuscate things, you could just call up a guy or gal and they’d give your autistic friend or you a chance.

In an intentionally planned society based on high trust and respect, there’d be no social posturing and BS. You could work all your life and never talk to anyone. Trust would be implied in all that you do, and an autist would never have to explain themselves. It all stems up from culture and how everyone relates to each other.

In regards to your food texture problem, just have the town cooks whip up some dino nuggies. Lol.

But for real, I don’t see why, outside of a logistics problem, you wouldn’t be able to have any food that you liked. And if you’re really concerned about nutrition, the town’s professional chefs could figure out a culinary solution that suits your needs. Maybe this is kind of handwavy, but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Unless, of course, you want to drink something like Soylent Green every day. :D

Hey! Fellow autistic person here :)

First, your post is absolutely fine. There are no dumb questions!

I think you have to keep in mind that other people have different concepts what solarpunk is.

For you, it sounds like you imagine it to be like a total hippie commune, where everyone still lives in year 1400 and no technology exists. Only farmers trading stuff with each other and building houses out of dirt. If that sounds like hell to you, maybe it is.

My definition/ imagination of solarpunk is different. Maybe not nearly as much changes in your routines as you think. Who says you can’t do your regular office job, workshop or whatever you do, as a regular employee anymore?

Hell, it gets even better. You can distance yourself from others all you want, and nobody is mad at you, your job is more fulfilling and suited for your (special) needs. Treating everyone with dignity and respect is a core value of solarpunk after all :)

Some people are just great at socialising, and they can make this their “job”. Some others, like us, maybe aren’t and have other skills, still much needed by (solarpunk) society.

For me personally, this would be a dream I want to fight for!!!

Oh, and regarding texture. The exact same food tastes different 100 times, and has 100 different mouthfeels when prepared by 100 different cooks/ manufacturers. You will find something ;)

the need for financial capital is replaced by a need for social capital

I don’t really agree with that, under anarchism (or at least types of Anarchism that I think will be stable enough to reproduce themselves) everyone will have to be provided with what they need regardless of capital (financial or social), the advantage of universal services is that they are universal, if you start rationing access because you think someone was rude to you, then you lose that benefit and are arguably not in an anarchistic system anymore.

Locally grown and unprocessed foods with unpredictable taste and texture

I can’t help with that, but if people need food cooking particular ways I don’t see how that is different from other needs, society only benefits from universal access to food if it’s truly universal and that means someone has to take a cooking class on how to cook for people with particular diatery requirements that’s fine.

I don’t think that this is a bad post. Everyone has strength and weaknesses. In my opinion solarpunk should be a future for everyone who wants to participate.
Regarding talking to people to get tools but not talk to other people, would be a library kind of sharing be ok?
And for food, it may need some experimenting, but I think there will be options to get something which is tasty and consistent in preparation. And even if not. Tech is not forbidden, it should only be avoided where unnecessary. I think with enough will fron all parties, it could work :)

I’m not really sure what I think the best solutions to those challenges might be, but the post my have still shown up because the deletion of the post takes time to federate across instances

Sorry you’re having a frustrating time with trying to make a post and then delete it, I hope there ends up being some worthwhile conversation that comes from it anyway :)