Am I not understanding FOSH (free and open source hardware)? I have always dreamed of open source hardware but it has always seemed unshakeably and fundamentally reliant on for instance massive open pit mines mining all over the world in finite dwindling supply wrecking local ecosystems every element necessary for computer components, factories able to produce at scale fueled by an enormous amount of energy from god knows where, massive pollution and waste every step of the way, and every other ill of extraction and production which seems like it can only be handled by large scale industry almost entirely capitalist for the foreseeable future. Am I missing something? Is it a pipe dream? Even if we find a way to get to a point where we can sustainably and ethically develop any new hardware we need, won’t that require persisting in the mean time in the present capitalist paradigm physically? Is this just kind of a microcosm and reification of the problem of democratizing the economy anyway?
The process and idea are not at fault … the way the world goes about to achieve those goals whether it’s for open source or the free market.
The problem is not so much in the destruction of the environment … it’s the built in greed in the system. If mines could be operated in an environmentally positive way, if workers and communities saw more profit sent their way and the wealth more equally distributed to those people most affected and to the regions that had the most damage to mitigate, then the mining process could be dealt with. Instead all corporations do is destroy the environment, and take all the profit while doing their best to give as little back to workers, the people must affected, or to spending funds to clean up the environmental mess and instead send the money to people who contribute nothing to the process.
We have the technology and ability to do things better … we just don’t have the will because people are too greedy for profits that everyone wants and no one wants to share.