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Heirloom Computing

Post 4

Fri Jan 1 18:58:53 UTC 2021

I consider heirloom computing to be a good step in the right direction. I'd already count the computer I built just recently as an heirloom.. if for no other reason than I figure a 3.5GHz 4-core with hyperthreading, 16GB RAM, and enough storage to literally put my life's story into it and then some is worth keeping around long past when it could run the "Crysis" or "Cyberpunk 2077" of that particular time. Moore's Law is slowing down significantly, and I figure that 10, 20 years from now we won't have gone much farther than the kind of clock speeds and I/O that we're already at today. At least, not for your average consumer. Will we have made it far more efficient and capable? Optimized? Certainly. And maybe I'm wrong. But I consider that computer to be the beginnings of my family's "heirlooms."

In other words, I consider a very important element of heirloom computing and hardware/software is the emotional, social and societal impact that those machines can have on a granular level. That computer could be what connects me to my kids, and my grandkids, as we play games from yesteryear, together and browse through eventual years and years of all kinds of media. "Wanna see our pictures and videos from when your dad was little?" Or, (more likely, knowing me) "Wanna watch this stupid meme that made me laugh in my 20's?" How about "Let's look at the voice and text journals that grandma and I made when we were handling the big Covid-19 epidemic? Do you remember hearing about that in school?"

The more I think about it the more I realize that heirloom computing is not only a preservation of hardware and software, but a means of preserving the actual history and lifetimes of the people who used it. My mind goes out to the Battletech franchise, where in the far-flung future of the 3000's, mankind has been at war for centuries, and in many ways lost its' technology and knowledge. The eponymous Battlemechs, giant walking tanks, are the pride and joy of militaries, mercenary companies, and even particular wealthy families within the various societies of the setting, because they have LASTED. There are notes, graffiti's, modifications, changes and battle damage that span decades and centuries - they tell a story just as vivid as having a camera running on those people 24/7. Why? Because the modifications, damage, and custom configurations of those ancient war machines tell the stories that mattered within the context of the machine's use. I see the same concept as very applicable to modern computing. The changes, modifications, and upgrades that will come to that computer over time will serve as a story of sorts, especially when it's documented among the other elements of my life as time goes on.

Just like this Lenovo T420 I'm typing this on. This thing is old, by metrics of upgrade capitalism and your average consumer. It can run basically everything that I need it to, short of intense, modern video games and multimedia tasks. For SSH'ing into Soviet and typing this? Hell, this thing is overkill. It too has four cores, 6GB of RAM, and enough storage to amass (in traditional text and multimedia) a collection of data and history that could offer insight on what the world was like during my lifetime. I actually only spent $100 USD on it when I got it, and about that much in upgrades for the battery, RAM, and storage. If anything I've given it a whole new lease on life. I don't see myself getting rid of it anytime soon. Especially due to the notoriously available and constantly accessible replacement parts for this entire line of machines.

So this little post was kind of wandering, but TL;DR: I consider that the devices we used yesterday, should be the ones we use today when possible, and they will secure a knowledge of our history and experience tomorrow, if we focus on accomplishing tasks that really matter, as opposed to feeding the upgrade consumerism culture that so many of us are immersed in societally.

Jeez... what a post to start out the year.