hammer and s/sickle/mushroom/ DECOMPOSE THE EMPIRE

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   People's Permacomputer Project (permacomputer@retro.social)'s status on Friday, 06-Dec-2024 18:14:53 JST People's Permacomputer Project

   # What is a permacomputer?

   A permacomputer is a computer which attempts to embody the virtues of permacomputing.

   Foundationally, permacomputing itself is set of community practices and traditions which shares a set of social and ecological values inspired by the 70s land management and settlement design of permaculture.

   # What is the point of this project?

   There are many different dialectical approaches to making an introduction to the people's permacomputer. One thought experiment that has proved especially popular and easy to grasp sums up the mindset behind which we are functioning:

   $>>> Industrial society has collapsed. All semiconductor fabrication has ceased, society-wide electrification is no longer guaranteed. There is no longer any internet. Computing as it was once known in the early 21st century is impossible. You need a computer for a task. What do you do? <<<$

   This project is a response to the challenge posed by the above problem. The purpose of this project is to design and then construct computers that will be able to survive a societal collapse.

   # The response

   A permacomputer for the people involves two radically differing criteria of success, yet these requirements, paradoxically, cannot be separated from one another--fulfilling both these two criteria is required for a successful project.

   The first criterion is a computer which is well-engineered. The computer offered up by this project aim to be easy to grasp upon immediate interaction, and have a profound, transformational effect on the power of the user's capacity for rational and critical thought.

   ## Engineering prowess

   Permacomputers must also be rugged and durable. An inoperable computer is otherwise known in hacker circles as a "brick". The length of time the project determined adequate for the "life span" of a permacomputer is a duration far in excess of contemporary standards. The intention behind this project's design was to allow communities of people to possess and maintain a computer collectively.

   It is difficult to provide an accurate estimate for exactly how many years the life cycle of a permacomputer design can be. This project suggests a life span beyond that of a human individual.

   Despite this concern, this project assumes that are threats outside the domain of engineering to the permacomputer, which would otherwise possess indefinite operation:

   ## Preservation of meaning

   The second criterion is to ensure that there continues to be a human cultural tradition of electronic computing, or that this tradition may be able to be rediscovered or reconstructed. The project does not want to merely effect an engineering feat, but also transmit the cultural memory of electronic digital computing into the future.

   It is hoped that, should the project succeed, humanity will be able to be saved from the grueling tedium of many forms of onerous economic work. Without a computer, these necessary social roles would involve either great effort, or be personally unfulfilling or degrading; shameful.