Thank you! I’ll take a look!

I realized I never shared the resource page I ended up putting together but here’s what I made with the links and info provided: https://wiki.slrpnk.net/writing:exurbs_in_the_solarpunk_transition

It’s an ongoing project so we’re always happy to add more content

The Alien v Predator arcade games are surprisingly cyberpunk in the level art at least. It seemed to pull a lot of aesthetics from the Aliens series.

I’m not certain of the timeline but my impression was that cyberpunk was mostly limited to books during the arcade era. Like, they made tons of scif arcade games but they were generally inspired by the earlier stuff cyberpunk was also riffing on/rebutting.

It is funny that both genres were big at the same time but I wonder how much crosstalk there was between the two groups. Cyberpunk authors were definitely inspired by arcades, arcade culture, and the games themselves but I’m not sure if they’d hit the level of cultural suffusion necessary to reach the inside of the game companies before the industry started to shrink.

Sorry, I suspect my sarcasm may have passed you by. They already make electric mining/construction equipment, solar powered factories and recycling facilities. Steel smelting can be done with grid-connected electric arc furnaces or solar furnaces. The production of solar panels and wind turbines may not be fully detached from oil for some time, but then horses played an important role in heavy industry for decades alongside gasoline and diesel trucks and steel hulled sail ships were still hauling grain well into the 1950s. These transitions are always uneven and the tipping point can be hard to spot even with hindsight, let alone while it’s happening.

Electrification can replace more and more links in the chain until the majority or even entirety of the supply chain is no longer reliant on fossil fuels. Even if those components are made with the use of fossil fuels - just like automobiles made with metal hauled by horses could replace those horses.

Much like how when automobiles were new, you could prove they weren’t actually viable because you still needed horse carts to haul the iron ore, and the coal to smelt it from the mines. The idea that someday the entire fleet of mining and transportation equipment would use internal combustion engines seemed quite impossible.

Probably there’s no way to transition to electric mining equipment, electric smelters, electric battery recycling facilities, and electric transport fleets.

Some would call it a bootstrap problem but it’s possible you’re right and there’s no way to transition from one suite of existing technologies to a new, cheaper one.

This is very cool and I like that it uses a lot of existing infrastructure (maintaining the existing steam tunnels etc, just changing out the heat source).

I’m curious if this will have any effect on the river good or bad - I’ve read articles about how outflows from human communities can warm nearby water bodies. Curious if this will have a similar impact or could reduce the harm or if it won’t make any real difference

That’s fair, but it’s also worth noting that some of the absolute classics like the original Ghost in the Shell also forgo that one.

Over the last couple decades cyberpunk kinda infiltrated mainstream science fiction - it’s hard to find scifi without at least a few cyberpunk elements these days. To the point that making something that checks all the boxes or avoids them all both seem to be a very deliberate choice now. It can make drawing a line around the genre kinda difficult.

Megazone23 is the reason I’m not allowed to choose movies/shows for TV and takeout night with friends anymore. What a weird, stupid, amazing mess. 100% worth it.

I’d definitely recommend adding Space Sweepers for something fun and upbeat (for cyberpunk).

For a scifi horror with more cyberpunk elements than you might expect, I’d suggest Morgan (2016).

Soldier (1998) might be too much of a stretch but it’s got a lot of the elements (minus an evil corporation) and it’s a solid film.

Edit: I forgot Outland! It’s great, plot is basic but works, actors are fun (it’s got Sean Connery) and the aesthetics/sets are prime Alien/Aliens territory. I think of it as being set in the Aliens universe.

This is a great fit, thank you!

Thanks! I found them over on the subreddit and have started digging through their articles. Good to know about any bias.

Thanks! I’ll take a look and see what I can find

Thanks, I’ll try to find a copy (or just read the internet archive copy) - it sounds like it’s long enough and covers enough that there should be something on rural areas

I’ll take a look! I’m aiming to have more sections on library economics so it might tie into that too

I think Holmes exclusively cheated investor-class rich people

The important thing is that the orks trust it

The big display screens made for corporations are supposed to be high quality TV hardware minus the ‘smart’ features - if you can find a used one without burn-in. But I don’t know specifics for makes or brands, sorry. I get my TVs from ewaste so the goal there is mostly just to limp it along while ignoring whatever problem caused the original owner to throw it away.

This is an awesome explanation and I think it feels like a good way forward! I’ll read up on bus power draw to make sure but I think we’re approaching reasonable - especially if the towns are already setting up battery banks to manage their own power demand.

Thank you again for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Does the math change at all if they’re only trying to power a single electric bus converted to rail use? I’d planned on some kind of single vehicle, but I’m not sure what factors lead to such a significant draw.

Thanks!

This is really good to know and quite disappointing. I try to keep things grounded and at least close to reality but had no idea of the limitations here. I’ll have to think on this and I might come back with questions if that’s okay.

I suspect the utopian emphasis on green power, hydro, solar, and wind, will further weaken this possibility? I haven’t thought much about what the grid looks like around these fringe communities (further out where the story takes place it’s basically gone and homesteads and villages have to be self sufficient) but these folks could be tied to the grid or striving for self suffiency but that would probably make it even harder to provide this kind of power reliably, even if someone was making tons of the necessary hardware because a train boom is happening.

That is interesting! If it’s alright with you I’m going to save this for future worldbuilding.