solarsocial: a quiet architecture for media and light

technology isn’t evil. but it often forgets the sun.

most of the platforms we use today weren’t built for resilience, or reflection, or ecological intimacy. they were built for speed, scale, metrics, and for dopamine loops. and in all our solar forgetting, we lose something: rhythm.

this is a call to remember that rhythm.

something we can call solarsocial.

what is solarsocial?

solarsocial is a way of thinking about media, networks, and digital life in terms of solar logic: slow, ambient, renewable, intermittent, and deeply alive.

it’s not just about powering tech with sunlight. it’s about designing systems and relationships with the patterns of the planet in mind.

a solarsocial approach is seasonal, asynchronous, and gentle. it values presence over performance, and intention over interaction.

a solarsocial media shift

it is important to start thinking about our internet habits, namely: social media and media consumption. within the solarsocial umbrella, we can dream of a solarsocial media platform that might:

go offline when the sun goes down
publish only on full moons or equinoxes
eliminate likes, metrics, and infinite scrolls
run on a raspberry pi, an old smartphone, or a janky old laptop/minipc with a solar panel taped to your window
run on green servers out there under the sun
deliver writing slowly, like weather, not updates

in this architecture, energy becomes an interface, uptime becomes tidal, and sunlight becomes a signal.

🌱 conceptual parallels

traditional social media and solarsocial media operate on entirely different logics. here’s how they diverge:

infinite scroll → becomes finite, seasonal publishing
cloud-hosted platforms → shift to locally-hosted or intermittently connected systems
engagement-optimized design → gives way to reflection-optimized experiences
fomo and speed → replaced with jomo (joy of missing out) and slowness
surveillance and targeting → traded for anonymity and intimacy
extractive attention economy → reimagined as a regenerative attention ecology

yes, solar servers exist

this isn’t just metaphor—it’s already happening.

solar low-tech magazine runs from a solar-powered pi in barcelona. if there’s no sun, the site sleeps.
the solar protocol is a distributed network of solar servers. traffic routes to whichever node has the most sunlight.
greengeeks and planethoster offer partially solar-powered or offset hosting. not perfect, but a start.
experimental folks can deploy solar sites with yunohost, gemini, and maybe even through something like dat-ecosystem’s p2p protocols …

these are not big tech tools. they are garden tools.

how to host your own solar server

you don’t need a data centre. you need a window, a panel, and some curiosity.

what you’ll need:

a raspberry pi (any recent model works) or equivalent low-power consumption device
a small solar panel (10–20w is enough for a pi)
a battery bank or ups to smooth the uptime
a static site (like one built with astro, hugo, or 11ty)
local server stack (lighttpd, nginx, or even python’s http server)

optional extras:

use pagekite or something like it to expose your local server to the web
set up a daylight-aware cron job to publish or sleep
track uptime and share weather-based logs for poetic transparency

tip: don’t chase 100% uptime. embrace intermittence. if the sun’s not shining, the site can nap.

you don’t need perfection. just photosynthesis.

examples

solar low-tech magazine → solar.lowtechmagazine.com
solar protocol → solarprotocol.net

tools

yunohost (self-hosting made easy) → yunohost.org
gemini protocol → gemini.circumlunar.space
pagekite (self-host through firewalls) → pagekite.net
dat protocol → dat.foundation

inspiration

how to build a low-tech solar website → lowtechmagazine.com/2021/10/how-to-build-a-lowtech-website.html
solar-powered media → lowcarbonmethods.com/local/zine4web.pdf

toward a slower solar/hybrid net

what if instead of always-on feeds, we had digital gardens?
what if media responded to weather, to light, to rest?
what if the internet could nap?

solarsocial is another seed. a theoretical framework.
it’s not just for disruption. it’s for re-rooting.

build something that goes offline sometimes.
build something that listens to the sun.

🌞solarsocial - a quiet architecture for media and light