The Electronics Graveyard

Hello, world.

I'm Thomas Younow, and this is SolarPunk Prompts,

a series for writers where we discuss solar punk,

a movement that imagines a world where technology is used

for the good of the planet.

In this series,

we spend each episode exploring a single solar punk story

prompt, adding some commentary, some inspirations,

and some considerations.

Most importantly,

we consider how that story might help us to better envision

a sustainable civilization.

If this is your first time here,

I'd recommend checking out our introduction episode first,

where we talk about what solar punk is,

why you should care, and why the series came into being.

Today's prompt is the electronics graveyard.

A shantytown sits next to an electronics waste site in the

global south, where the electronics are remixed, remade,

and cannibalized to repair and maintain the local hospital.

Its parts are needed as no northerner will ever come with

their own version of Shenzhen,

a hub of innovation and production,

one where all knowledge is shared,

and all kinds of crazy innovations are born.

SolarPunk has a lot of influence from the global south.

Though the concept floated around blogs as early as 2008,

it was really a short story collection published in Brazil

in 2012 that put the movement into the public eye.

SolarPunk, Historious, Ecological, and Fantastic,

is a world -wide event.

And while the art nouveau aesthetic would bubble out

online,

the ideas of technology Technologies and practices it would

draw from were already well established in the global

south.

Solar energy and urban agriculture became shiny cover art,

but scrappy reuse of material, upcycling, creative hacks,

organic architecture.

These innovations of daily reality helped prevent the idea

from becoming a vague, optimistic futurism,

and instead a viable movement for activism.

It's because of this foundation that solar punk can so

firmly say we're a real thing trying to create real change,

not just a utopian fantasy.

Solar punk is no utopia.

It may be speculative, but it's realistic.

The term utopia was created by Sir Thomas Moore for his

book of the same title published back in the 16th century.

He created the fake word using Greek roots meaning not in

place.

Utopia as a term was meant to literally mean an impossible

place, not an achievable society at all.

Solarpunk isn't a utopia.

It's what more would have called an EVTOPIA,

or the good place.

He actually addressed the name contradiction in an epilogue

to Utopia, saying, Wherefore not Utopia,

but rather rightly my name is Evtopia, a place of felicity.

And yes, if you're wondering,

Evtopia was the inspiration for the TV show's name.

Solarpunk innovation isn't even necessarily about futurism.

A community being in balance with nature doesn't require

massive new technological advances.

Think about the old adage, reduce, reuse, recycle.

The most effective of those ideas is reduce.

Just use less.

Then, if you need to make stuff for some reason, reuse it.

That's the second most effective,

and it's the focus of this prompt.

Though the prompt begins with a shanty town and a waste

site, we're not calling for a story about poverty,

or seeking to glamourize the suffering of people.

This is a story of innovation through remix.

That electronics waste site is a key resource,

and the power of the community is non -conventional frugal

innovation.

Conveniently, India has a word for this concept, jugaad.

This idea can mean anything from a creative workaround of a

problem to a hack,

think hackers and hackerspaces from our earlier episode,

to using a resource in an unconventional way.

The word jugaad, or jugar, in Urdu,

is also the name of a type of homemade car in India,

Pakistan and Bangladesh.

These are usually coupled together from some wooden parts,

a hodgepodge of waste SUV parts,

and something to make it go, often over the years.

old irrigation pumps.

While these aren't the safest vehicles,

and they aren't regulated,

they demonstrate that spirit we're looking for.

They creatively solve the problem with a flexible design

that can use whatever is at hand.

The idea is something to compare against frugal innovation,

a practice more common than the North.

Confusingly,

the term is sometimes used in stories about Jugaad where

people are unfamiliar with the Indo -Aryan term.

In reality,

this is a different model where an invention or good has

its costly parts stripped away to make it marketable in

developing countries.

Rather than being a solution designed to serve these

communities, it's a way to squeeze the most profit.

A commonplace we see this is in healthcare manufacturing.

The cost of a typical low -end centrifuge runs between $1

,000 and $5 ,000.

A frugal invention machine with Calibration parts removed

using substandard materials may cost as little as half that

amount, but Jugaad offers a different path.

In 2017,

a hand -powered blood centrifuge was designed using the

principles of a whirligig, a child's toy.

It cost 20 cents to build and no electricity to operate.

It was invented by Manu Prakash,

an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford,

who has a number of inventions to his name.

He credits his style of innovation directly to Jugaad and

growing up in that culture in India.

So let's turn that eye for creative unconventional

innovation back to our story prompt.

What would the history of this site look like?

It began with people living in poverty,

but what evolved as those local tinkerers began to use

their skills to repair and augment machines that they

needed in their day -to -day life.

When the nearby hospital realizes it's not getting

replacement parts for its expensive equipment,

where does it turn?

Our repair community, of course,

and as more importance is placed upon them,

the idea of them as tinkerers slowly changes.

Now we may call them engineers.

What might happen as that activity grows?

What might it look like when the entire town gets involved

and people begin traveling to join them for training?

It may look a little bit like Shenzhen, China,

where life revolves around invention,

where open source hardware is everywhere and where people

copy and build upon each other's designs.

In a place like that,

some of the most unique things come into being,

like a simple dumb phone with a single advanced feature

bolted on, a GPS arrow always pointing toward Mecca.

Local technology innovation should be, and often is,

appropriate to the needs it fills.

In your story,

try to think about what sort of appropriate targeted

inventions might arise.

Sites like Apropedia may help.

Places with this type of culture don't need to wait around

for Silicon Valley to share their latest ideas.

Innovation is the lifeblood of the global south.

M -Pesa is a mobile payment service developed by Kenya's

largest mobile network operator, SafariCom.

It launched in 2007 before smartphones using simple GSM

platforms.

They already had tap to pay as the first iPhone was

releasing, and it doesn't need an internet connection.

That technology is packaged and resold across the global

south.

Consider also the mobile alliance for maternal action,

SMS Mama in Uganda and Mama Bangladesh.

Mobile phone SMS based systems for monitoring pregnancy and

reproductive health.

Platforms and services addressing issues of infant

mortality and using infrastructure already in place in new

creative ways.

It's important to avoid negatively stereotyping the

communities in our stories.

Solar Punk envisions a healthy future for southern

communities,

and we can help that idea into shared understanding through

respectful representation.

Take the film Sakawa as a lesson.

It was an incredibly biased movie about an e -waste site in

Ghana and scammers operating from it.

It had a very particular vision it wanted to paint in

people's minds.

At the very time that documentary was filming,

Ghana hosted a global conference, Republika Acra,

with over 2 ,000

technologists from 32 countries across the continent and

beyond just next door,

all discussing the rising digital society and innovations

in Africa.

Finally,

try to consider the other angles you can take in your

story.

Is this story taking place during the build -up of the

reuse -oriented community or after?

Is your point of view from within,

or a new set of people just arriving?

Is there a specific need for their skills at the forefront?

How does Jugaad play into the development of your plot?

Do the characters act in a way that demonstrates their

nature of creative problem solving?

How do they deal with new hardships?

How do they express joy in unique ways?

Try to explore new creative ways that your characters'

culture might influence their decisions and let that

innovate new story directions for you.

It's Jugaad for Plots.

Until next time, I'm Tom Asino.

I hope you'll join me for the next Solar Point Probe.

Music in this recording is On Latching the Escape Pods Lid

by Bubble Gecki.

From Global Patterns Compilation Solar Punk of the Writer

Music by Bubble Gecki you

Music by Bubble Gecki you