Figuring out how to make the best possible use out of the millions of devices which already exist.
Designing for Disassembly ensures that all elements of a product can be disassembled for repair and for end of life. This allows for and encourages repairs, with the result that a product's life cycle is prolonged; and it allows for a product to be taken apart at the end of its life so that each component can be reclaimed. Among other shifts in thinking and making, this means minimizing materials, using simple mechanical fasteners instead of adhesives, clearly labeling components with their material type, and ensuring components can be disassembled with everyday tools.
Unlike the nebulous goal of designing a sustainable product, designing a product for disassembly is a more concrete, quantifiable approach to ecologically sound making and to consumption. ~
| Technique | Description | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Migration | Periodically convert digital data to next-generation formats | Data are “fresh” and instantly accessible | Copies degrade from generation to generation |
| Emulation | Write software mimicking older hardware or software, tricking old programs into thinking they are running on their original platforms | Data don’t need to be altered | Mimicking is seldom perfect; chains of emulators eventually break down |
| Encapsulation | Encase digital data in physical and software “wrappers,” showing future users how to reconstruct them | Details of interpreting data are never separated from the data themselves | Must build new wrappers for every new format and software release; works poorly for nontextual data |
| Universal virtual computer | Archive paper copies of specifications for a simple, software-defined decoding machine; save all data in a format readable by the machine | Paper lasts for centuries; machine is not tied to specific hardware or software | Difficult to distill specifications into a brief paper document |
Emulation is essentially a way of preserving the functionality of and access to digital information which might otherwise be lost due to technological obsolescence. One of the benefits of the emulation strategy compared with migration is that the original data need not be altered in any way. It is the emulation of the computer environment that will change with time.
Wait. What nostalgia? This is not about reliving fond memories or fetishize about an imaginary past, it's about being tactical in our choice of medium, so as to propagate a political perspective efficiently.~
What is meant by "scavenge-friendly electronic parts" is parts that can be assembled with low-tech tools. Parts that can't be manufactured any more, but that are available by the billions in landfills. Those who can manage to create new designs from those parts with low-tech tools will be able to preserve electronics, a power that significantly advantages communities that manage to continue mastering it.
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