There is a place for almost everything. Nothing is obsolete or irrelevant. Even if they lose their original meaning and context, most programmable systems may be readapted to new purposes they were not originally designed for. Think about technology as a rhizome rather than a "highway of progress and constant obsolescence".

Computing is often framed as a kind of ideal universal medium. But the reality is that computing is culture! It can be very diverse, full of the color, contingency and expression that is part of any cultural production. Sadly in practice, and in its current form with military industrial roots, this culture exists mostly to reproduce and reinforce existing power structures within societies and support ecomic growth. Today's computing cultures are still dominated by Human Interface Guidelines designed and controlled by a small groups of people with similar backgrounds, priorities and values. But if we can let go of some of the ideas of technological conformity, we might start to see a much wider spectrum of possible ways of computing, some of which might better reflect local needs, desires and societal issues.

This can also open to much wilder and diverse creative practices and aesthetics.

What can YOU do

With or without a computer

• situate your work
• avoid falling too quickly in extremely universal or extremely singular perspectives. Adopt a more archipelagic vision that departs from local vs global binary oppositions.
• While operating locally and at present, be aware of the entire world-wide context your work takes place in. This includes the historical context several decades to the past and the future. Understanding the past(s) is the key for envisioning the possible futures.

When creating and maintaining software, digital tools or infrastructure

• Every system, no matter how ubiquitous or "universal" it is, is only a tiny speckle in a huge ocean of possibilities. Try to understand the entire possibility space in addition to the individual speckles you have concrete experience about.
• Appreciate diversity, avoid monoculture. But remember that standards can also have an important place.
• Strict utilitarianism impoverishes. Uselessness also has an important place, so appreciate it.
• There is a place for both slow and fast, both gradual and one-shot processes. Don't look at all things through the same glasses.

Principles In Action

• TeamSpeak - old versions of a gaming chat platform used by Cubans who have little access to the wider internet: https://qbared.com/ts/
• Rustic Computing
• Gemini Protocol