permacomputing.mdwn (3732B)
1 **Permacomputing** is both a concept and a community of practice oriented 2 around issues of resilience and regenerativity in computer and network 3 technology inspired by permaculture. 4 5 In a time where computing epitomizes industrial waste and exploitation, 6 permacomputing encourages a more sustainable approach, maximizing hardware 7 lifespans, minimizing energy use and focussing on the use of already available 8 computational resources. Permacomputing asks the question whether it is 9 possible to rethink computing in the same way as permaculture rethinks 10 agriculture. Permaculture is the science and practice of creating 11 semi-permanent ecosystems of nature. The resilience of any such ecosystem is 12 equal to its diversity and interconnectedness. Permaculture design is a system 13 of assembling conceptual, material and strategic components in a pattern which 14 functions to benefit life in all its forms. It seeks to provide a sustainable 15 and secure place for living things on this earth. 16 17 At first it may seems paradoxical to connect permaculture and computation. 18 Indeed, an extractive technology that depends on a wasteful use of finite 19 resources can hardly be permanent. Therefore, by making this connection, what 20 we are truly asking is whether or not there can be a place for computer and 21 network technology in a world where humans contribute to the well-being of the 22 biosphere rather than destroy it? And if yes, how? 23 24 Permacomputing wants to imagine such a place and take steps towards it. It is 25 therefore both utopian and practical. We want to find out how we can practice 26 good relations with the Earth by learning from ecological systems to leverage 27 and re-center existing technologies and practices. A radical reduction of 28 wastefulness is a fundamental aspect of it: maximize the hardware lifespans, 29 minimize the energy use. And this is not just about a set of technical problems 30 to be fixed—the attitudes also need a radical turn. Understandability is 31 aesthetics, virtual does not mean immaterial and doing things with less is not 32 _a return to the past_. We want to investigate what a permacomputing way of 33 life could be, and what sort of transformative computational culture and 34 aesthetics it could bring forward. 35 36 The [[principles]] of permacomputing are: 37 38 * Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst 39 * Care for All Hardware — Especially the Chips 40 * Observe First 41 * Not Doing 42 * Expose the Seams 43 * Consider Carefully the Interaction Between Simplicity, Complexity and Scale 44 * Keep It Flexible 45 * Build on Solid Ground 46 * (Almost) Everything has a place 47 * Integrate Biological and Renewable Resources 48 49 Properties of permacomputing systems 50 ------------------------------------ 51 52 The principles concretely manifest themselves in various forms so as to 53 highlight the following properties: 54 55 * **accessible**: well documented and adaptable to an individual's needs. 56 * **compatible**: works on a variety of architectures. 57 * **efficient**: uses as little resources (power, memory, etc) as possible ([[minimization]]). 58 * **flexible**: modular, portable, adapts to various use-cases. 59 * **resilient**: repairable, [[offline-first|offline first]], low-maintenance, designed for disassembly, [[planned for longevity|planned longevity]], [[maximized lifespan|lifespan maximization]], descent-friendly or [[designed for descent|design for descent]] 60 61 Some additional concerns are of indirect interest because they impose costs on the entire end-to-end process of software creation: 62 63 * it's [[bootstrapped|bootstrapping]] from machine code without circular reasoning (bootstrappable builds) 64 * it's obvious what source code went into it (reproducible builds) 65 * it's easy to audit its source code, including all dependencies