I started a local vibecoders group because I think it has the potential to help my community.
(What is vibecoding? It’s a new word, coined last month. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe_coding)
Why might it be part of a solarpunk future? I often see and am inspired by solarpunk art that depicts relationships and family happiness set inside a beautiful blend of natural and technological wonder. A mom working on her hydroponic garden as the kids play. Friends chatting as they look at a green cityscape.
All of these visions have what I would call a 3-way harmony–harmony between humankind and itself, between humankind and nature, and between nature and technology.
But how is this harmony achieved? Do the “non-techies” live inside a hellscape of technology that other people have created? No! At least, I sure don’t believe in that vision. We need to be in control of our technology, able to craft it, change it, adjust it to our circumstances. Like gardening, but with technology.
I think vibecoding is a whisper of a beginning in this direction.
Right now, the capital requirements to build software are extremely high–imagine what Meta paid to have Instagram developed, for instance. It’s probably in the tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s likely that only corporations can afford to build this type of software–local communities are priced out.
But imagine if everyone could (vibe)code, at least to some degree. What if you could build just the habit-tracking app you need, in under an hour? What if you didn’t need to be an Open Source software wizard to mold an existing app into the app you actually want?
Having AI help us build software drops the capital requirements of software development from millions of dollars to thousands, maybe even hundreds. It’s possible (for me, at least) to imagine a future of participative software development–where the digital rules of our lives are our own, fashioned individually and collectively. Not necessarily by tech wizards and esoteric capitalists, but by all of us.
Vibecoding isn’t quite there yet–we aren’t quite to the Star Trek computer just yet. I don’t want to oversell it and promise the moon. But I think we’re at the beginning of a shift, and I look forward to exploring it.
P.S. If you want to try vibecoding out, I recommend v0 among all the tools I’ve played with. It has the most accurate results with the least pain and frustration for now. Hopefully we’ll see lots of alternatives and especially open source options crop up soon.
@canadaduane
I am not saying that not everyone should create tools / apps.
I am saying that each software program is a simplification - and it’s really easy to run into misconceptions, or worse, hidden assumptions, biases. Especially with AI code.
Hence my post below about the dieting app leading to eating disorders.
http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/programming-forgetting-new-hacker-ethic/ is a really good writeup.
#solarpunk is about humans and ecosystems in the center, careful analysis, not throwing mindless apps at everything.
@canadaduane
Right now I am not arguing against #AI as a corporate tool, as an unsustainable, power-hungry privacy nightmare.
There are ways to train it locally and host on more sustainable infrastructure.
I am arguing against the very basic #technosolutionism of AI, which is the anti-thesis of #solarpunk :
Trying to solve each problem with an app which you do NOT understand, which you do NOT analyze, which can lead to terrible consequences down the road.
@canadaduane your daughter did THE worthwhile work by creating a product description. Being able to make it into an app looks shiny, sure, but is she now able to analyze what is the app doing versus what she designed it to do?
I’m afraid that if we teach young people to trust the machines to “do the work for them” instead of constantly questioning and double-checking, we will set them up to be manipulated by whoever is controlling the machines.