The basic design flaw in the architecture of technological modernity (both industrial and digital) is we’ve learned to design for obsolescence before learning to design for mortality. Like those many-armed aliens in HHG that invented aerosol deodorant before the wheel.
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We are better at rendering artifacts useless rather than gracefully dead. We’re great at harvesting the last dregs of value from a thing but not at then putting it out of its zombie state misery.
Crappiness of technologies like recycling/reuse/circularity are only a symptom.
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Caricature though it is, Marie Kondo’s animism (thanking objects for their service before disposal etc) points the way to an ethos of object mortality/impermanence informing engineering. Design for wabi-sabi.
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That is a brilliant insight. I have a love for older computers because of this. The software gets neglected while the hardware still functions. It's sad.
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Imagining a future where it’s unethical to dispose of a technology without outfitting it with a metaphorical pension
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Most satisfying projects in my work repurpose materials retired and saved for a rainy day.



