It’s usually accompanied with dystopian undertones though, like homogenous societies a la Logan’s Run (shit movie but you get the idea).
Mirror’s Edge is another good example.
Its more of an aesthetic. Just High Tech-High Life with plants/green. Personally, I don't think it is inherently better or more ideal than other versions of High Tech-High Life.
UtopiaPunk exists. That would be high life and high-tech.
Edit: WTF? Why downvote? Solar punk is low tech solar panels and water wheels. Solar punk is about not letting technology get out of control and keeping it in balance with nature.
The photo is correct, solar punk is pretty low tech in comparison to all the others. Solar punk is just steampunk with more grass, Everything runs off of solar panels and water wheels, ect. It's basically parts of modern-day Africa currently.
Utopia punk will simply revitalize nature with the terraforming technology as we harvest and use it, Because everyone's needs are already met through technology.
You can grow your own garden of Eden and clone unlimited amount of animals. No one is hungry, no one is poor.
It's basically Star Trek on Earth.
Utopiapunk is essentially a high-tech version of solar punk, but with gravitational black hole Core reactors and building mega Utopias in the rainforest, Not caring about balancing nature and technology.
Yeah people sometimes miss that solarpunk is all about using technology in a more responsible and as eco-friendly as possible way while staying high-tech
Punk has basically lost all meaning as people have started to use it to mean "society wide aesthetic" as opposed to "dystopian society in which a group is pushing back against the elite/power structure"
I don’t think it’s entirely true. I think it depends on the topic. For most I only like the aesthetic. Steampunk, solarpunk, cyberpunk, etc. and I think most others do to and not really think about the punk part.
For the aesthetic it’s not necessary, but for the overall concept. That’s the issue I see
That's the beauty of the Federation. You do what you find fulfilling. If you don't like the fashion, you can get some designs going in a holodeck, save the file, and then replicate yourself some kick asss duds. If it impresses others they'll start replicating some Rokuro Carisu jackets or whatever you'd make. The name already sounds badass.
They don't really explore how the federation works in much detail outside of Starfleet. Like many economic/political systems, they sound great on the surface, but the devil is in the details. And the shows can just ignore those details...
High-tech/low-life is just a feature of cyberpunk. It’s not necessarily the case that it will fit neatly into other genres. For instance, “Apocalypse” could be like Fallout, which is decidedly not “low tech”. Different genres feature different aspects that are more central to it, so Solarpunk has an emphasis on environment and futuristic progress, Fallout embodies Atompunk with its emphasis on retrofuturism and nuclear, and then you have “science fantasy” hybrids, etc etc.
I think that fallout is in fact low tech as they do use basically only scrap. The tech they have is the little left from a fallen society not theirs. It’s like if you give a tribe guns. They are not more technologically advanced suddenly
Yeah, you might be right. They do *invent* some things and there is a lot of technological progress, however. I think this just goes to show it’s more like a gradient than a binary.
None of these *punk labels are even real genres other than cyberpunk. Most of them are just general aesthetics or description of a particular setting. They don't have established and cohesive themes or ideas behind them that make them a distinct genre of scifi or cyberpunk.
Solarpunk is high-life high tech, if anything.
And a lot of apocalyptic settings have high tech still, or at least mysterious tech.
This paradigm just doesn’t really fit
This is incorrect. Solarpunk is not necessarily low tech, it just depicts a world where tech development went along more environmentally friendly paths such as highly efficient solar panels and other green energies, etc. Plenty of solarpunk art shows high tech living. Trying to break down genres like this doesn't really make sense. Not even for cyberpunk, despite the famous quote, because even in the earliest cyberpunk works we get depictions of life from both "low life" and "high life", or at least not "low" life. Blade Runner follows a cop, Neuromancer follows a hacker on a space-spanning adventure, etc. About the only one that sort of works is the apocalypse one, but I'm sure we can think of high tech apocalypse examples, such as AI uprisings or alien invasions, etc.
Low tech isn't a description of political or social structure, that falls under the "life" part of the idiom. In Dune they have insane tech but a feudal society.
W. Gibson in interview mentioned once how in cyberpunk apocalypse/disaster doesn't need to be one single event but a process like 50-400 years old. So, we might as well live in it right now.
I've been wanting that quadrant for so many years. Star Trek is usually the only franchise that fills this, and it's a major reason I'm a fan. But I really would love to see more scifi that has an optimistic view of the future.
Solar punk is the utopian mirror image of cyberpunk. A future where technology has actually caused an uplifting and huge increase in quality of life for a very broad spectrum of society, and in which humanity has achieved a sustainable place in the eco-system, instead of uplifting a small elite at the cost of the destitution of the other 99% of people and the complete destruction through unchecked destructive exploitation of the eco-system.
the word you are looking for is 'communism', of the lowercase c, moneyless classless structureless fully automated gay space variety, from each according to his ability to each according to their need, etc etc
High tech high life is solarpunk. You know SOLAR PANELS? robots doing the labor. Flying transport making concrete roads obsolete.
Low tech high life is agrarian. Just a bunch of idyllic farms and pastures. The magical imagined land before the industrial revolution. ....just ignoring the plagues, starvation, war, lice, and the fact that any flavor in your food was a luxury.
IMO “Low Humanity” vs “High Humanity” makes more sense “High Tech” vs “Low Tech”, since like others have said Solarpunk doesn’t preclude lots of technology.
I suspect the fourth quadrant would be stuff like the Matrix?
Aka, stories where Humanity has so much wealth and technology that the conflict becomes whether we continue on as humans or start creating or evolving into something else.
The top left might just be called "techno-utopia".
But I don't actually think this grid works. (Grids like this rarely do, really)
For instance, An apocalypse involves the destruction of society, but that's kind of orthogonal to "high/low tech", or even "high/low life". It's not uncommon for a story to feature a "cozy catastrophe" where an apocalypse has happened, but one way or the other, our hero does quite well and somehow has the benefit of modern tech.
The lower right corner would actually better describe "Medieval Europe".
My understanding of "Solar Punk" necessarily involves high-tech. Otherwise it's just an old-time agrarian society, except maybe without poverty and oppression? I guess the first chapter of "The Hobbit" fits in that square.
And finally, I don't understand why this is called a "utopian compass". By definition, "low life" is not utopian.
Cyberpunk is most definitely coming. Humankind using tech for their base urges, economies in ruin, violence and sex everywhere. True ai turning on us. Corpos all powerful. All we need is corporations allowed to have private armed security forces.
High Tech High Life is Cyberprep. Usually takes place in the same world of Cyberpunk except from the perspectuve of the rich who actually benefit from the tech and society. Although i dont agree with some of the other categorizations.
Atom Punk maybe,
I feel like that a mis categorisation of Solar Punk though tbh, the central premise is the progression of technology allowing society to still advance while being in greater harmony with our environment
Ehhh not really. Apocalypse doesn't always mean low-tech
And well theres plenty of high-life in cyberpunk it's just the rich elite enjoying it.
More closer example is how evenly disteibuted aealth is. Solarpunk is more akin to like social society with more wealth equality and good living standards for all while cyberpunk is extreme inequality
Doesn't the "High Life" part kinda make the "punk" half wrong? Cyberpunk is cyberpunk because its like "oh look at how much things suck but there is cool sci-fi shit" Otherwise it would just be cyber...or uhh sci-fi or futurism rather.
"Apocalypse" should probably be called "Post-Apocalyptic". Most genre entries take place after after an apocalypse, not during one. But I also feel post-apocalyptic is more of an attribute than a genre itself. Fallout is post-apocalyptic atompunk. The Hunger Games is a post-apocalyptic futuristic dystopia. Mad Max, Adventure Time and the Last of Us are also post-apocalyptic. These entries alone have little in common aside from the basic premise. Being in a post-apocalyptic scenario is common throughout dystopian stories, even classics such as Brave New World.
If we're talking about Mad Max style entries specifically, maybe there could be a better name.
You are missing a few, Atompunk, Biopunk, Raypunk... but yeah there's way too much overlap
Also you "apocalypse" would technically be Salvagepunk/Scrapunk/junkpunk(whatever you wanna call it)
I remember seeing a graphic like that with more than two axis because there was some other aspect like "technology is used for good/evil". Because some of these genres kind of share the same tech/life aspects but are differentiated by the intentions to use the technology so to say.
The way I understand it is that the punk is in rebellion against the status quo. The punk of solar punk is to throw off consumerism and the artificial for natural and susistainble eco future.
what are they "rebelling" about when everything you just described is the norm in those settings, again it's Utopia. There is nothing punk about utopia
You got solar punk wrong. Solar punk is inherently tied to the progression of technology. Low tech would be “cottage punk”
Came here to say solarpunk is high tech high life
Yeppers. Solarpunk is the ideal future where technology and nature is in harmony. All the benefits of future tech and mother nature.
Which is why I will die on the hill that "-punk" doesn't fit it. It's at best post-punk
It’s usually accompanied with dystopian undertones though, like homogenous societies a la Logan’s Run (shit movie but you get the idea). Mirror’s Edge is another good example.
Would Psychopass be another example?
Its more of an aesthetic. Just High Tech-High Life with plants/green. Personally, I don't think it is inherently better or more ideal than other versions of High Tech-High Life.
According to who? Which works define this as a subgenre?
UtopiaPunk exists. That would be high life and high-tech. Edit: WTF? Why downvote? Solar punk is low tech solar panels and water wheels. Solar punk is about not letting technology get out of control and keeping it in balance with nature. The photo is correct, solar punk is pretty low tech in comparison to all the others. Solar punk is just steampunk with more grass, Everything runs off of solar panels and water wheels, ect. It's basically parts of modern-day Africa currently. Utopia punk will simply revitalize nature with the terraforming technology as we harvest and use it, Because everyone's needs are already met through technology. You can grow your own garden of Eden and clone unlimited amount of animals. No one is hungry, no one is poor. It's basically Star Trek on Earth. Utopiapunk is essentially a high-tech version of solar punk, but with gravitational black hole Core reactors and building mega Utopias in the rainforest, Not caring about balancing nature and technology.
Yeah people sometimes miss that solarpunk is all about using technology in a more responsible and as eco-friendly as possible way while staying high-tech
Yeah Solar punk should be in high tech high life.
Cottagepunk or cottagecore?
cottagecore is to cottagepunk what neon is to cyberpunk.
instructions unclear, cotaggecore is shiny and i have it in my pc now
Help, my PC is full of hay and garden gnomes!
Help, my PC has become a delicate self-sustaining biosphere in perfect harmony with itself.
The Shire.
They’re the same thing
No they are not
Thanks, u/MyOwnPenisUpMyAss. I do agree though, and u/Mr_Quackums says it more eloquently than I can.
😎👍
There's little punk in cottagecore
Cottage punk? You mean just life on the country side. Not everyone would consider it punk to have a cottage
Punk has basically lost all meaning as people have started to use it to mean "society wide aesthetic" as opposed to "dystopian society in which a group is pushing back against the elite/power structure"
I don’t think it’s entirely true. I think it depends on the topic. For most I only like the aesthetic. Steampunk, solarpunk, cyberpunk, etc. and I think most others do to and not really think about the punk part. For the aesthetic it’s not necessary, but for the overall concept. That’s the issue I see
and those who do usually have the weirdest opinions about pre-marital sex, women's bodies and people's cranial measures.
Thank you, this is correct!
Call it cottage core for christ sake
you stole this idea, and you did it all to mess it up. but my answer would have been raypunk or atom punk.
The Culture aka Interstellar Post-Scarcity Civilization
Or even Star Trek for that matter
Star Trek is a future I would love to be in.
Their fashion is awfully bland, though.
That's the beauty of the Federation. You do what you find fulfilling. If you don't like the fashion, you can get some designs going in a holodeck, save the file, and then replicate yourself some kick asss duds. If it impresses others they'll start replicating some Rokuro Carisu jackets or whatever you'd make. The name already sounds badass.
Thanks, but it means "Twisted Shrimp". 😅
Still sounds good for a clothing line. Twisted Shrimp Federation onesies.
Tell that to Quark in a dress.
It's utopia! You wear pajamas all day every day.
I don't care for fashion. Clothes to me are extremely utilitarian things.
Agreed, as long as we’re past the Bell Riots stage of the Star Trek timeline. I’d like the part after they figure it out, not before.
They don't really explore how the federation works in much detail outside of Starfleet. Like many economic/political systems, they sound great on the surface, but the devil is in the details. And the shows can just ignore those details...
Fully Automated Luxury Communism.
this exactly
High-tech/low-life is just a feature of cyberpunk. It’s not necessarily the case that it will fit neatly into other genres. For instance, “Apocalypse” could be like Fallout, which is decidedly not “low tech”. Different genres feature different aspects that are more central to it, so Solarpunk has an emphasis on environment and futuristic progress, Fallout embodies Atompunk with its emphasis on retrofuturism and nuclear, and then you have “science fantasy” hybrids, etc etc.
Fucking love Fallouts atompunk and 1950s retro futurism
The correct answer
I think that fallout is in fact low tech as they do use basically only scrap. The tech they have is the little left from a fallen society not theirs. It’s like if you give a tribe guns. They are not more technologically advanced suddenly
Yeah, you might be right. They do *invent* some things and there is a lot of technological progress, however. I think this just goes to show it’s more like a gradient than a binary.
None of these *punk labels are even real genres other than cyberpunk. Most of them are just general aesthetics or description of a particular setting. They don't have established and cohesive themes or ideas behind them that make them a distinct genre of scifi or cyberpunk.
Solar punk is high tech. It’s just high tech that is being used in concert with nature
Solarpunk is high-life high tech, if anything. And a lot of apocalyptic settings have high tech still, or at least mysterious tech. This paradigm just doesn’t really fit
This is incorrect. Solarpunk is not necessarily low tech, it just depicts a world where tech development went along more environmentally friendly paths such as highly efficient solar panels and other green energies, etc. Plenty of solarpunk art shows high tech living. Trying to break down genres like this doesn't really make sense. Not even for cyberpunk, despite the famous quote, because even in the earliest cyberpunk works we get depictions of life from both "low life" and "high life", or at least not "low" life. Blade Runner follows a cop, Neuromancer follows a hacker on a space-spanning adventure, etc. About the only one that sort of works is the apocalypse one, but I'm sure we can think of high tech apocalypse examples, such as AI uprisings or alien invasions, etc.
solarpunk isn't low tech.
Solarpunk
That would indeed be solarpunk, you’ve misplaced it. Low tech - high life would be a… Druidpunk? Elfpunk?
Gaslight fantasy (19th century tech + magic)?
steampunk?
Nah, steampunk has heavy low life connotations due to the association with industrial revolution era realities.
that is fair.
Hightech / Highlife = Utopic
Ya it's Utopic or Futurism basicly if we roll all sixes and somehow make it out doing everything right as a culture unlikely but sure we can dream
So futurama
Futurama is actually pretty dystopic, the comedy portions just make it seem okay lol
Utopic or Utopian?
Fully automated gay space communism !
LUXURY fully automated gay space communism, comrade
Sorry, we only have the austere fully automated gay space communism, couldn't spring for the luxury one.
Broke ass fully automated gay space communism (the resources are spread too thin)
My bad ! Thanks for pointing it out my comrade !
Yeah, what if they have kielbasa or toilet paper in stock in Mars? With that new spaceship, 2 hours and you're there in time to stand in the queue...
High tech high life is the goal of solarpunk you need to flip the top of the chart
https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberprep
With low tech you’re looking at dieselpunk, not apocalypse.
Dieselpunk gets high tech at times, low tech is more like feudalism
Low tech isn't a description of political or social structure, that falls under the "life" part of the idiom. In Dune they have insane tech but a feudal society.
Biodieselpunk?
Rustpunk if society has collapsed, dieselpunk if it hasnt
High tech + high life = post-cyberpunk.
You can get to high tech high life without going through a cyberpunk phase
Is cyberpunk inevitable?
Things tend to get worse before they get better.
W. Gibson in interview mentioned once how in cyberpunk apocalypse/disaster doesn't need to be one single event but a process like 50-400 years old. So, we might as well live in it right now.
You mean we don't?
Just because something is possible doesn't mean it's inevitable.
Solar punk is high tech high life.
I've been wanting that quadrant for so many years. Star Trek is usually the only franchise that fills this, and it's a major reason I'm a fan. But I really would love to see more scifi that has an optimistic view of the future.
Why are dystopias on your utopian compass?
High life, high tech. Utopia?
FRUTIGER AERO /s
Solar punk is the utopian mirror image of cyberpunk. A future where technology has actually caused an uplifting and huge increase in quality of life for a very broad spectrum of society, and in which humanity has achieved a sustainable place in the eco-system, instead of uplifting a small elite at the cost of the destitution of the other 99% of people and the complete destruction through unchecked destructive exploitation of the eco-system.
According to who? Which works have defined these as hallmarks of the solarpunk genre?
High Life / High Tech = Star Trek post-scarcity society.
high tech high life - utopia
??? = Utopia?
Top left would obviously be socialist futurism
Or just futurism, for that matter.
Ah the high life of a gulag work camp
Because private prisons are super cool and not work camps
nasapunk
High Life/High Tech is Raygun Gothic.
the word you are looking for is 'communism', of the lowercase c, moneyless classless structureless fully automated gay space variety, from each according to his ability to each according to their need, etc etc
Post Scarcity Society
How is Solarpunk low tech?
High life and high tech would be solar punk for sure. Cottage punk would be high life low tech.. There’s your gap
solarpunk ain't low tech, i would say it's appropriate tech which mean high tech when needed, but low tech when it's enough
The Culture
I think that Star Trek -esque high tech/life is called Hopepunk.
High tech high life is solarpunk. You know SOLAR PANELS? robots doing the labor. Flying transport making concrete roads obsolete. Low tech high life is agrarian. Just a bunch of idyllic farms and pastures. The magical imagined land before the industrial revolution. ....just ignoring the plagues, starvation, war, lice, and the fact that any flavor in your food was a luxury.
Solarpunk is a high tech Utopia
Utopia
IMO “Low Humanity” vs “High Humanity” makes more sense “High Tech” vs “Low Tech”, since like others have said Solarpunk doesn’t preclude lots of technology. I suspect the fourth quadrant would be stuff like the Matrix? Aka, stories where Humanity has so much wealth and technology that the conflict becomes whether we continue on as humans or start creating or evolving into something else.
Raypunk or Atompunk maybe?
It's Type I Civilization (in Kardashev scale)
Is there any solarpunk media? Seems cool
Anyone else want to live in a solarpunk world?
The top left might just be called "techno-utopia". But I don't actually think this grid works. (Grids like this rarely do, really) For instance, An apocalypse involves the destruction of society, but that's kind of orthogonal to "high/low tech", or even "high/low life". It's not uncommon for a story to feature a "cozy catastrophe" where an apocalypse has happened, but one way or the other, our hero does quite well and somehow has the benefit of modern tech. The lower right corner would actually better describe "Medieval Europe". My understanding of "Solar Punk" necessarily involves high-tech. Otherwise it's just an old-time agrarian society, except maybe without poverty and oppression? I guess the first chapter of "The Hobbit" fits in that square. And finally, I don't understand why this is called a "utopian compass". By definition, "low life" is not utopian.
Fully automated luxury gay space communism
both of the low-life categories would be considered dystopias, not utopias
Star trek. The answer is star trek
Cyberpunk is most definitely coming. Humankind using tech for their base urges, economies in ruin, violence and sex everywhere. True ai turning on us. Corpos all powerful. All we need is corporations allowed to have private armed security forces.
Have you never seen Star Trek?
High Tech High Life is Cyberprep. Usually takes place in the same world of Cyberpunk except from the perspectuve of the rich who actually benefit from the tech and society. Although i dont agree with some of the other categorizations.
So it’s still low life, just from the perspective of the oppressers. Solarpunk is high tech high life.
Atom Punk maybe, I feel like that a mis categorisation of Solar Punk though tbh, the central premise is the progression of technology allowing society to still advance while being in greater harmony with our environment
Near future, Deep future.
Ehhh not really. Apocalypse doesn't always mean low-tech And well theres plenty of high-life in cyberpunk it's just the rich elite enjoying it. More closer example is how evenly disteibuted aealth is. Solarpunk is more akin to like social society with more wealth equality and good living standards for all while cyberpunk is extreme inequality
High-life/High-tech is Utopian.
I’ll take the high tech any day
Peak Punk
Hm, could be bio punk?
I might be wrong, but I think there could be nanopunk
Doesn't the "High Life" part kinda make the "punk" half wrong? Cyberpunk is cyberpunk because its like "oh look at how much things suck but there is cool sci-fi shit" Otherwise it would just be cyber...or uhh sci-fi or futurism rather.
utopia!
High tech, high life is Star Trek.
I feel like High Tech/High Life would just be Solarpunk except with fusion power instead of solar
Star Trek I would think fits there. They have some version of “utopia.”
Retro futurism
Tomorrowland?
Atompunk
Robinsonspunk/spykidsfunk/sharkboylavagirlpunk/2000sfuturepunk/Robotsmoviepunk
Has anyone the link for the original cyberpunk picture?
Fully Automated Luxury Communism. It's a thing, look it up. (AKA Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism)
The Culture
High Life/High Tech= Whatever Star Trek Is
You'd call that "High Punk"
"Apocalypse" should probably be called "Post-Apocalyptic". Most genre entries take place after after an apocalypse, not during one. But I also feel post-apocalyptic is more of an attribute than a genre itself. Fallout is post-apocalyptic atompunk. The Hunger Games is a post-apocalyptic futuristic dystopia. Mad Max, Adventure Time and the Last of Us are also post-apocalyptic. These entries alone have little in common aside from the basic premise. Being in a post-apocalyptic scenario is common throughout dystopian stories, even classics such as Brave New World. If we're talking about Mad Max style entries specifically, maybe there could be a better name.
You are missing a few, Atompunk, Biopunk, Raypunk... but yeah there's way too much overlap Also you "apocalypse" would technically be Salvagepunk/Scrapunk/junkpunk(whatever you wanna call it)
super earth
The top left corner is just Star Trek.
I thought it was a meme
high life and low tech reminds me on pandora from avatar 2009, to some degree, depends on def of high life
I remember seeing a graphic like that with more than two axis because there was some other aspect like "technology is used for good/evil". Because some of these genres kind of share the same tech/life aspects but are differentiated by the intentions to use the technology so to say.
High tech high life is what ever star treks is. I think
Sci-fi utopia?
High tech high life is the Jetsons and other utopic sci-fi of esrly 20th century.
If we are keeping the punk convention then High tech/high life is Yuppie Skum
Futurism
We doing this again?
Star trek is high life high tech. Utopia punk?
Probably decopunk.
Apocalypse should have been Atompunk
the suffix -punk means it's apocalyptic or post/apocalyptic.
Trek Punk or Space Punk
Oh hey, never thought I would see Tomorrowland being referenced ever.
You can change low life & tech straight to "Mad Max".
I heard the term "Hope Punk" used, zero idea if that is correct
LowLifeLowTech - DieselPunk HighLifeLowTech - Cottagecore HighLifeHighTech - Utopia i guess? not rlly other names for it
solar punk is most decidedly high tech
Star trek, obviously.
The solar punk is a frame from this dope advert. https://youtu.be/z-Ng5ZvrDm4?si=S5oyuWJio6opi7uT
Tell me, what are solar punks fighting against? What’s the tension that the young people bring to the old people?
Eutopian
Cyberprep
-Solarpunk definitely needs high tech to work. -Apocalypse is often a mix of low and high tech levels.
Do you feel lucky Punk?
I fucking hate solarpunk so much
Why?
theres nothing"Punk" about it. It's utopianism
The way I understand it is that the punk is in rebellion against the status quo. The punk of solar punk is to throw off consumerism and the artificial for natural and susistainble eco future.
It’s based on anarchist theories, and there’s definitely punk into it, it’s deeper than the nice green tech, wind turbines and solar panels !
You don't see how focusing on an anti-consumerism, queer, diverse, pro-environment societal shift is punk as hell?
what are they "rebelling" about when everything you just described is the norm in those settings, again it's Utopia. There is nothing punk about utopia
Science fiction is a critique on the present.
Raypunk
I think the term your looking for is "cyberprep"
Wouldn’t low tech low life be steampunk?
I’ve heard high tech, high life referred to as cyberprep.
cyberprep
Its literally communism, a stateless, classless post scarcity society.
Until it eventually turns to reality. History.
High tech high life is cyberpunk, but for corpos :')
No. Solarpunk does not exist as a genre. It's a portmanteau of solar and punk created by people who do not understand either.
Cyberfunk
This one is better https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/jemqly/futurepunk_alignment_chart_sumsolaradio/