- cross-posted to:
- scicomm@mander.xyz
- games@lemmygrad.ml
A video game about socialism and climate change based on the book of the same name
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I’ll have to look at this but unless I’m mistaking the source, I’m assuming rewilding half the earth comes from EO Wilson’s Half Earth proposal. It is a deeply problematic idea.
When it was published, Wilson’s book was criticized for disenfranchising millions of people, many of whom have no agency or influence to decide these things. It’s akin to forcing Native Americans or Maasai off of newly created National Parks. It’s a great way to anger local communities who often are using the earth sustainably (wtf does it mean to re-wild an area that has been balanced by human societies?), and also make sure people on the other half never gain much of an appreciation for nature since they are forbidden from that land.
Because then you have an idea that it’s fine to go hog on the other half, destroying endemic fauna and massive resource extraction. Many animals migrate great distances, so what happens when they migrate into our territory?
Recent evidence of Wilson’s frequent and warm correspondence with race scientists only backs this up. When I see the idea of Half Earth proposed, I have to ask which or who’s half?
Do we really think we’re going to abandon highly productive places New York harbor, also a major hub for bird migration a former biodiversity hot spot? Or are we giving the Sahara to the wild half and keeping all the good stuff.
Sorry for being little Lisa Simpson - Hexbear’s answer to a question no one asked, but here are some readings for those interested.
Half-Earth or Whole Earth? Radical ideas for conservation, and their implications https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001228
Article on EO Wilson’s letters https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/online/the-last-refuge-of-scoundrels/
Yeah, no, you're correct. I haven't actually read the book, although I'd quite like to. But I've heard its authors talking about the project and they discuss the issues with Wilson's work that you rightly bring up. As far as I understanding it, the book it a critique of the neoliberal approach to environmentalism/climate change and the dependence of its 'solutions' on precisely the kinds of practices you identify
Don't feel bad about picking up on sus sounding ideas/references, it's what I appreciate about people on this site :af-heart:
The game was super fun, regardless! Ousted by popular revolutionaries in 2080 🥲
Very cool to see Verso do something like this, will probably give the book a look over as a result.
Recent evidence of Wilson’s frequent and warm correspondence with race scientists only backs this up.
wait what
This game is based on a book that's referencing Wilson, not Wilson's book itself.
Oh yeah it’s almost as if Lewontin and Gould were saying this about him for decades.
But he wrote Half Earth, not Half Earth Socialism
My dream endgame scenario for the human race, is that thousands of years in the future we all decide collectively that we have achieved fully automated gay space communism so well and so amazingly that we simply abandon earth and turn it into one massive planet-spanning national park to protect the biosphere, that people can visit and learn about the ecosystems of the planet that originated all humankind.
Half-Earth Socialism: Full-Earth Consequences
John Marx who was Karl Marxs brother was one day in an office typing on a computer. He got an email from his brother that said that aliens and monsters were attacking his place and aksed him for help so he went.
Ban outdoor cats
Ban cars
Institute 0 Child Policy
Simple as
Edit: Lol it bugged out after a few attempts and is now auto-increasing the temp to +2.5 degrees after the first plan no matter what I do. :doomer:
Damnit I was able to really get going on one run that bugged out again. 0 emissions somehow boosts temperature by an entire degree out of nowhere. I will never see the good ending, apparently.
it's funny that it's impossible to innovate new forms of nuclear energy, and is just locked behind a once per playthrough RNG roll, but inventing a space elevator is guaranteed success.
If a space elevator falls into the middle of the ocean and no intergovernmental agencies were honest about their inspections, does it become an international incident?
oh shit nice. the text & art policy cards remind me of the secret project + tech research from Alpha Centauri, already got some enjoyably unhinged options available to me
ok political power is fuckin weird. it's the mana system, but what it means is that you can summon productive forces from whole cloth. also once per game a revolutionary hero will dig you out of a bad situation, so the optimal strat is to spend political power as deep into the ground as you can go round one to psychically summon as much science + production from the raw power of this hero's mind as you can
fuck yes there's an eliminate natural predation option. A lot of the stuff in this game leads me to assume the "legalize + mass produce acid" card was played before I was elected
aaand done! Something real neat about the FALGSC lategame where you can slam your practically limitless political power into silly little space projects. Also technically got the bad end because I bought the temperature rise down to 1.1C instead of 1.0. "there is still so much to be done... the future is uncertain" buddy we're outputting like 0 emissions, more than 65% of the land has been returned to nature, world communism has been achieved, I'm sure you can stick up one of those fuckin space mirrors or something while you're visiting your gran in orbit if you're that worried about it
I got emissions to -10Gt/year and it's still weird about it. The game is definitely biased towards accelerationism, and the weird "authoritarian" bit makes no sense (it's the largest party in the council and only wants you to do bad things).
Also tons of bugs, the percentages go crazy when you get the stats to their max/min and percentage changes become near infinite and because some events are triggered by percent change you get some weird stuff happening.
yeah, the authoritarian bit is weird in general - they'll run a :stalin: style state for you, but only if they like you. Otherwise they'll just sit around and complain that you're dismantling the world's miltaries + abolishing prisons (which afaik has no impact other than making everyone happier), but not actually do anything about it :stalin-bummed:
Am I just not seeing something or is algae biofuel completely worthless? edit: Also I think there is a bug where chemicals and concrete don't produce any emissions. Anyone know where bugs can be reported?
My winning strat:
- Unfuck the global south and maximum indigenous rights to act as a bulwark of popular support when the :frothingfash: get mad about losing their treats
- Reverse environmental damage: wetland restoration, reintroduce predators, fight back against desertification
- Feed the world with mandatory veganism :im-vegan: + smallholder farms :mao-aggro-shining: + super cereals :corn-man-khrush:
- Immediately end fossil fuel power production in favor of nuclear + wind, then gradually transition to offshore wind
- Ban cars and air travel but have walkable cities with good public transport
- As much hydrogen fuel as I have the power for, biofuels for the rest
Game was pretty fun, wish it was open source so i could crack it open a bit. Anyways, use Chrome + console window to edit the save data stored in Local Storage to get inf political points :)
Damn this is interesting but also prolly gonna have to read a guide on it to understand it
Nah, it's simple enough. Basically play it as a ecosocialist with accelerationist tendencies. The only way to really reach a win state is to do all the accelerationist things coupled with the meme things and environmentalist things.
After the second phase, you start getting like +400 points to allocate which lets you go crazy with doing whatever you want. Terribly balanced game tbh.
