-----
id: pragmatic-permacomputing
title: "Pragmatic Permacomputing"
draft: true
subtitle: "Consideraton on building practical and resilient software"
content-type: article
timestamp: 1747484731
-----

[Permacomputing](https://permacomputing.net) should be taught at school. It should provide a _forma mentis_ for future engineers interested in building software and hardware that is mean to last, rather than doomed to be thrown away after a relatively short time. 

> [Permacomputing] values maintenance and refactoring of systems to keep them efficient, instead of planned obsolescence, permacomputing practices planned longevity. It is about using computation only when it has a strengthening effect on ecosystems.

-- Devine Lu Linvega on [Permacomputing](https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/permacomputing.html)

Interesting stuff, no doubt, but _why_? What drives this semi-underground, off-the-beaten-track movement that aims at doing more with less, recycling old hardware, and building _resilient_ software?

[Collapse OS](https://collapseos.org) and its less radical brother [Dusk OS](https://duskos.org) are two examples of software that is meant to be used at the [first and second stage](https://collapseos.org/why.html) of a [collapse of civilization](https://collapseos.org/civ.html) that is both _imminent_ and _inevitable_.

Scary stuff. A bit over the top, if you ask me, and these two excellent projects regularly get [criticized](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43482705) on Hacker News for being excessively alarmist. Also, in a future where humanity is not able to produce computers anymore — maybe due to a sudden catastrophe like a nuclear holocaust, alien invasion, zombie apocalypse, ...take yor pick — people would be more concerned about survival rather than programming some old computer in Forth.