# Awesome Permacomputing

A curation of resources, projects, and communities related to permacomputing. > Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in computer and network technology inspired by permaculture.

## Contents

- Resources
  - Websites
  - Articles
  - Books
  - Visual
  - Audiovisual
- Projects
  - Software
  - Hardware
  - Experimental
- Communities
  - Collectives
  - Forums

## Resources

### Websites

- Permacomputing - A wiki for permacomputing.
- Low-tech Magazine - Articles about solving human problems with low-tech solutions.
- Monoskop - A wiki for arts and studies.
- Damaged Earth Catalog - A growing online catalog of the different terms in circulation.
- XXIIVV - Ideas and notes on technology, art, language, and philosophy.
- The Luddite - A skeptical look at technology and its impact on society.
- Frugal Computing - Ideas and notes on frugal computing.
- Modding Fridays - A wiki about maintenance, repurposing, and reappropriation of supposedly obsolete electronics.
- No tech Magazine - Low-tech Magazine’s sister blog, it emphasizes simple technologies over high-tech, resource-intensive ones.
- Simplifier - Practical, low-tech guides and resources to simplify daily life.
- Death to Bullshit - Critiques the clutter and misleading tactics common in digital experiences.
- Do the Math - Explores the physical limits of growth in energy consumption and technological progress.
- Branch Magazine - Articles about climate justice and internet sustainability.
- Pluralistic - Explores technology, digital rights, and societal issues.

### Articles

- Permacomputing - Ville-Matias Heikkilä, 2020.
- A holistic approach to computing and sustainability inspired from permaculture - Devine Lu Linvega, 2021.
- Permacomputing Aesthetics: Potential and Limits of Constraints in Computational Art, Design and Culture - Aymeric Mansoux, Brendan Howell, Dušan Barok, and Ville-Matias Heikkilä, 2023.
- Permacomputing and the Dance of Repair Amid the Vestiges of Digital Obsolescence - Nancy Mauro-Flude, 2023.
- The Oceanic provenance of Permacomputing and Computational poetics - Nancy Mauro-Flude, 2024.
- The Beauty of Finished Software - Jose M. Gilgado, 2023.
- What might degrowth computing look like? - Neil Selwyn, 2022.
- Low Fat Computing - Jeff Fox, 1998.
- What can a technologist do about climate change? - Bret Victor, 2015.
- The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud - Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, 2022.
- It’s Not Easy Being Green: On the Energy Efficiency of Programming Languages - Nicolas van Kempen, Hyuk-Je Kwon, Dung Tuan Nguyen, and Emery D. Berger, 2024.
- The biggest lie tech people tell themselves — and the rest of us - Rose Eveleth, 2019.
- Hype, Sustainability, and the Price of the Bigger-is-Better Paradigm in AI - Gaël Varoquaux, Alexandra Sasha Luccioni, and Meredith Whittaker, 2024.
- Redefining our needs: permacomputing and vernacular computing - Robert Engels, 2022.

### Books

##### Fiction

- The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin, 1974.
- The Fifth Sacred Thing - Starhawk, 1993.

##### Non-fiction

- The Art of Unix Programming - Eric S. Raymond, 2003.
- The Limits to Growth - Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III, 1972.

### Visual

##### Comics

- Dependency - Xkcd, 2020.
- Energy Slaves - Stuart McMillen, 2017.
- The Solar Grid - Ganzeer, 2016.

### Audiovisual

##### Fiction

- Neptune Frost - Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams, 2021.
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - Hayao Miyazaki, 1984.

##### Documentaries

- Death by Design - Sue Williams, 2016.
- The Social Dilemma - Jeff Orlowski-Yang, 2020.
- Surviving Progress - Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks, 2011.
- Low-Tech - Adrien Bellay, 2023.

##### Talks

- An Approach to Computing and Sustainability Inspired from Permaculture - Devine Lu Linvega, 2023.
- From appropriate technology to permacomputing: a glossary of counternarratives and practices - Marloes de Valk, 2022.
- Preventing the Collapse of Civilization - Jonathan Blow, 2019.

## Projects

### Software

##### Operating Systems

- Collapse OS - Forth-based operating system designed for post-collapse scenarios.
- Tiny Core Linux - Small, highly modular system with community build extensions.
- Alpine Linux - Secure, lightweight Linux distribution.
- Plan 9 - Compact and uniform operating system built as a successor to Unix.

##### Code Editors

- Vim - Highly efficient, customisable, and lightweight text editor.
- Micro - Lightweight, intuitive terminal-based text editor.
- Geany - Small, lightweight IDE suitable for basic coding needs.
- Nano - A lightweight, terminal-based text editor for Unix-like systems.
- Left - Graphical text editor for the Uxn virtual machine. 18kb.

##### Tools

- Suckless - A collection of ultra-minimalist tools focused on simplicity, clarity and frugality.
- TLP - Linux power management tool to extend battery life.
- Hugo - Open-source static website generator.
- twtxt - A decentralised, minimalist microblogging platform built on a text-based protocol.
- sqlite - Small, reliable SQL database engine.
- Argos Translate - An open-source translation tool that runs offline.
- NoScript - An open-source browser extension that allows JavaScript to be executed only on trusted websites of your choice.
- CO2.js - A JavaScript library for estimating the carbon emissions associated with software.
- Tauri - A framework for building lightweight, native desktop applications with web technologies.
- XFE - A simple and efficient file manager.
- Festival - A lightweight music player designed for local album collections.
- FOX - A portable C++ based toolkit for building GUIs.
- Zola - A fast static site generator in a single binary.
- Uxn - A portability layer for graphical applications.

##### Protocols

- Gemini - Minimalist, text-based internet protocol.
- Tor - A privacy-focused, decentralised network protocol.
- Dat Ecosystem - A peer-to-peer protocol and tools for decentralised data sharing.
- IPFS - Peer-to-peer file storage and sharing protocol.
- Meshtastic - Open-source mesh networking protocol designed for off-grid communication.

##### Browsers

- Dillo - A multi-platform graphical web browser, focused on speed and minimal resource usage.
- w3m - Text-based web browser for low-resource environments.
- Lagrange - A minimal, open-source browser designed for browsing Geminispace.

##### Search Engines

- DuckDuckGo Lite - A minimal version of the DuckDuckGo search engine.
- Mojeek - Independent, privacy-focused search engine.

##### Social

- Scuttlebutt - A decentralised, low-bandwidth social network that works offline and is powered by a peer-to-peer gossip protocol.
- Lemmy - A federated, open-source social platform for creating and joining communities.
- Piped - An open-source alternative frontend for YouTube which is efficient by design.
- Mastodon - A decentralised, open-source microblogging community.

### Hardware

##### Devices

- OLinuXino - Single-board computers based on open-source hardware.
- Framework - Customisable, repairable laptops.
- Fairphone - Repairable smartphones made with responsibly sourced materials.
- pine64 - Devices based on open-source hardware.
- Green Arrays - Low power computation platforms.
- RC2014 - A simple 8 bit Z80 based modular computer.

##### Repairing

- iFixit - Step-by-step guides for repairing various devices.
- Repair Café - Free meeting places for repairing things together.
- The Restart Project - Repair education, repair events, and advocacy for the right to repair.

##### Repurposing

- Unbinare - An e-waste reverse engineering lab.

### Experimental

- Solar Protocol - Decentralised, solar-powered internet infrastructure.
- Permacomputing as a practice - Integrates permacomputing principles into graphic design processes.
- Reclaimed Systems - Conducts research on ethical and sustainable technology, particularly in AI’s societal and ecological impacts.
- Designlife-cycle.com - Explores the life cycle, materials, energy use, and sustainability challenges of everyday design products.

## Communities

### Collectives

##### Computing

- Computing within Limits - An annual workshop concerning the role of computing in human societies affected by real-world limits.
- Freifunk - Decentralised, non-profit wireless community network in Germany.
- Right to Repair - Advocates for products to be designed for repairability and for universal access to the necessary spare parts, tools, and repair manuals.
- Green Software Foundation - An ecosystem of people, standards, tooling and best practices for building green software.
- ClimateAction.tech - A slack-based tech community to meet, discuss, and learn about climate action.
- Electronics < > Ecologies - A workshop series providing strategic research outcomes and specialised training in sustainable electronics design and hardware studies.
- LURK - Hosts discussions on decentralised, sustainable computing and new digital environments.
- Sustainable Web Manifesto - Advocates for sustainable design principles in the web industry.
- The Green Web Foundation - An independent non-profit that tracks how much of the internet is powered by green energy.
- Varia - Rotterdam-based community focusing on collective approaches to sustainable technology.

##### Art

- Small File Media Festival - A film festival in Canada, focused on short films with file sizes less than five megabytes.
- Demoscene - Old-school programming artistry using limited system resources to produce stunning visuals and sounds.
- Pixel Joint - Community for artists making low-resolution, low-power pixel art.
- LOWREZJAM - A game jam where participants create games with a maximum resolution of 64x64 pixels.
- Data Garden - A series of bio-reactive installations that transform natural phenomena into music-generating data.
- Fiber Space - Events and workshops exploring permacomputing in creative and digital arts.
- Small File Photo Festival - A mini festival encouraging and celebrating small size photography.
- Tiny Code Christmas - A yearly jam on low-level graphics programming.
- Watt-Wise Game Jam - A challenge to build low-energy games.
- digicam.love - Promotes photography taken with old digital cameras.

### Forums

- Permacomputing on the SLRPNK Lemmy instance
- Permacomputing on the SDF Chatter Lemmy instance
- Permacomputing on the Disroot XMPP chat server
- Lobsters

permacomputing.md Github