I’ve been thinking a lot about various creative reactions to the absurdity that we all carry supercomputers in our pocket but have to keep upgrading even to retain functionality because software gets worse and surveillance gets more pervasive
Things like low-power computing (Rpi and friends, microcomputers, retro computing, etc), some of the solarpunk stuff, the “smolnet” (Gopher and Gemini and the like), and so on seem to be interesting ways of highlighting that things could be other than they are
Is there an umbrella term for this? Is someone collecting projects that relate to “computing designed to work well even with low-performance/low-power gear”?
@calcifer This whole thread and this whole idea meshes well with a thread that @ajroach42 posted the other day, and I just like to imagine what computers would look like if they were made *exclusively* for the benefit of the person who'd end up using them, rather than being designed to make them easier to manufacture/transport/store/market/sell/replace.
@calcifer @ajroach42 Anyway I like "permatech" for machines that aren't designed to be thrown away.
@calcifer @ajroach42 Possibly permachines
As I'm thinking of mashing words together I'm looking at my projector screen and speakers - the screen is just fabric but it's a good screen, and if I upgrade the projector one day it'll still be there screwed to the ceiling. The speakers are old because speakers haven't really changed in the last 40-odd years, we're Done with speakers, if one day I upgrade the amp I'll keep these speakers. Easily swapping bits around should be a feature of permachines.
@ifixcoinops @calcifer audio gear is a great example of the kind of sustainability and longevity we need in technology.
I used an amp from 62 with a turntable from 75, an 80s cassette deck, a bluetooth receiver, and various pairs of speakers from various decades for something like 8 years.
All interoperable, all reasonably repairable, all comprehensible.
Heck, the amp had a schematic inside the case.
