Am I not understanding FOSH (free and open source hardware)? I have always dreamed of open source hardware but it has always seemed unshakeably and fundamentally reliant on for instance massive open pit mines mining all over the world in finite dwindling supply wrecking local ecosystems every element necessary for computer components, factories able to produce at scale fueled by an enormous amount of energy from god knows where, massive pollution and waste every step of the way, and every other ill of extraction and production which seems like it can only be handled by large scale industry almost entirely capitalist for the foreseeable future. Am I missing something? Is it a pipe dream? Even if we find a way to get to a point where we can sustainably and ethically develop any new hardware we need, won’t that require persisting in the mean time in the present capitalist paradigm physically? Is this just kind of a microcosm and reification of the problem of democratizing the economy anyway?
I think your vision of open source hardware is a little too “Perfect”.
And as every engineer knows, perfect is the enemy of good.
We will never have perfect in a capitalist paradigm. You cannot simply opt out of capitalism. You have to tear it down.
But until that becomes possible, you can still do your best to engage in harm reduction, in whatever ways make the most sense to you. Maybe that means just trying to consume less electronics. That’s a big part of the impetus behind the right to repair movement, for example.
I hope that makes some kind of sense.
Right to repair is huge. A friend fixed a TV a few years ago by just replacing a bad capacitor. Saved a bunch of money and it was one tv kept out of a land fill.
You are missing the point. Open source hardware is about the design and drivers for the hardware being open. This means that when you buy a component you get full specs and the source code to make it run. That way you are not ruining windows 3.1 in 2024 because the company that created your train software does not update it and you can’t legally replace it (this is true right now).
Or the trains in Poland that throw up phantom fault when started within certain geofences that happen to be located on the competition’s repair centers.
Yeah as I go read more it seems like what I’m more concerned with is OSAT (open source appropriate technology) where there is heavy consideration of sustainability. Also some of the things people are mentioning here which seems to kind of overlap - open source ecology, right to repair, etc. I think though I’m kind of wanting like a deliberate synthesis of all of this, the whole range of issues, almost like the intersection of ‘green politics’ and open source everything. I feel like that intersection doesn’t get nearly enough attention. I don’t know if it’s because the ‘science wars’ make it a little awkward or what.
Open source hardware movement != Free open source hardware movement.
I’m not sure that many are advocating the free part mainly the open part.
Open source is about ideas being freely shared and iterated on. Open hardware has benefits, making a lot of things more accessible to people. It’s not the end all of sustainability, but it doesn’t pretend to be either.
You might be interested in the Open Source Ecology project:
This is essentially a novel version of the “free as in freedom” versus “free as in beer” distinction. In this case not exactly about the cash value per se, but about the physical aspects and systemic realities behind the having of a thing.
An open hardware design means nothing more and nothing less than freedom to access, share, use and modify the designs. It is about ownership and reuse of the intellectual property.
Open hardware doesn’t change the fact that most hardware will still be manufactured by the same large corporations. It says nothing about the technical feasibility of amateur fabrication. It has nothing to do with the environmental impacts of a technology or the production thereof. It isn’t fundamentally a socialist paradigm.
For an open hardware spec like RISC-V, the reality of it is that the freedom afforded by the open designs is a freedom of large corporations to enter market with a competitive product without being squeezed out by a handful of established monopolistic giants. This is a positive thing, but it’s a positive thing with distinct limits that fall very short of any ideas of utopia.
Ok, so should we start making CPUs at home for example?
We already have enthusiast grade PCB mills and pick and place machines, how hard would it be to develop a cost reduced lithography and Chemical Vapor Deposition machines?
Quite a lot.
Also, most of the people in this movement aren’t even vegan. Isn’t that completely disqualifying?!?
