this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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How can open source hardware be a movement if the raw materials still have to be mined and factory produced? (self.technology)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Fisherman75 to c/technology
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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?

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[–] Spur4383 80 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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).

[–] anlumo 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Fisherman75 5 points 9 months ago

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.