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So i recently discovered this concept called permacomputing.

It's a bit extreme for my taste, but there's a subsection of it i'm very interested in.

What is permacomputing anyway? sounds a lot like permaculture.

you've hit the nail on the head, dear reader! it's intended to be like permaculture but for computing.

in case you have no idea what permaculture is, here's a small definition:

Permaculture (Noun): the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient.

the basic reasoning permacomputing is this: the past few decades of improvements in computing technology has also massively increased the amount of pollution that happens because of production of billions of new silicon chips in foundries every year, not to mention throwing away perfectly fine hardware just because it's old and increasing e-waste.

On top of that, software that's being made nowadays is less and less efficient and takes more and more computing power to run (modern web browsers, for example), which encourages people even more to ditch hardware in perfect working condition just because they can't run what they want on it anymore.

well what's the problem with that? computers keep getting faster, and we keep doing more with them.

the problem starts when you realise computers won't keep getting faster. Especially once you realise that if we keep throwing more and more silicon at the problem, we're cutting our lives short by significantly accelerating global warming and climate change.

what about more efficient hardware offsetting the extra pollution caused by making it?

it would've been really nice if that was what happens, but unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of CO2 emissions by a silicon chip over its lifetime are during production, even if it's very inefficient and uses a lot of coal-fired electricity. (i'll link sources for all this below)

So what solution does it propose?

so this is where it starts sounding a lot less coherent and a lot more "prepare for the apocalypse" but with computers:

many people work on designing software that would run on microcontrollers one can easily salvage from e-waste, and they urge manufacturers to design for disassembly so that such salvaging is easier to do.

yeah, you can see why i didn't find it very useful for myself, considering i can't even understand high-level languages, let alone assembly code for 8-bit microcontrollers.

Until i saw a small subsection called "Frugal Computing".

this is very similar to permacomputing as in it tries to tackle the same problem, however the solution it tries to follow is something i quite like:

As a society we need to start treating computational resources as finite and precious, to be utilised only when necessary, and as effectively as possible.

meaning, it follows the age-old saying of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and urges people to try to make the ebst possible use of the hardware we have right now, instead of pushing out new models with 20% better efficiency every year.

anyway, i'll close this with a quote that, although a bit harsh, is something i agree with a lot:

Nothing new needs producing and no e-waste needs processing. If your new software no longer runs on old hardware, it is worse than the old software.

now, for the sources:

a good summary of permacomputing and related terms

the original article that coined the term "permacomputing"

my source for the CO2 emissions, and a good introduction to frugal computing

until next time, farewell.

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