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writing:repairability_in_solarpunk [2026/03/08 12:27] – JacobCoffinWriteswriting:repairability_in_solarpunk [2026/06/22 01:31] (current) – [Designing stuff to not break] JacobCoffinWrites
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   * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond#Properties|Synthetic diamond]] is another high energy material with a lot of uses.   * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond#Properties|Synthetic diamond]] is another high energy material with a lot of uses.
   * Some materials are a little less exotic but still expensive enough (or enough of a hassle) that they're not used in every task - think of every steel machine part, tool, piece of furniture, or part of a building you've seen rusted away to nothing. Some of them needed the specific properties of a different grade of steel which was carefully chosen - others just weren't worth making out of stainless. Perhaps they would be, in a solarpunk society.   * Some materials are a little less exotic but still expensive enough (or enough of a hassle) that they're not used in every task - think of every steel machine part, tool, piece of furniture, or part of a building you've seen rusted away to nothing. Some of them needed the specific properties of a different grade of steel which was carefully chosen - others just weren't worth making out of stainless. Perhaps they would be, in a solarpunk society.
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 +===Alternative Materials===
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 +**Books**
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 +When it comes to longevity paper is already a pretty solid choice. With the right archival conditions or a bit of luck, books, scrolls etc are already some of humanity's longest lasting stores of data. But what about books intended for hard-wearing, damaging circumstances? Books intended to be read and reread, taken into rough conditions, or - most damaging of all - intended to be read and played with by babies and very small children?
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 +In these conditions [[https://matsciwit.blogspot.com/2024/11/indestructible-books.html?m=1|synthetic flashspun high-density polyethylene materials]] (such as Tyvek) may be a good option. These plastic fabrics are waterproof, extremely tear resistant, nontoxic (at least in certain formulations) and otherwise quite safe to handle. They feel like soft, slightly waxy paper. Because they're more like fabric than paper they're a bit harder to wrinkle/crumple than paper.
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 +With the right printing techniques they hold text and images just as well as paper. They can also be sewn through, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyvek#Adhesion_and_bonding|glued]] which is basically everything you need in order to carry out the most common forms of bookbinding.
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 +These materials are already used to make children's books, hiking/trail maps, and other hard wearing printed products such as banners. Perhaps a solarpunk society would see fit to extend these techniques to common library books in order to ensure they last a long time. 
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 +Books printed on synthetic flashspun high-density polyethylene materials would be difficult to damage. They would be waterproof (and in fact could be washed with soap and water to clean away dirt or other stains). Their pages would would be hard to crumple or tear, and they would be quite safe from mold and insects. After enough use they might suffer damage to their spines or cover necessitating work by a bookbinder but if they were [[https://www.penrosepress.ca/blogs/nerd-time/nerd-time-with-brianna-pretty-perfect-paperback-binding|sewn in signatures as well as glued]] even a paperback would be hard to rip apart. The experience of reading, carrying, and traveling with a book might feel different if they were often this resilient.
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 ==== So how would solarpunk stuff look different? ==== ==== So how would solarpunk stuff look different? ====
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 ==== Automated Salvage ==== ==== Automated Salvage ====
  
-If you're looking for something a little more a high tech, or scifi, there's some excellent potential in the combination of known open source designs, standardized off-the-shelf parts, and heavily-automated on-demand fabrication. By identifying the item with some kind of machine-readable identification code (such as a bar or matrix code) or the more advanced digital presence that would qualify it as a spime, your solarpunk society could ensure that defabricators (such as those in a recycling facility) have the tools to automate disassembly, testing, and salvage.+If you're looking for something a little more a high tech, or scifi, there's some excellent potential in the combination of known open source designs, standardized off-the-shelf parts, and heavily-automated on-demand fabrication. By identifying the item with some kind of machine-readable identification code (such as a bar or matrix code) or the more advanced digital presence that would qualify it as a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1bettme/comment/kv2toks/|spime]], your solarpunk society could ensure that defabricators (such as those in a recycling facility) have the tools to automate disassembly, testing, and salvage.
  
 It might work like this: It might work like this: