I read the precursor to this article, aptly titled Permacomputing. It already contained some interesting thoughts and it made me want to read on the update. I especially liked viznut’s thoughts on maintenance, being true to the locality as well as the part on relationships with technology. I encountered values and thoughts that I had crossed when digging Animism.
1. A fragmented pluriverse
He talks about how many different and diverse approaches and terminologies touch on the same points. I didn’t know about the Computing with Limits workshop and would love to participate in the next one.
2. Collapse informatics
Even if these approaches vision turned towards more positive outlooks and reasoning, positive outcomes should not be taken for granted. They are talking on how long or how much and what kind of electronics would be available after a collapse of the semiconductor indutry and how to deal with these issues.
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. In medieval Europe, some monasteries even refined and advocated technologies such as water power.
3. Anti-utilitarianism
Inquiry into non-utilitaric aspects or visions of computing.
When computers are built with non-pollutive technologies, they don’t need to justify their existence by paying back their ecological debts.
Then there is an exploration of computing rooted in family history or hyper-localised cultures and communities.
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.
4. Limits of imagination
It seems to be tough to imagine true alternatives that are not in one way or another entangled with the capitalist idea of growth.
5. Alternative paradigms
Next to the afformentioned frugal computing, heirloom computing, rustic computing, collapse informatics, he now goes into a few more alternative paradigms.
- regenerative computing
- convivial computing
- benign computing
 6. Permacomputing practice Mentiones that there isn’t a one-size-fit all solution within the permacomputing paradigme. There more it’s adapted to and coming out of the the local, the better. Also, raspberry pis are designed for hackability, not sustainability.
- 6.1 Low complexity
Forth is mentioned, once more… Need to research that.
One way to think about complexity is to keep it human-graspable. If one person can rewrite everything from scratch, that would a good thing. This also lends itself to a type of village hacker, that is super-localised and adapts stuff to the local circumstances. uxn is mentioned as a an example of a pocket of simplicity.
Ideally, UIs should reflect, amplify and illustrate the underlying elegance instead of trying to hide or misrepresent the inner workings.
He argues for true simplicity, not pseudo-simplicity, which just hides the complexity underneath. And last but not least:
When minimizing the internal complexity of a system, however, it should not be isolated from the complexity of the external world.
I like the constant reminder that computing systems are part of a world and that this relationship is important.
- 6.2 Towards concrete examples
Call for action to produce examples of what permacomputing could be. A multi-generational single-user computer for example. He mentions a system with which one can view text files. Then of course a system to write text. Maybe a system that transfers stuff over radio. Then some specifics on how such a system would look like on a technical level, again mentioning Forth.
- 6.3 Sustainable cyberspace
Projects that root for activist and sustainable approaches to the internet, like solar powered servers, often take the underlying internet for granted (I honestly just had that though today as well…). He sees the need for a decentralized protocol which works in unstable conditions or where connections are not available at times.
7. Collapse-tolerant business
Ideas on how a business would run on the permacomputing paradigm. Not going into the details here.
8. Postdigital advocacy
Postdigital is a reactionary movement, against the digital turn of the nineties. Casettes are an example of that.
When advocating lifestyles that abandon maximalism, it is important to frame it in a positive way.