Island

What Hacker News says

1. defrostAug 2026
   I'll just drop:

     In an interview with Ron Martinetti of American Legends website, Laura Huxley called Island "the finest and final work." In Laura's opinion, "He put everything in that.  Brave New World was a warning and Island was an offering."
   

   ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_(Huxley_novel)

   I had a perhaps overly heavy consumption of {X}-topia literature in my early teens.

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2. germinalphraseAug 2025
   Read “The Island” for a different flavor of Huxley.
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3. gsf_emergency_2Jul 2025
   Ooh that's tough. Solarpunk and hightech don't mix!

   For consolation:

   Book: Aldous Huxley, Island (Rumor has it Leo Dicaprio is adapting it)

   Anime: Nausicaa

   Like Gibson would say, solarpunk is already here: https://youtu.be/JAobfMSX9dg

   (That's the plane from Nausicaa)

   There's also the Chobani ad

   https://youtu.be/z-Ng5ZvrDm4

   (Not usually thought of as such, but Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age is solarpunk in my book-- and pays direct homage to Ralph Merkle!!)

   Edit: tangential to oncular comment, Switzerland (& Slovenia btw) seems kinda solarpunk to me

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4. jarebear6expepjApr 2025
   Island by Aldous Huxley
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5. cassianolealAug 2024
   Check out the book Island, by Aldous Huxley. Came out in 1962 and the whole island is covered in surveillance devices made to look like birds.
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6. germinalphraseMar 2023
   I was about to comment the same thing. It's simply much harder to create from whole cloth positive visions for the future where dystopias can be immediately be extrapolated from existing trends (and our long human history of abuse, horror, and destruction).

   Edit: If anyone would like an example, I'll offer Huxley's "The Island" as a utopian counterpoint to his "Brave New World". In addition to exploring the qualities he believe make up a 'utopia', a significant thematic concern is the need for channeling our innate destructive impulses* because utopia - should it exist - can only be maintained, not manufactured, through the active preservation/conservation of our natural world, our positive human values, etc.

   *for example, there is an innate human impulse to subjugate others. Huxley suggested that we should channel, rather than suppress, this impulse into a productive activity that satisfies the desire without causing harm: rock climbing (which must have been much more of a niche activity in 1962).

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