If you stumble(d) onto projects from which I could learn, I'd be very glad if you share them. There are many initiatives and that's good but I'm afraid of reinventing the wheel.
There is to much work ahead to repair the Earth to feel proud of finding ourselves an already found good solution.
Thank you for sharing your interest for the projet: it's encouraging to hear, really. You know, just knowing that my project does not appear non-sensical.
As indicated, the collaborative website will be in French. But if it reaches a real milestone such as land acquired and first installation, I plan to release a newsletter in English, let's say every 4 months or so.
If you stumble onto projects that share aspects with mine, it'd be super helpful to send me a link. I'll add it as a ressource in the public collaborative website and learn as much as possible from it.
I understand the author's point and I agree with it globally.
However, two major points are forgotten:
1/ clean code is about downsizing huge websites with millions or hundred of millions of users. Starting with your side-projects is a good way to learn to code clean.
2/ electricity consumption is not the right metric: the devices' time of life is. The heavier the code, the sooner we need to replace our hardware to keep up. It's both true on the front and the back sides.
Most of the CO2 and damages to biodiversity come from the hardware. The life time of a computer ought to be 15/20 years. With choice of high durability of components, repairs made easy, upgrades as well, plus second-hand markets: a gaming computer bought today ought to be an quite decent office computer in 15 years.
On the data centers' side, economic incentives are huge for operators to reduce energy consumption, both on servers and bandwidth. The gains have been incredible in the last ten years.
Maybe a server that Google wants to replace because its datacenter is full could be resold, maybe not to a competitor but to a family as a home central server. Running the family's NAS, media server and IoT hub.
To code clean is mainly a fight against hardware obsolescence.
Electricity consumption matters only for hugely used websites PLUS hugely-used frameworks like WordPress that run tens of millions of websites of smaller audience.
Hi, I'm not there yet. I'm learning for now all the regulations to follow in order to build such a place and there are many ; I live in France, so regulations are rampant (the US lack regulations - my opinion as someone with a double citizenship).
There will be a collaborative website, where people can follow the project and provide feedback or help. It will be in French though. The idea is to share as much as possible, including financial details so that it can help other analogue projects to emerge.
The vision is to have strongholds of biodiversity every ten miles. Ideally, they would be interconnected by large enough corridors so that animals can move safely from one to another. That would require a mouvement, not just my project. But first things first, just sharing the very long term vision/dream.
I'm done too after 20 years. I already moved on. First by still doing web and it stuff but for an non-profit. That meant cutting my revenues by 2. I deliberately chose a job in a smaller and cheaper city, so my way of life was not too much affected. As that non-profit could not afford me anymore because of Covid 19, I had time to reflect and recently decided to go further. I'm single without children (nor by choice, nor a problem, just my life as it went). It's easier. But having a spouse keeping his/her job with a regular revenue could also be quite helpful.
My new projet is to built a non-profit and seek funds to buy a large farm or a large piece of land. Preferably fields exploited for a long time through intensive exploitation (not bio, plenty of pesticides etc) e.g. some large place o heavily damaged nature. My goal is to repair the Nature within that property. Make it a natural paradise of biodiversity. The more diverse, the more resilient it becomes. Choose the right species so they'll be fine in 20, 30, 50 years from now with climate change.
This project require a team. I imagine tiny houses spread around so we can all have a private life too. But many things in common. I'd like the place to be a sort of lab, a hack-space where experiment new way of life and working. One part of the economic model will be a camping and a training center. First paying course: how to yourself a ecological tiny-house, thermically passive so no need for heating or AC. People will learn by doing so the end, there will be a new tiny house available on the property.
I still like tech. It'll just be low tech. Free software, Linux etc, so technology is an empowering tool, not a drug you are addicted to. A shop to repair and learn to repair computers, using only second-hand parts. This will be a paying course as well, for anybody interested. I imagine teenagers not that thrilled by their parents' camping idea but happy to learn and repair to build a pc.
This a long adventure. From bare fields to a forest totally bio with species that provide food, ten years. But it requires less and less work as it becomes a self-sustainable ecosystem. We'll take a part for us humans, fruits, making and selling high-quality jam, honey. Some wood but most of it need to rote on the ground. we'll also need to grow vegetables, poultry for meat and eggs, a few pigs leaving freely (well, until we catch one from time to time for meat).
I don't want a closed community. Rather a small starting team, with many people staying a week or a month for intelligent vacation in a beautiful nature and learning DIY stuff for a sustainable world. Maybe the permanent community will extend with visitors willing to join. After some time, some will want to join another project or back to the city. That's good. I think I'll meet more people whom I may befriend by attracting them in this unusual place that I do living in the city. Maybe these new friends will come only a few weekends per year. Fine. That's more cumulated time than what We achieve to spend with my friends in the city (overbusy, children, ...). And we'll have parties around a fire, drinking homemade beer, trekking around or working on some free software. Or building a solar oven to dry fruits.
Nothing ideologically radical, like:
- NOT 100% vegetarian or vegan. I like meat and think that our body needs it (my opinion) but we will eat less meat than many, because we eat too much of animal proteins for a good health. Less.carbo-hydrates and more vegetables. No autarcy, we'll buy what we can't grow, sell some to neighbors and locals.
- NOT a closed community. A place where many people visit, are accepted by vote if they want to stay and free to move on. Or free to go and come back.
- NOT a religious place. People are free to follow any religion and be respected, as long as it doesn't impose rules onto others. My religion is atheism.
- Diversity encouraged. All colors, all origins, all sexual orientations, genres. This must be 100% safe and comfortable for every body. No tasks assigned by genre.
- NO TV. Movies and series on demand but reading of press and books encouraged.
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There is to much work ahead to repair the Earth to feel proud of finding ourselves an already found good solution.