commit 62d557a7c13fdd79254b7ace579947c73e18fb19
parent 6eefbc6973130e42277a2f15e4a97a4515f10389
Author: thgie <thgie@web>
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2025 22:53:10 +0100
added some context to permaculture (and the critique on it) as a framing i deemed important
Diffstat:
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/permaculture.mdwn b/permaculture.mdwn
@@ -15,3 +15,17 @@ Permacomputing isn't the first attempt to bridge permaculture and computing. Ear
* [The Permaculture entry on WikiWikiWeb](http://wiki.c2.com/?PermaCulture) connects it with software design patterns but does not connect to the ecological reality.
* Kent Beck's talk "Programming as a garden: Permaprogramming" similarly drew inspiration from the philosophy to software design without the ecological aspect.
* [Amanda Starling Gould](https://amandastarlinggould.com/research/)'s 2017 doctoral dissertation ["Digital Environmental Metabolisms: An Ecocritical Project of the Digital Environmental Humanities"](https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/14457) centers around the ecological aspect but concentrates on end-user activities.
+
+## Honouring History
+
+Permaculture was not formulated in a vacuum. Working with land in a respectful and sustainable way is common practice for many indigenous communities and cultures and rooted in indigenous science. Permaculture, as formulated by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, draws heavily from these practices, as acknowledged by them. A good primer on this topic is "[The Indigenous Science of Permaculture](https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/tending-nature/the-indigenous-science-of-permaculture)" or "[Decolonizing Permaculture](https://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-02-19/decolonizing-permaculture/)".
+
+This is not a critique on permaculture (or permacomputing for that matter), but a reminder that our perma* practices are part of a larger and older network of knowledge and ways of being. The paper "[A pluriverse of local worlds: A review of Computing within Limits related terminology and practices](https://limits.pubpub.org/pub/jkrofglk)" contains a good list of pointers to alternative approaches to computing. Similarly, and a step beyond computing, exists a plethora of practices around our relationship with technology with which permacomputing *vibes*. Examples are
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+* [Jugaad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad) on the Indian subcontinent, which is about a frugal approach to technology
+* The [Technological Disobedience Archive](https://www.technologicaldisobedience.com/), which is drawing inspiration from the Cuban repair manual [El Libro de la Familia](https://archive.org/details/ellibrodelafamiliafablabulbeo2019)
+* The Shinto festival [Hari-Kuyō](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari-Kuy%C5%8D) in which people can bring their broken sewing needles to a Shinto temple to get them recycled. A modern equivalent was formulated around the [recycling and burial of Aibo dog bots](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/01/607295346/in-japan-old-robot-dogs-get-a-buddhist-send-off)
+
+These examples also show that many of these practices come about out of necessity, and are especially prevalent and common in the global south. It doesn't have to be this way. We shouldn't wait until catastrophes hit us, to start implementing permacomputing principles. In that light, the concept of imaginaries can be helpful.
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+> "[I]maginaries provide ways of organizing that combine ideas and concrete practices, imagining organizational alternatives by enacting new forms of collective practice." - [Alternative Visions: Permaculture as Imaginaries of the Anthropocene](https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418778647)
