permacomputing
about
permacomputing is one of my major - despite still recent (2024) - research topics and a direction i want to head way more into in the future. it is about understanding/designing technology according to regenerative principles - especially and more specifically, computing in a post-collapse world.
a fantastic very short introduction to the subject: https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/permacomputing.html
a deeper introduction coming from more of a computer science background: https://100r.co/site/computing_and_sustainability.html
the definitive wiki: https://permacomputing.net/
for a breakdown/exploration of active/adjacent communities: http://viznut.fi/texts-en/permacomputing_update_2021.html
context
it can be a hard pill to swallow. for me, it partly was. first because it required many other pills before - the disillusionment with the techno-optimism / effective accelerationist meme, the understanding of permaculture/the regenerative meme, the overall opening of the heart and the eye of value - plus, seeing the attempts at tech for good, humane design as often times, not going far/deep enough.
secondly, especially emotionally for me, as someone who grew up watching sword art online, and to this day still loves overgeared, solo leveling and some other highly advanced tech-gaming real-life scenarios, to have one of the core tenets of technology design for it be self-obviating is at first, heartbreaking.
learning to connect more deeply with our own nature/history - with our long list of ancestral, social, analog, digital and psychotechnologies - and how to live without a reliance on so much of the extractivist technology we've built, is a lifelong journey.
after dealing with all of the emotions that come with this, then we can go back to exploring exciting seeds/propositions in a few existing lines of research, such as bret victor's on media for thinking the unthinkable, and the roots of cybernetics/computer science as a whole, considering the design/development of tools for thought, or how i like to expand/consider it: tools for extended cognition.
essentially, asking from scratch: how might we, if possible, use the computational medium to support life on earth? - and other related questions, considering the ethics, design and manufacturing process, learning from the successes and failures of incredible innovators/visionaries, such as buckminster fuller and considering it all from a much more conscious standpoint.
key concepts:
design for disassembly
design for encapsulation
design for descent
(...)