walkaway handbook
Contents
declaration of independence | media | Walkaway
don't panic
the term "walkaway", coined by cory doctorow in his novel by the same name, refers to a cultural movement diven by the idea that the default lifestyle that we have been born into in the 21st century is not the only way to live. this vision is shared by solarpunks and eco-futurists: we can engineer an abundant post-scarcity society, today.
modern technology gives us the ability to cheaply house, feed, and clothe ourselves. automated systems regulate the temperature of our living spaces, control our lights, and tell us what to buy. somehow, in spite of the advanced technology we take for granted, we are still slaves to the daily grind. somehow, there is less we need to do to survive, but always an abundance of soul crushing work that needs to be done.
we do not have the luxury of hand-waving our way to post-scarcity, but scarcity itself is not very convincing. food is easy to produce, tiny homes are easy and cheap to build, and real estate is very inexpensive outside of the population centers. the only real challenges are energy and logistics. freedom from pointless labor is within reach. we can and will thrive outside of default society.
by creating a viable prototype for opting out the default scarcity economy and documenting our work, we can inspire people to take what we've learned and run with it. we can share knowledge and build better, cheaper, and more reusable tech! the overall problem is absurdly complex, but if we can find a way to have a swarm of autonomous communities tackling different aspects of it in parallel, we have a much better chance of finding workable solutions.
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