4 ms·

Heirloom consumer electronics and computers. Moore's law is failing, and the only reason we keep having to replace electronics is planned obsolescence and the

Heirloom consumer electronics and computers. Moore's law is failing, and the only reason we keep having to replace electronics is planned obsolescence and the fact electronics are still just designed with replacement expected by momentum. Design laptops and cellphones to last 50 or 100 years plus. Start designing for a long term and mature computer industry.

pixelface 6y ago
there are a number of pieces of electronics that appear to already meet this - high quality (and older) vacuum cleaners, analog audio gear, laboratory equipment, certain kinds of vintage computers. the main issue i run into with repairs tends to be mask roms / asics / gate arrays that are undocumented and long gone from the market. there are ways around that, but they require great effort. it's only in special niches like arcade machines or iconic 80s synths where people will go so far as to decap and image dies in order to get the needed information. there is a particular value an object must have in order to tip the scales in favor of repair over replacement. it simply isn't practical to spend a major portion of a device's cost to repair it unless it is special in some way. i place value on repairing things and buying used but a lot of that is out of a personal feeling of pride in repairing and reusing. board level rework is a far cry from changing ones own oil. on the topic of designing laptops and cell phones to last 50-100 years, you can absolutely make use of communications equipment from 1920-1970. radio teletypes didn't stop working, people still buy and sell them.
lachlan-sneff 6y ago
Moore's law isn't dead yet, we've got quite a ways to go. There are feasible paths to 1cm³ processors with billions of cores and enough processing power to host thousands of humans minds.
- blamestross 6y ago
  It's not that we can't get faster processors. Moore's law is about the RATE of getting faster processors.
pabs3 6y ago
That reminds me of the MNT Reform: https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform https://librelounge.org/episodes/39-mnt-reform-with-lukas-hartmann.html https://librelounge.org/episodes/39-mnt-reform-with-lukas-ha...

pixelface 6y ago

there are a number of pieces of electronics that appear to already meet this - high quality (and older) vacuum cleaners, analog audio gear, laboratory equipment, certain kinds of vintage computers. the main issue i run into with repairs tends to be mask roms / asics / gate arrays that are undocumented and long gone from the market. there are ways around that, but they require great effort. it's only in special niches like arcade machines or iconic 80s synths where people will go so far as to decap and image dies in order to get the needed information. there is a particular value an object must have in order to tip the scales in favor of repair over replacement. it simply isn't practical to spend a major portion of a device's cost to repair it unless it is special in some way. i place value on repairing things and buying used but a lot of that is out of a personal feeling of pride in repairing and reusing. board level rework is a far cry from changing ones own oil. on the topic of designing laptops and cell phones to last 50-100 years, you can absolutely make use of communications equipment from 1920-1970. radio teletypes didn't stop working, people still buy and sell them.

lachlan-sneff 6y ago

Moore's law isn't dead yet, we've got quite a ways to go. There are feasible paths to 1cm³ processors with billions of cores and enough processing power to host thousands of humans minds.

blamestross 6y ago
It's not that we can't get faster processors. Moore's law is about the RATE of getting faster processors.

pabs3 6y ago

That reminds me of the MNT Reform: https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform https://librelounge.org/episodes/39-mnt-reform-with-lukas-hartmann.html https://librelounge.org/episodes/39-mnt-reform-with-lukas-ha...