Rachel Rose O’Leary is a revolutionary programmer, poet, and co-founder of DarkFi, a decentralized anonymous infrastructure for building sovereign digital communities. She is one of the leading voices behind the Lunarpunk movement 🌚: a darker, more militant sister of Solarpunk that defends the right to resist, hide, and build worlds away from the surveillance gaze. 🔮

Originally trained as a conceptual artist, Rachel left the art world to explore the political potential of software. Her path took her from early Bitcoin spaces, inspired by the writings of the Cypherpunks and Abdullah Öcalan in Rojava, to developing privacy tools for organizing in the shadows of the surveillance state. 🐦‍⬛✨⛓️

With Rachel, we discussed the failures of mainstream crypto 🪙, her subversive Irish heritage 🍀and why privacy is not a luxury but a condition for democracy 🔐

We hope you enjoy this unexpected synthesis of revolutionary strategy, symbolism and technical insight. 🧝🏻‍♀️

Let there be dark.

Instagram - solarpunk.manifesto / Music - @simocellmusic / Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova / Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtenho_ @via_minhu / Studio - Edouard Picard from @lpiparis

(00:00:25) Personal journey from art to Lunarpunk

(00:06:48) Possibitily to criticize art is the result of postmodernism?

(00:07:58) Can you describe your initial attraction to the crypto movement and what aspects eventually led to your disillusionment?

(00:14:47) Institutional Bitcoin or free (Cyberpunk) Bitcoin? (Blockchain for banks)

(00:19:52) Why did you decide to shift from the personal liberty towards the collective liberty?

(00:25:59) Why the concept of privacy is essential for a democratic society?

(00:28:56) How does normalization of transparency and surveillance come to life?

(00:38:46) What should happen for people to feel the urge to privacy?

(00:41:27) Core Concepts of Lunarpunk and DarkFi

(00:41:59) What's the dark forest?

(01:03:26) Is DarkFi a prefigurative project?

(01:09:30) Can meaningful societal change be achieved through decentralised methods?

(01:16:51) What groups of people would be able to benefit from Decentralised Technologies?

(01:22:26) Are governance tokens similar to Direct democracy?

(01:34:50) How decentralized technologies can influence on social or economic inequalities?

(01:44:17) How we can do that not only extremist groups would benefit from decentralized technologies?

(01:49:25) What gives you hope for the future?

PS: this session was recorded in April 2024.

🧩 In this bonus episode, Eva, Tarek and Noor discuss their experience playing the Solarpunk Futures game with classmates at the Learning Planet Institute in Paris last february. They share how the imagination process went for them, what it taught them and how they see Solarpunk Futures being used in different settings.

🌀 A conversation full of ideas and excitement, you will want to try it out !

Listen to the interview of the kentucky-based activist and artist collective who created the game: link

…

“Solarpunk Futures is a storytelling game where players imagine the pathways to a desirable world from the perspective of a utopian future. Players use a deck of cards to remember Ancestors and work together using Tools and Values to overcome a set of real-world Challenges. Through dialogue and collaborative worldbuilding, collective and visionary narratives emerge of a new society, along with plausible scenarios for how to get there”

Solarpunk Futures is a project by @solarpunksurfclub, led by members Nick Lyell & Max Puchalsky.

Download the cards to play right here: https://thefuture.wtf/

Instagram - solarpunk.manifesto / Music - @simocellmusic / Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova / Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtenho_ @via_minhu / Studio - Edouard Picard from @lpiparis

PS: this session was recorded in February 2024.

🧩 Imagine a game that allows you to explore political desires without anyone being able to pull the "that’s just impossible" card on you. A collaborative game where you have to creatively solve interesting issues in a way that seems low stakes, but that actually gets you to listen and think hard about important topics.

A game where you learn as much from what you can and cannot fathom.

🏄‍♂️🌻 This episode features the five members of the Solarpunk Surf Club, a kentucky-based artist collective that created Solarpunk Futures, an open-source tabletop role-playing game designed on backcasting principles and the social and ecological aesthetics of Solarpunk.

This episode is in two parts: the interview of the SPSC collective + a bonus episode featuring our classmates. In this one, SPSC members Nick, Borrealis, Alyssum, Max, and, went into details about the sources of inspiration and intentions they infused the game with. We obviously talked about solarpunk and why they chose to identify with the movement as a collective. They also shared with us what it’s like for them to live and get organised in a conservative state in the US.

If you are interested in Solarpunk’s activist and creative dimensions, this episode is for you!

Instagram - solarpunk.manifesto / Music - @simocellmusic / Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova / Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtenho_ @via_minhu / Studio - Edouard Picard from @lpiparis

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:00:47) W​​hy Solar Pvnk Surf Club?

(00:02:37) The Green Room Project

(00:03:40) Personal Journeys to Solarpunk

(00:07:47) Concept and appeal of Solarpunk

(00:11:34) Experiences of Being a Solarpunk in C0nserv@tive States

(00:16:52) Playing Solarpunk Futures in Diverse P0litical Contexts

(00:25:59) The Role of Barriers in the Game

(00:28:53) Choosing Games as a Medium for Solarpunk

(00:35:20) The Role of Tarot in Games and Contemplation

(00:37:25) Spiritual Dimension of Solarpunk

(00:38:40) Mindsets Encouraged by Solarpunk Futures

(00:41:40) Discussing the Gameplay

(00:45:34) A Board Game without a Board

(00:48:18) Unorthodox Formats of Activism

(00:56:18) Inspirational Communities and Movements

(01:03:25) Qu33r Kinship and Prefiguration

(01:08:43) CareTactics Podcast

(01:14:58) Borrealis on 🫄and Ab0rtion Care

(01:18:57) Finding Hope and Sustaining Act1vism

PS: this session was recorded in February 2024.