Permacomputing Update 2021
Metadata
Highlights
- An important paper in the collapse vein is Jang et al.’s Unplanned Obsolescence: Hardware and Software After Collapse that e.g. estimates lifetimes for various hardware components, with the conclusion that it may be possible to maintain some of current computer hardware for several human generations even if the entire semiconductor industry collapsed right now. (View Highlight)
- Jang et al. also have a few interesting words about maintenance culture. In the same way as religious organizations continued to maintain ancient Chinese roads that no longer received governmental support, computing could be maintained in a post-collapse world by “semi-ascetic cultural organizations whose primary focus may or may not be computing”. I have personally been fascinated by the potential of monastery-like communities to preserve science and technology even during “dark ages” when the society at large sees no value in them. (View Highlight)
- Compudanzas, a research project that reimagines computing in the form of “seemingly useless” activities such as rituals and dancing. (View Highlight)
- Steve Lord’s idea of Heirloom Computing, a computer that has been made to last for many generations can be a piece of family history that evolves with the family, keeping permanent traces from every generation that has used it, and does not need to have any purpose besides this. (View Highlight)
- Yuk Hui’s idea of Cosmotechnics which refers to a unified harmony between technology, culture and non-human nature. Modern technological thinking lost this harmony by turning everything into utilitarian resources. An interesting point made by Hui is that every culture should find its own approach to cosmotechnics – so, we would be replacing a homogenous global utilitarian monoculture with a rich and diverse polyculture. (View Highlight)
- I’ve already mentioned several “alternative paradigms of computing”: frugal computing, heirloom computing, rustic computing, collapse informatics. But there are still a few more to add:
Regenerative computing (View Highlight)
- Fellowship - an extension of mutuality and positive reciprocity, where the world is co-created by humans in partnership with nature. (View Highlight)
- The ideal of human-sized computing is particularly applicable to systems that are used as tools (because tools in general should be thoroughly understandable to their users). Also, in decentralized “post-collapse” societies, the local all-around experts (“village hackers”) should be able to master all aspects of the local computing systems in order to maintain them and to adapt them to various local needs. All this becomes much easier if complexities are kept low or moderate. (View Highlight)
- These could become general guidelines for maximizing the lifespans of arbitrary programmable devices: 1) make it as straightforward as possible to run arbitrary code, 2) support an electrically simple interface that can even be operated manually in times of far-future scarcity. (View Highlight)
- Activism for sustainable websites, solar-powered servers, new protocols, simpler document formats. However, these often take the underlying Internet for granted. The access may perhaps be slow at times or places, and a solar-powered server may be sometimes offline, but any place of the world is still supposedly accessible from any other place of the world at any time. The weirdness of this assumption may not even be obvious to modern Internet users (View Highlight)
- I see need for a decentralized protocol that works painlessly in conditions where everything is not constantly available. Where individual servers or communication links may be online or offline depending on circumstances. Where other parts of the network may only be accessible via temporary connections, physical file-sharing or data mules. Where your messages still reach their destinations, where you still get the files you need, and where “social media” discussions can still thrive, despite all these logistical constraints. (View Highlight)
- Self-host everything you need for software work on local physical servers. This includes all networked applications as well as an extensive library of software and documentation (including repair manuals and OS distributions for all relevant hardware). Offer hosting services to make use of the surplus. (View Highlight)
- Repair and maintain all hardware by yourself. Maintain a storage facility for old/recycled hardware. Offer services related to repairing and recycling (in a small scale, for now). Maintain a hackerspace or constantly co-operate with one. (View Highlight)
- Support forms of culture that strengthen the status of radically sustainable computing/technology (e.g. hackerspaces, education, demoscene events, art projects that use “obsolete” hardware, etc.) (View Highlight)
title: “Permacomputing Update 2021”
author: “viznut.fi”
url: ”http://viznut.fi/texts-en/permacomputing_update_2021.html”
date: 2023-12-19
source: reader
tags: media/articles
Permacomputing Update 2021
Metadata
Highlights
- An important paper in the collapse vein is Jang et al.’s Unplanned Obsolescence: Hardware and Software After Collapse that e.g. estimates lifetimes for various hardware components, with the conclusion that it may be possible to maintain some of current computer hardware for several human generations even if the entire semiconductor industry collapsed right now. (View Highlight)
- Jang et al. also have a few interesting words about maintenance culture. In the same way as religious organizations continued to maintain ancient Chinese roads that no longer received governmental support, computing could be maintained in a post-collapse world by “semi-ascetic cultural organizations whose primary focus may or may not be computing”. I have personally been fascinated by the potential of monastery-like communities to preserve science and technology even during “dark ages” when the society at large sees no value in them. (View Highlight)
- Compudanzas, a research project that reimagines computing in the form of “seemingly useless” activities such as rituals and dancing. (View Highlight)
- Steve Lord’s idea of Heirloom Computing, a computer that has been made to last for many generations can be a piece of family history that evolves with the family, keeping permanent traces from every generation that has used it, and does not need to have any purpose besides this. (View Highlight)
- Yuk Hui’s idea of Cosmotechnics which refers to a unified harmony between technology, culture and non-human nature. Modern technological thinking lost this harmony by turning everything into utilitarian resources. An interesting point made by Hui is that every culture should find its own approach to cosmotechnics – so, we would be replacing a homogenous global utilitarian monoculture with a rich and diverse polyculture. (View Highlight)
- I’ve already mentioned several “alternative paradigms of computing”: frugal computing, heirloom computing, rustic computing, collapse informatics. But there are still a few more to add:
Regenerative computing (View Highlight)
- Fellowship - an extension of mutuality and positive reciprocity, where the world is co-created by humans in partnership with nature. (View Highlight)
- The ideal of human-sized computing is particularly applicable to systems that are used as tools (because tools in general should be thoroughly understandable to their users). Also, in decentralized “post-collapse” societies, the local all-around experts (“village hackers”) should be able to master all aspects of the local computing systems in order to maintain them and to adapt them to various local needs. All this becomes much easier if complexities are kept low or moderate. (View Highlight)
- These could become general guidelines for maximizing the lifespans of arbitrary programmable devices: 1) make it as straightforward as possible to run arbitrary code, 2) support an electrically simple interface that can even be operated manually in times of far-future scarcity. (View Highlight)
- Activism for sustainable websites, solar-powered servers, new protocols, simpler document formats. However, these often take the underlying Internet for granted. The access may perhaps be slow at times or places, and a solar-powered server may be sometimes offline, but any place of the world is still supposedly accessible from any other place of the world at any time. The weirdness of this assumption may not even be obvious to modern Internet users (View Highlight)
- I see need for a decentralized protocol that works painlessly in conditions where everything is not constantly available. Where individual servers or communication links may be online or offline depending on circumstances. Where other parts of the network may only be accessible via temporary connections, physical file-sharing or data mules. Where your messages still reach their destinations, where you still get the files you need, and where “social media” discussions can still thrive, despite all these logistical constraints. (View Highlight)
- Self-host everything you need for software work on local physical servers. This includes all networked applications as well as an extensive library of software and documentation (including repair manuals and OS distributions for all relevant hardware). Offer hosting services to make use of the surplus. (View Highlight)
- Repair and maintain all hardware by yourself. Maintain a storage facility for old/recycled hardware. Offer services related to repairing and recycling (in a small scale, for now). Maintain a hackerspace or constantly co-operate with one. (View Highlight)
- Support forms of culture that strengthen the status of radically sustainable computing/technology (e.g. hackerspaces, education, demoscene events, art projects that use “obsolete” hardware, etc.) (View Highlight)