There's a line of argument that is very popular right now when talking about digital consumerism that I find really problematic. It goes something like this: "Sure, yes, all those little alternative things are cute, but what we really need is regulation!" And in one fell swoop, we have dismissed the idea of individual agency. We have dismissed the idea of collective action and we've thrown away the notion that doing things differently might even have a personal, individual benefit in our quality of life. Instead we, probably without realizing it, imply that _we_ are not responsible. Somebody else, far away in some place of power oughtta make a law. And having said that, we return to our platform normativity. If you belittle any direct action and attempts to try alternatives, you are, like it or not, _enforcing the status quo_ and I don't think that's actually what we want. Maybe think about that before dismissing somebody's dumb phone, alternative network, weird free software or low-tech solution. They are trying and perhaps even having a nice time of it. You might even try a few things yourself.
The next #permacomputing Berlin Meet-Up is on Sunday 11.08.2024 at 19:00 . The meeting is at @offline: Our special guest is @near For this meetup we'll discuss 🌱📱🌱 https://compost.party 🌱📱🌱, which is a smartphone that could have gone to waste, but instead turned into a weird server running solely on solar power. There will be a brief presentation and subsequently a discussion of the project, what works and what didn't, and how it relates to permacomputing principles. We want to expand our community. Non-nerd-identified, newbies and perma-curious are especially welcome! Please join us for an informal discussion of ideas and real-world practices around Permacomputing.