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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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.

Edit: Here is a discussion on mastodon about it

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[-] GlenRambo@jlai.lu 19 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] pirat@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Why will they be blocking the IMEI?

[-] shads@lemy.lol 7 points 1 month ago

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...

[-] cdzero@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Not an issue with Fairphone 4 at least.

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this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
141 points (99.3% liked)

Privacy

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