this post was submitted on 03 May 2024
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Silicon foundries use a lot of water and raw materials and contaminate the ground. Full degrowth may involve abandoning semiconductor technologies and making computers out of simpler parts, such as electromagnetic relays. They’ll be a lot slower and simpler, but with the right knowledge, one can make them from raw materials without bootstrapping a complex technology chain.
I remember reading an article a while back about basically computing using cards which block or allow light to flow as a series of logic gates. Another way to think of it is reinventing the punch card.