This is a concept still in the making. I came across a few people discussing it, and I found next to nothing about it online. I thought it is important and I post it here to give it some traction.
The core idea that appealed to me is that it extends the idea that the processing power and bandwidth of modern devices is not used for our own sake, but to better funnel behavioral data to corporations.
So it is not just “so stupid design” that “we don’t even feel devices are 10x faster than 15 years ago”, but deliberate design to use the hardware capabilities for the sake of other people’s computers.
The countercomputing philosophy asks, down to the chipset, what is the most repairable, reusable component, that can help the user fortify their computing and harness it as independently as possible.
It is obviously a thought that resonates with the right-to-repair movement, privacy, and other politics related with renewable energy, but with a particular focus in selecting each and every component so that we own the hardware and we can use it as we see fit. Other links can be drawn to the smallnet initiatives such as gemini protocol, alternative nets like Reticulum, and of course open hardware.
The retro angle can offer flexibility to movements to rely on simpler components and adjust their needs, something that will also lead to greater independence from Nvidia and the like.
As I said, there are very few people discussing this idea right now, and you can’t find much online, but it is worth to “look out for” possible developments in the future.
Oh good. Next wave counter-culture is starting to name itself. This is a fun period in any movement.
I was present for the early copyleft era that corporate software development exploited then squashed with more “business-friendly” OSS licenses. Now we’re seeing the mega-scale tech companies enshittifying their products necessitating a new wave of open-information counter-culture to fight the Big Tech birthed from the post-dot-com OSS movement.
History doesn’t repeat itself. It often rhymes.
Honestly, I’ve seen some return to copyleft maybe isn’t that bad - and I’m trying to be a part of that movement.
same contradictions, same reactions, same history
So it is not just “so stupid design” that “we don’t even feel devices are 10x faster than 15 years ago”, but deliberate design to use the hardware capabilities for the sake of other people’s computers.
To my limited understanding, better use of hardware requires both some level of standardization of hardware and better optimized software, with lower level programming languages if possible. Vibe coded Electron apps are never going to be as well optimized as something made to run a particular chipset. But how do we accomplish that when most programming is being done on high level programming languages? It seems that the industry has prioritized human readable code and improved UX over hardware efficiency, which at a surface level isn’t the worst trade-off.
I ultimately agree with this vision, and it’s a serious problem I’ve contemplated as well. That said, what’s the right balance between more efficient, repairable hardware and accessible, more readable code?
Not shitting on the idea but I bought a FairPhone5 that includes to what this suggests. Each main component (so not chipset) can be unscrewed and replaced easily, chsrgrt port, camera, speaker, removable battery.
As of next month every major telco that owns infrastructure in the contrary will have blocked the IMEI (the first part identifies the phone and model) and will be unusable. Even unusable with a data only sim.
It will only work on WiFi.
Guess im just venting but id love to see how this concept could help in the situation.
That sucks but it sounds familiar. And not even a data only sim works for pure data? Are you in Oz?
The only thing that I can think of is a mobile / pocket wifi…but then you’re carrying two devices.
If you are in Oz, I can suggest a reasonable, local, cheap and not terrible dumphone-with-tethering that could suit that use case (plus you know, be an actual phone lol). Suprisingly decent for under $170. Might even be able to forward calls from it to your FairPhone (as it runs Android 8.1)
Once my main phone (2019 Samsung) bites the dust, it might actually become my main daily driver again (with small tabet as OTG compute)
change the imei to a samsung’s lol
but yeah, those decentralized long range radio comm networks are looking better by the week.
Oh shit, I haven’t heard about Fairphones being blocked at IMEI level. Any good sources?
Why will they be blocking the IMEI?
Don’t know which country the origin guy is from, but in Australia they have been blocking “grey import” phone IMEIs because they may not work with our emergency services phone protocols. If 1 person could die from a problem not caused by the Telcos then that means a whole class of devices need to be banned…
Of course there is absolutely no chance this has been a situation which was overstated by Telcos that are salty about imports cutting into the profitability of their markets… Right! Right. Right?
Here in the US, my carrier started forcing an “approved devices” list, supposedly for “quality of service” as they phased out 3G. My phone at the time worked fine on 4G for over a year, but suddenly one day it no longer worked once they started enforcing this. I suspect the carrier wanted to collect a troll toll from phone manufacturers to allow them the privilege to sell a phone to their customers, and since my phone (OnePlus 5T) was a few generations behind the latest, it seems like it didn’t make sense for OnePlus to pay a fee for an old phone that they didn’t make or sell anymore.
So anyway fuck AT&T
My phone at the time worked fine on 4G for over a year, but suddenly one day it no longer worked once they started enforcing this. I suspect the carrier wanted to collect a troll toll from phone manufacturers to allow them the privilege to sell a phone to their customers
Its certainly possible that they’re trying to extract a toll from handset manufacturers, but I could also see it being a spectrum consolidation. Can I ask if your OnePlus 5T was a model specifically made for the USA market or was it imported from China or Indian markets? I’ve seen non-domestic model phones not contain all the same radios as North American phones. So while its possible there were a few specific bands overlapping that allowed it to work, those bands could have been deprovisioned from phone service or sold off to other companies wanting to buy spectrum.
I bought it as a generic GSM phone after checking that several of the 4G bands were ones that AT&T used. I don’t recall it being marketed as a “US” or “international” version like I had seen in the past. I had not considered a change in 4G band usage, but I would certainly respect that a whole lot more than the arbitrary troll toll it very much looks like, and it would be nice if they explained that if that was indeed the case.
The ATT post-3G sunset compatibility list linked above often includes only US ATT-locked versions of phones, even when other carrier variants exist. Look at all the older Samsungs that only take the GxxxA variant when GxxxU and U1 devices exist that are carrier unlocked and have all the same bands. In the case of the OnePlus 6T, only the T-Mobile version is ‘supported,’ when the unlocked version is the same in all other markets (including the US). I, too, have a lot of beef with this setup. For whatever reason, ROW Samsung Galaxy S10s (G973F) are supported. Go figure ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
Look we have had some issues with emergency service “000” calls not going through and there are some tenuous connections to devices purchased offshore. Not discounting that. However we have had more and worse problems due to lack of investment in maintenance by the Telcos and we haven’t banned Telco C Suites yet. So… Yeah the game was rigged from the start. Knowing people who have worked near that level I know how little they actually DO. We could afford as a society to be without them.
If there is a real problem that needs to be solved, then I understand a need for some action. I find often that insufficient details or reasoning are given for a change that costs us money (and often pushes us off devices which afforded us greater freedom), which makes me think there is fuckery afoot.
Not an issue with Fairphone 4 at least.
Hmm yes I think a lot of this exists but isn’t being called by this term. It’s a good term. It kinda means what cyberpunk originally meant before it got hollowed out and turned into primarily an aesthetic term.
I’ve been noticing a lot of counter-surveillance projects lately too. I.e. Flock-You, Chasing-You-Tail-NG, drone trackers. Most using ESP dev boards or rPis. The cardputer looks pretty cool too. Dunno if that stuff fits or not.
