I loved this paper. I became very interested in the ideas for offline
use. In fact, my participation here will change: I'm going to get
articles a few times a week so I can answer them in a more offline
manner; less frequent than I do today.
I also looked around the web for standard laptops with an e-ink screen.
Couldn't find much. I like all the power I currently have. I own a
Lenovo 15IMH05 and I'm happy with it, but maybe I should own a much
cheaper one that comes with a black-and-white screen that shines a lot
less light, but still allows me run a BSD system on it.
The computer built to last 50 years
by Ploum on 2021-02-04
How to create the long-lasting computer that will save your attention,
your wallet, your creativity, your soul and the planet. Killing
monopolies will only be a byproduct.
Each time I look at my Hermes Rocket typewriter (on the left in the
picture), I’m astonished by the fact that the thing looks pretty modern
and, after a few cleaning, works like a charm. The device is 75 years
old and is a very complex piece of technology with more than 2000 moving
parts. It’s still one of the best tools to focus on writing. Well, not
really. I prefer the younger Lettera 32, which is barely 50 years old
(on the right in the picture).
Typewriters are incredibly complex and precise piece of machinery. At
their peak in the decades around World War II, we built them so well
that, today, we don’t need to build any typewriters anymore. We simply
have enough of them on earth. You may object that it’s because nobody
uses them anymore. It’s not true. Lots of writers keep using them, they
became trendy in the 2010s and, to escape surveillance, some secret
services started to use them back. It’s a very niche but existing
market.
Let’s that idea sink in: we basically built enough typewriters for the
world in less than a century. If we want more typewriters, the solution
is not to build more but to find them in attics and restore them. For
most typewriters, restoration is only a matter of taking the time to do
it. There’s no complex skills or tools involved. Even the most difficult
operations could be learned alone, by simple trial and error. The whole
theory needed to understand a typewriter is the typewriter itself.
By contrast, we have to change our laptops every three or four
years. Our phones every couple of years. And all other pieces of
equipment (charger,router, modem,printers,…) need to be changed
regularly.
Even with proper maintenance, they simply fade out. They are not
compatible with their environment anymore. It’s impossible for one
person alone to understand perfectly what they are doing, let alone
repair them. Batteries wear out. Screen cracks. Processors become
obsolete. Software becomes insecure when they don’t crash or refuse to
launch.
It’s not that you changed anything in your habits. You still basically
communicate with people, look for information, watch videos. But today
your work is on Slack. Which requires a modern CPU to load the interface
of what is basically a slick IRC. Your videoconference software uses a
new codec which requires a new processor. And a new wifi router. Your
mail client is now 64 bits only. If you don’t upgrade, you are left out
in the cold.
Of course, computers are not typewriters. They do a lot more than
typewriters.
But could we imagine a computer built like a typewriter? A computer that
could stay with you for your lifetime and get passed to your children?
Could we build a computer designed to last at least fifty years?
Well, given how we use the resources of our planet, the question is not
if we could or not. We need to do it, no matter what.
So, how could we build a computer to last fifty years ? That’s what I
want to explain in this essay. In my notes, I’m referring to this object
as the #ForeverComputer. You may find a better name. It’s not really
important. It’s not the kind of objects that will have a yearly keynote
to present the new shiny model and ads everywhere telling us how
revolutionary it is. Focusing on timeless use cases
There’s no way we can predict what will be the next video codec or the
next wifi standard. There’s no point in trying to do it. We can’t even
guess what kind of online activity will be trendy in the next two years.
Instead of trying to do it all, we could instead focus on building a
machine that will do timeless activities and do them well. My typewriter
from 1944 is still typing. It is still doing something I find
useful. Instead of trying to create a generic gaming station/Netflix
watching computer, let’s accept a few constraints.
The machine will be built to communicate in written format. It means
writing and reading. That covers already a lot of use cases. Writing
documents. Writing emails. Reading mails, documents, ebooks. Searching
on the network for information. Reading blogs and newsletters and
newsgroups.
It doesn’t seem much but, if you think about it, it’s already a
lot. Lots of people would be happy to have a computer that does only
that. Of course, the graphic designers, the movie makers and the gamers
would not be happy with such a computer. That’s not the point. It’s just
that we don’t need a full-fledged machine all the time. Dedicated and
powerful workstations would still exist but could be shared or be less
often renewed if everybody had access to its own writing and reading
device.
By constraining the use cases, we create lots of design opportunities.
Hardware
The goal of the 50-year computer is not to be tiny, ultra-portable and
ultra-powerful. Instead, it should be sturdy and resilient.
Back in the typewriter’s day, a 5 kg machine was considered as
ultraportable. As I was used to a 900 g MacBook and felt that my 1,1kg
Thinkpad was bulky, I could not imagine being encumbered. But, as I
started to write on a Freewrite (pictured between my typewriters), I
realised something important. If we want to create long-lasting objects,
the objects need to be able to create a connection with us.
A heavier and well-designed object feels different. You don’t have it
always with you just in case. You don’t throw it in your bag without
thinking about it. It is not there to relieve you from your
boredom. Instead, moving the object is a commitment. A conscious act
that you need it. You feel it in your hands, you feel the weight. You
are telling the object: « I need you. You have a purpose. » When such a
commitment is done, the purpose is rarely « scroll an endless stream of
cat videos ». Having a purpose makes it harder to throw the object away
because a shiny new version has been released. It also helps draw the
line between the times where you are using the object and the times you
are not.
Besides sturdiness, one main objective from the ForeverComputer would be
to use as little electricity as possible. Batteries should be easily
swappable.
In order to become relevant for the next 50 years, the computer needs to
be made of easily replaceable parts. Inspirations are the Fairphone and
the MNT Reform laptop. The specifications of all the parts need to be
open source so anybody can produce them, repair them or even invent
alternatives. The parts could be separated in a few logical blocks : the
computing unit, which include a motherboard, CPU and RAM, the powering
unit, aka the battery, the screen, the keyboard, the networking unit,
the sound unit and the storage unit. All of this come in a case.
Of course, each block could be made of separate components that could be
fixed but making clear logical blocks with defined interfaces allows for
easier compatibility.
The body requires special attention because it will be the essence of
the object. As for the ship of Theseus, the computer may stay the same
even if you replace every part. But the enclosing case is special. As
long as you keep the original case, the feeling toward the object would
be that nothing has changed.
Instead of being mass-produced in China, ForeverComputers could be built
locally, from open source blueprints. Manufacturers could bring their
own skills in the game, their own experience. We could go as far as
linking each ForeverComputer to a system like Mattereum where
modifications and repairs will be listed. Each computer would thus be
unique, with a history of ownership.
As with the Fairphone, the computer should be built with materials as
ethical as possible. If you want to create a connection with an object,
if you want to give him a soul, that object should be as respectful of
your ethical principles as possible. Opiniated choices
As we made the choice to mostly use the computer for written
interaction, it makes sense, in the current affair of the technology, to
use an e-ink screen. E-ink screens save a lot of power. This could make
all the difference between a device that you need to recharge every
night, replacing the battery every two years, and a device that
basically sit idle for days, sometimes weeks and that you recharge once
in a while. Or that you never need to recharge if, for example, the
external protective case comes with solar panels or an emergency crank.
E-ink is currently harder to use with mouses and pointing devices. But
we may build the computer without any pointing device. Geeks and
programmers know the benefit of keyboard oriented workflows. They are
efficient but hard to learn.
With dedicated software, this problem could be smartly addressed. The
Freewrite has a dedicated part of the screen, mostly used for text
statistics or displaying the time. The concept could be extended to
display available commands. Most people are ready to learn how to use
their tools. But, by changing the interface all the time with unexpected
upgrades, by asking designers to innovate instead of being useful, we
forbid any long-term learning, considering users as idiots instead of
empowering them.
Can we create a text-oriented user interface with a gradual learning
curve? For a device that should last fifty years, it makes sense. By
essence, such device should reveal itself, unlocking its powers
gradually. Careful design will not be about « targeting a given customer
segment » but « making it useful to humans who took the time to learn it
».
Of course, one could imagine replacing the input block to have a
keyboard with a pointing device, like the famous Thinkpad red dot. Or a
USB mouse could be connected. Or the screen could be a touchscreen. But
what if we tried to make it as far as we could without those?
E-ink and no pointing would kill the endless scrolling, forcing us to
think of the user interface as a textual tool that should be efficient
and serve the user, even if it requires some learning. Tools need to be
learned and cared. If you don’t need to learn it, if you don’t need to
care for it, then it’s probably not a tool. You are not using it, you
are the one used.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that every user should learn to program in
order to be able to use it. A good durable interface requires some
learning but doesn’t require some complex mental models. You understand
intuitively how a typewriter works. You may have to learn some more
complex features like tabulations. But you don’t need to understand how
the inside mechanism works to brink the paper forward with each key
press. Offline first
Our current devices expect to be online all the time. If you are
disconnected for whatever reason, you will see plenty of notifications,
plenty of errors. In 2020, MacOS users infamously discovered that their
OS was sending lots of information to Apple’s servers because, for a few
hours, those servers were not responding, resulting in an epidemic of
bugs and error. At the same time, simply trying to use my laptop offline
allowed me to spot a bug in the Regolith Linux distribution. Expecting
to be online, a small applet was trying to reconnect furiously, using
all the available CPU. The bug was never caught before me because very
few users go offline for an extended period of time (it should be noted
that it was fixed in the hours following my initial report, open source
is great).
This permanent connectivity has a deep effect on our attention and on
the way we use computers. By default, the computer is notifying us all
the time with sounds and popups. Disabling those requires heavy
configuration and sometimes hack. On MacOS, for example, you can’t
enable No Disturb mode permanently. By design, not being disturbed is
something that should be rare. The hack I used was to configure the mode
to be set automatically between 3AM and 2AM.
When you are online, your brain knows that something might be happening,
even without notification. There might be a new email waiting for you. A
new something on a random website. It’s there, right on your
computer. Just move the current window out of the way and you may have
something that you are craving: newness. You don’t have to think. As
soon as you hit some hard thought, your fingers will probably
spontaneously find a diversion.
But this permanent connectivity is a choice. We can design a computer to
be offline first. Once connected, it will synchronise everything that
needs to be: mails will be sent and received, news and podcasts will be
downloaded from your favourite websites and RSS, files will be backuped,
some websites or gemini pods could even be downloaded until a given
depth. This would be something conscious. The state of your sync will be
displayed full screen. By default, you would not be allowed to use the
computer while it is online. You would verify that all the sync is
finished then take the computer back offline. Of course, the full screen
could be bypassed but you would need to consciously do it. Being online
would not be the mindless default.
This offline first design would also have a profound impact on the
hardware. It means that, by default, the networking block could be
wired. All you need is a simple RJ-45 plug.
We don’t know how wifi protocols will change. There are good chance that
today’s wifi will not be supported by tomorrow’s routers or only as a
fallback alternative. But chances are that RJ-45 will stay for at least
a few decades. And if not RJ-45, a simple adaptor could be printed.
Wifi has other problems: it’s a power hog. It needs to always scan the
background. It is unreliable and complex. If you want to briefly connect
to wifi, you need to enable wifi, wait for the background scan, choose
the network where to connect, cross your fingers that it is not some
random access point that wants to spy your data, enter the
password. Wait. Reenter that password because you probably wrote a zero
instead of a O. Wait. It looks to be connected. Is it? Are the files
synchronised? Why was the connection interrupted? Am I out of range? Are
the walls too thick?
By contrast, all of this could be achieved by plugging a RJ-45 cable. Is
there a small green or orange light? Yes, then the cable is well
plugged, problem solved. This also adds to the consciousness of
connection. You need to walk to a router and physically connect the
cable. It feels like loading the tank with information.
Of course, the open source design means that anybody could produce a
wifi or 5G network card that you could plug in a ForeverComputer. But,
as with pointing devices, it is worth trying to see how far we could go
without it. Introducing peer-to-peer connectivity
The Offline First paradigm leads to a new era of connectivity: physical
peer to peer. Instead of connecting to a central server, you could
connect two random computers with a simple cable.
During this connection, both computers will tell each other what they
need and, if by any chance they can answer one of those needs, they
will. They could also transmit encrypted messages for other users, like
bottles in the sea. If you ever happen to meet Alice, please give her
this message.
Peer-to-peer connectivity implies strong cryptography. Private
information should be encrypted with no other metadata than the
recipient. The computer connecting to you have no idea if you are the
original sender or just one node in the transmission chain. Public
information should be signed, so you are sure that they come from a user
you trust.
This also means that our big hard disks would be used fully. Instead of
sitting on a lot of empty disk spaces, your storage will act as a
carrier for others. When full, it will smartly erase older and probably
less important stuff.
In order to use my laptop offline, I downloaded Wikipedia, with
pictures, using the software Kiwix. It only takes 30Go of my hard drive
and I’m able to have Wikipedia with me all the time. I only miss a towel
to be a true galactic hitchhiker.
In this model, big centralised servers only serve as a gateway to make
things happen faster. They are not required anymore. If a central
gateway disappears, it’s not a big deal.
But it’s not only about Wikipedia. Protocols like IPFS may allow us to
build a whole peer-to-peer and serverless Internet. In some rural areas
of the planet where broadbands are not easily available, such Delay
Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are already working and extensively used,
including to browse the web. Software
It goes without saying that, in order to built a computer that could be
used for the next 50 years, every software should be open source.
Open source means that bugs and security issues could be solved long
after the company that coded them has disappeared. Once again, look at
typewriters. Most companies have disappeared or have been transformed
beyond any recognition (try to bring back your IBM Selectric to an IBM
dealer and ask for a repair, just to see the look on their face. And,
yes, your IBM Selectric is probably exactly 50 years old). But
typewriters are still a thing because you don’t need a company to fix
them for you. All you need is a bit of time, dexterity and
knowledge. For missing parts, other typewriters, sometimes from other
brands, can be scavenged.
For a fifty-year computer to hit the market, we need an operating
system. This is the easiest part as the best operating systems out there
are already open source. We also need a user interface who should be
dedicated to our particular needs. This is hard work but doable.
The peer-to-peer offline-first networking part is probably the most
challenging part. As said previously, essential pieces like IPFS already
exist. But everything needs to be glued together with a good user
interface.
Of course, it might make sense to rely on some centralised servers
first. For example, building on Debian and managing to get all dedicated
features uploaded as part of the Official Debian repository already
offers some long-term guarantees.
The main point is to switch our psychological stance about technological
projects. Let’s scrap the Silicon Valley mentality of trying to stay
stealthy then to suddenly try to get as many market share as possible in
order to hire more developers.
The very fact that I’m writing this in the public is a commitment to the
spirit of the project. If we ever manage to build a computer which is
usable in 50 years and I’m involved, I want it highlighted that since
the first description, everything was done in the open and free. More
about the vision
A computer built to last 50 years is not about market shares. It’s not
about building a brand, raising money from VC and being bought by a
monopoly. It’s not about creating a unicorn or even a good business.
It’s all about creating a tool to help humanity survive. It’s all about
taking the best of 8 billion brains to create this tool instead of
hiring a few programmers.
Of course, we all need to pay bills. A company might be a good vehicle
to create the computer or at least parts of it. There’s nothing wrong
with a company. In fact, I think that a company is currently the best
option. But, since the very beginning, everything should be built by
considering that the product should outlast the company.
Which means that customers will buy a tool. An object. It will be
theirs. They could do whatever they want with it afterward.
It seems obvious but, nowadays, nearly every high technological item we
have is not owned by us. We rent them. We depend on the company to use
them. We are not allowed to do what we want. We are even forced to do
things we don’t want such as upgrading software at an inappropriate
time, sending data about us and hosting software we don’t use that can’t
be removed or using proprietary clouds.
When you think about it, the computer built to last 50 years is trying
to address the excessive consumption of devices, to fight monopolies, to
claim back our attention, our time and our privacy and free us from
abusive industries.
Isn’t that a lot for a single device? No because those problems are all
different faces of the same coin. You can’t fight them separately. You
can’t fight on their own grounds. The only hope? Changing the
ground. Changing the rules of the game.
The ForeverComputer is not a replacement. It will not be better than
your MacBook or your android tablet. It will not be cheaper. It will be
different. It will be an alternative. It will allow you to use your time
on a computer differently.
It doesn’t need to replace everything else to win. It just needs to
exist. To provide a safe place. Mastodon will never replace
Twitter. Linux desktop never replaced Windows. But they are huge
successes because they exist.
We can dream. If the concept becomes popular enough, some businesses
might try to become compatible with that niche market. Some popular
websites or services may try to become available on a device which is
offline most of the time, which doesn’t have a pointer by default and
which has only an e-ink screen.
Of course, those businesses would need to find something else than
advertising, click rates and views to earn money. That’s the whole
point. Each opportunity to replace an advertising job (which includes
all the Google and Facebook employees) by an honest way to earn money is
a step in destroying our planet a bit less. Building the first layers
There’s a fine equilibrium at play when an innovation tries to change
our relationship with technology. In order to succeed, you need
technologies, a product and contents. Most technologists try to build
technologies first, then products on top of it then waits for
content. It either fails or become a niche thingy. To succeed, there
should be a game of back and forth between those steps. People should
gradually use the new products without realising it.
The ForeverComputer that I described here would never gain real traction
if released today. It would be incompatible with too much of the content
we consume every day.
The first very small step I imagined is building some content that
could, later, be already compatible. Not being a hardware guy (I’m a
writer with a software background), it’s also the easiest step I could
do today myself.
I call this first step WriteOnly. It doesn’t exist yet but is a lot more
realistic than the ForeverComputer.
WriteOnly, as I imagine it, is a minimalist publishing tool for
writers. The goal is simple : write markdown text files on your
computer. Keep them. And let them published by WriteOnly. The readers
will choose how they read you. They can read it on a website like a
blog, receive your text by email or RSS if they subscribed, they can
also choose to read you through Gemini or DAT or IPFS. They may receive
a notification through a social network or through the fediverse. It
doesn’t matter to you. You should not care about it, just write. Your
text files are your writing.
Features are minimal. No comments. No tracking. No statistics. Pictures
are dithered in greyscale by default (a format that allows them to be
incredibly light while staying informative and sharper than full-colour
pictures when displayed on an e-ink screen).
The goal of WriteOnly is to stop having the writers worrying about where
to post a particular piece. It’s also a fight against censorship and
cultural conformity. Writers should not try to write to please the
readers of a particular platformn according to the metrics of that
platform moguls. They should connect with their inner selves and write,
launching words into the ether.
We never know what will be the impact of our words. We should set our
writing free instead of reducing it to a marketing tool to sell stuff or
ourselves.
The benefit of a platform like WriteOnly is that adding a new method of
publishing would automatically add all the existing content to it. The
end goal is to have your writing available to everyone without being
hosted anywhere. It could be through IPFS, DAT or any new blockchain
protocol. We don’t know yet but we can already work on WriteOnly as an
open source platform.
We can also already work on the ForeverComputer. There will probably be
different flavours. Some may fail. Some may reinvent personal computing
as we know it.
At the very least, I know what I want tomorrow.
I want an open source, sustainable, decentralised, offline-first and
durable computer.
I want a computer built to last 50 years and sit on my desk next to my
typewriter.
I want a ForeverComputer. Make it happen
As I said, I’m a software guy. I’m unlikely to make a ForeverComputer
happen alone. But I still have a lot of ideas on how to do it. I also
want to focus on WriteOnly first. If you think you could help make it a
reality and want to invest in this project contact me on lionel at
ploum.net.
If you would like to use a ForeverComputer or WriteOnly, you can either
follow this blog (which is mostly in French) or subscribe here to a
dedicated mailing list. I will not sell those emails, I will not share
them and will not use them for anything else than telling you about the
project when it becomes reality. In fact, there’s a good chance that no
mail will ever be sent to that dedicated mailing list. And to make
things harder, you will have to confirm your email address by clicking
on a link in a confirmation mail written in French.
UPDATE december 2022 : the mailing-list is now an open discussion-list:
https://lists.sr.ht/~lioploum/forevercomputer https://lists.sr.ht/~lioploum/forevercomputerFurther Reads
« The Future of Stuffs », by Vinay Gupta. A short, must-read, book about
our relationship with objects and manufacturing.
« The Typewriter Revolution », by Richard Polt. A complete book and
guide about the philosophy behind typewriters in the 21st century. Who
is using them, why and how to use one yourself in an era of permanent
connectivity.
NinjaTrappeur home built a digital typewriter with an e-ink screen in a
wooden case:
https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/ https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer/Another DIY project with an e-ink screen and a solar panel included:
https://forum.ei2030.org/t/e-ink-low-power-cpu-solar-power-3-sides-of-the-same-lid/82 https://forum.ei2030.org/t/e-ink-low-power-cpu-solar-power-3-sides-of-the-same-lid/82SL is using an old and experimental operating system (Plan9) which
allows him to do only what he wants (mails, simple web browsing and
programming).
http://helpful.cat-v.org/Blog/2019/12/03/0/ http://helpful.cat-v.org/Blog/2019/12/03/0/Two artists living off the grid on a sail boat and connecting only
rarely.
https://100r.co/site/working\_offgrid\_efficiently.html
https://100r.co/site/working\_offgrid\_efficiently.html
« If somebody would produce a simple typewriter, an electronic
typewriter that was silent, that I could use on airplanes, that would
show me a screen of 8 1/2 by 11, like a regular page, and I could store
it and print it out as a manuscript, I would buy one in a second! »
(Harlan Ellison, SF writer and Startrek scenarist)
http://harlanellison.com/interview.htm http://harlanellison.com/interview.htmLowTech magazine has an excellent article about low-tech Internet,
including Delay Tolerant Networks.
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/how-to-build-a-low-tech-internet.html https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/how-to-build-a-low-tech-internet.htmlAnother LowTech magazine article about the impact typewriters and
computers had on office work.
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/11/why-the-office-needs-a-typewriter-revolution.html https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/11/why-the-office-needs-a-typewriter-revolution.htmlUPDATE 6th Feb 2020 : Completely forgot about Scuttlebutt, which is an
offline-first, p2p social network. It does exactly what I’m describing
here to communicate.
https://scuttlebutt.nz/get-started/A good very short introduction about it on BoingBoing :
https://boingboing.net/2017/04/07/bug-in-tech-for-antipreppers.htmlUPDATE 8th Feb 2020 : The excellent « Tales from the Dork Web » has an
issue on The 100 Year Computer which is strikinly similar to this piece.
https://thedorkweb.substack.com/p/the-100-year-computerI also add this attempt at a Offline-first protocol : the Pigeon
protocol :
https://github.com/PigeonProtocolConsortium/pigeon-specAnd another e-ink DIY typewriter :
https://hackaday.com/2019/02/18/offline-e-paper-typewriter-lets-you-write-without-distractions/UPDATE 15th Feb 2020 : Designer Micah Daigle has proposed the concept of
the Prose, an e-ink/distraction free laptop.
https://medium.com/this-should-exist/prose-a-distraction-free-e-ink-laptop-for-thinkers-writers-4182a62d63b2I’m Ploum, a writer and an engineer. I like to explore how technology
impacts society. You can subscribe by email or by rss. I value privacy
and never share your adress.
I write science-fiction novels in French. For Bikepunk, my new
post-apocalyptic-cyclist book, my publisher is looking for contacts in
other countries to distribute it in languages other than French. If you
can help, contact me!
Source:
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the computer built to last 50 years
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