Heavy Weather is Bruce Sterling’s interpretation of a variation on a cyberpunk theme. The variation, in this case, is “hacking” weather, in a future plagued by global warming and extreme weather events. The book follows a group of “weather hackers” – storm chasers, adrenaline junkies, techno-geeks, and gear-heads. As you might expect, they drive around,… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Solarpunk
Solarpunk No-Power/Low-Power (LoNo) Computing: Organic Computing
At the dawn of the 20th century, Ivan Pavlov was studying the digestive system. This led to an interest in conditional reflexes – whether, and how, a physiological response could be conditioned to occur (as related to digestive functions like food, smell, and salivation). In his most famous experiment, Pavlov trained dogs to associate the… Read more »
Solarpunk Low-Power/No-Power (LoNo) Computing: Analog Neural Networks
Here is how the brain works: it consists of a set of neurons – nodes – which have a certain voltage threshold. Below this threshold, the neuron does not allow voltage to pass through it. Above the threshold voltage, the voltage does pass through. Each neuron can be connected to a number of other neurons…. Read more »
Solarpunk No-Power/Low-Power (LoNo) Computing: Logical (Forward) and Illogical (Inverse) Computers
Before trying to tackle a vision of what a low/no-power (hereafter lono) computing future might look like, it is useful to first define what computing actually is. At bottom, a computer is a straightforward device: it is a device that performs logical operations. That’s it. Once you can perform logical operations, you can build upon… Read more »