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writing:repairability_in_solarpunk [2026/01/06 16:33] – [Changes to Existing Stuff] JacobCoffinWriteswriting:repairability_in_solarpunk [2026/02/04 03:05] (current) – JacobCoffinWrites
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 We’ll talk in the next sections about how these goods might be made fixable and durable, but if they become unwanted (maybe two people move in together, or someone dies) the item might be passed ad-hoc to someone who needs it, or it might be returned to the library economy – volunteers or employees would collect it, inspect it, clean it up or make repairs, and provide it to someone else. If it’s beyond repair for some reason, it would be stripped for usable parts and the remaining materials recycled. Ideally only a very small portion would end up needing forever-storage in a landfill. This process could take place in a huge, futuristic facility, or tons of small workshops; it all depends on your setting. We’ll talk in the next sections about how these goods might be made fixable and durable, but if they become unwanted (maybe two people move in together, or someone dies) the item might be passed ad-hoc to someone who needs it, or it might be returned to the library economy – volunteers or employees would collect it, inspect it, clean it up or make repairs, and provide it to someone else. If it’s beyond repair for some reason, it would be stripped for usable parts and the remaining materials recycled. Ideally only a very small portion would end up needing forever-storage in a landfill. This process could take place in a huge, futuristic facility, or tons of small workshops; it all depends on your setting.
  
-Conventional wisdom is that there are some huge downsides to this kind of operation - a general fab shop will be far less efficient at producing any given thing than a dedicated facility. The dedicated equipment/layout, the per-arranged supply lines for parts, the specialization and experience of the workers all play a huge role in producing a quality item as quickly and efficiently as possible.+Conventional wisdom is that there are some huge downsides to this kind of operation - a general fab shop will be far less efficient at producing any given thing than a dedicated facility. The dedicated equipment/layout, the pre-arranged supply lines for parts, the specialization and experience of the workers all play a huge role in producing a quality item as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  
 With each new product, even a skilled fab shop crew will be relearning lessons other teams elsewhere already learned, and they'll burn a lot of time learning how to make each thing, and even just maneuvering it around their workshop. And these efficiency losses aren’t just made in person-hours and minor injuries – this slower, less-specialized work means more electricity spent running tools and lights, parts and materials wasted through accidental damage. All of this may come with an environmental cost (in extraction or pollution) depending on how the larger society creates energy and sources materials. With each new product, even a skilled fab shop crew will be relearning lessons other teams elsewhere already learned, and they'll burn a lot of time learning how to make each thing, and even just maneuvering it around their workshop. And these efficiency losses aren’t just made in person-hours and minor injuries – this slower, less-specialized work means more electricity spent running tools and lights, parts and materials wasted through accidental damage. All of this may come with an environmental cost (in extraction or pollution) depending on how the larger society creates energy and sources materials.
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   * Tamperproofing/traps - if you disassemble enough laptops and other modern electronics, you've probably encountered this one. Often in addition to plastic tabs and other hassles, you'll find that some collection of components have been glued or screwed together on both sides so that as you open it up, a delicate internal board breaks, or an antenna rips, or some other fragile piece is ruined. It's not always clear whether this is the product of cost cutting and attempts to make everything ever thinner and lighter (by designers who perhaps never expected to have to reopen a finished product for service) or a deliberate attempt to stop people from fixing their stuff, but eliminating this practice would be a huge improvement.   * Tamperproofing/traps - if you disassemble enough laptops and other modern electronics, you've probably encountered this one. Often in addition to plastic tabs and other hassles, you'll find that some collection of components have been glued or screwed together on both sides so that as you open it up, a delicate internal board breaks, or an antenna rips, or some other fragile piece is ruined. It's not always clear whether this is the product of cost cutting and attempts to make everything ever thinner and lighter (by designers who perhaps never expected to have to reopen a finished product for service) or a deliberate attempt to stop people from fixing their stuff, but eliminating this practice would be a huge improvement.
  
 +Related to repairability and salvage is the idea of scaling back an older device's capabilities in order to manage potential hardware problems and to shrink the attack surface from software vulnerabilities. For example, flashing out-of-support tablets and phones with a custom ROM, essentially turning unsupported, unsecureable devices into secure, single-purpose touchscreens (perhaps for a radio which doesn't have one) or microcontrollers for other systems (like 3d printers or other CNC Machines). This would make them less generally useful, but would still their service life far beyond what their manufacturer intended, and could keep things like unsupported, unpatchable kernels from providing usable security vulnerabilities. 
 +
 +===Other Stuff===
 +
 +The conflicting mindsets around designing stuff to be fixable and designing it for the sellers' profits are incredibly common - you can find examples in just about anything manufactured in our world today.
 +
 +  * Re-Glazable Windows - in areas with strong temperature swings, windows have gotten pretty advanced: with multiple layers of tempered glass and a layer of vacuum or inert gas between them, a modern window can be an impressive barrier against winter cold or summer heat. This is a huge part of making a home more efficient. But with that improvement in technology came some regrettable designs, including windows where the glass and frame were designed to be sold and replaced as a single piece. The alternative, re-glazable windows, are windows where the glass sandwich can be removed from its frame with a couple tools and some specialized knowhow. If a window gets cracked or broken, a third-party window company can manufacture a new stack of glass (with its layer of vacuum or inert gas etc) to the size of the frame, pop out the broken one, and glue in the new one, rendering it as good as new. This is both convenient and keeps the homeowners' options open for a replacement.
 +      * However, many companies have produced windows where the frame wraps around the glass layers on both sides, making them a single unit. Replacing these requires removal, meaning the window frame (the one that's part of the building this time) or wall will have to be carefully disassembled. And if the broken window was made in an odd, nonstandard size, a whole new frame will have to be produced along with the glass to fit the hole in the wall, or the hole in the wall will have to be modified. This is more expensive and fewer companies do this work, it also takes much longer. It looks like a good deal to the manufacturer - by producing a slightly-nonstandard window nobody else can service they can lock in their customers, but many of these already went out of business, leaving people with no good options for replacements. 
  
 ===Efficiency and Complexity===  ===Efficiency and Complexity=== 
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 Our current society expects to produce new items and throw old ones away as a sort of default. Many items are made out of cheap materials specifically because they're not expected to last very long. A library economy which expects all unwanted items to cycle back into use again and again for generations might think about things differently though. I've [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory|seen it said]] that buying a quality product up front is a sort of luxury of the rich that saves them money over time - perhaps a solarpunk society would look at the production of items in much the same way. Can we produce things so well that we don't have to make more of the same thing, year after year, forever? Or at least so we can produce far less? Our current society expects to produce new items and throw old ones away as a sort of default. Many items are made out of cheap materials specifically because they're not expected to last very long. A library economy which expects all unwanted items to cycle back into use again and again for generations might think about things differently though. I've [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory|seen it said]] that buying a quality product up front is a sort of luxury of the rich that saves them money over time - perhaps a solarpunk society would look at the production of items in much the same way. Can we produce things so well that we don't have to make more of the same thing, year after year, forever? Or at least so we can produce far less?
  
-For [[https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1985e0j/comment/kiapw4m/|some items]], like pots and pans, oven dishes, perhaps even regular tableware, it might make sense to use expensive, high-energy materials like borosilicates (sometimes sold under the brand name Pyrex) or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_quartz|fused silica]]. Today these are generally restricted to baking dishes or specialized scientific glassware and lenses because manufacturing them is difficult and expensive. But they're //resilient//. If your solarpunk society has the energy to produce these materials, perhaps they'd pay that up front cost as a sort of long-term investment, instead of using cheap container glass. +  * For [[https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1985e0j/comment/kiapw4m/|some items]], like pots and pans, oven dishes, perhaps even regular tableware, it might make sense to use expensive, high-energy materials like borosilicates (sometimes sold under the brand name Pyrex) or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_quartz|fused silica]]. Today these are generally restricted to baking dishes or specialized scientific glassware and lenses because manufacturing them is difficult and expensive. But they're //resilient//. If your solarpunk society has the energy to produce these materials, perhaps they'd pay that up front cost as a sort of long-term investment, instead of using cheap container glass. 
- +  * If you want some //really// fancy glass, it turns out [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride|Transparent Aluminum]] is a real thing - also known as [[https://alphasapphire.com/what-is-synthetic-sapphire-understanding-its-composition-and-structure/|synthetic sapphire]]. Apparently it's already been tested for use as bullet proof windows, so presumably the manufacturing processes are far enough along that other things could be made. It's even stronger than fused silica. 
-If you want some //really// fancy glass, it turns out [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride|Transparent Aluminum]] is a real thing - also known as [[https://alphasapphire.com/what-is-synthetic-sapphire-understanding-its-composition-and-structure/|synthetic sapphire]]. Apparently it's already been tested for use as bullet proof windows, so presumably the manufacturing processes are far enough along that other things could be made. It's even stronger than fused silica. +      * Synthetic Sapphire is also [[https://alphasapphire.com/synthetic-sapphire-a-core-material-in-the-semiconductor-industry/|used in electronics]] and especially in [[https://analyticalcomp.com/synthetic-sapphire-usage-in-semiconductor-applications/|the production of semiconductors]], [[https://www.powerelectronicsnews.com/sapphire-substrates-extend-voltage-range-of-gan-hemt-devices/|where it appears to reduce the risk]] of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latch-up|latch-up]], a type of short circuit which can occur in an integrated circuit partly due to the more common silicon substrate.  
- +  * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond#Properties|Synthetic diamond]] is another high energy material with a lot of uses. 
-[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond#Properties|Synthetic diamond]] is another high energy material with a lot of uses. +  * Some materials are a little less exotic but still expensive enough (or enough of a hassle) that they're not used in every task - think of every steel machine part, tool, piece of furniture, or part of a building you've seen rusted away to nothing. Some of them needed the specific properties of a different grade of steel which was carefully chosen - others just weren't worth making out of stainless. Perhaps they would be, in a solarpunk society.
- +
-Some materials are a little less exotic but still expensive enough (or enough of a hassle) that they're not used in every task - think of every steel machine part, tool, piece of furniture, or part of a building you've seen rusted away to nothing. Some of them needed the specific properties of a different grade of steel which was carefully chosen - others just weren't worth making out of stainless. Perhaps they would be, in a solarpunk society.+
 ====So how would solarpunk stuff look different?==== ====So how would solarpunk stuff look different?====
  
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       * For my own anecdote, I've seen a {{:writing:37360394_1-1255170388.jpg?linkonly|big industrial mixer}} in a bakery run daily for years with no maintenance and put up with all kinds of abuse while little countertop KitchenAids (supposedly the consumer-grade top-of-the-line) burned out routinely.        * For my own anecdote, I've seen a {{:writing:37360394_1-1255170388.jpg?linkonly|big industrial mixer}} in a bakery run daily for years with no maintenance and put up with all kinds of abuse while little countertop KitchenAids (supposedly the consumer-grade top-of-the-line) burned out routinely. 
       * This can be applied to all kinds of other appliances - commercial washing machines used by laundromats and hotels, kitchen appliances and tools used by restaurants, tools intended for mechanics, factories, or metal shops, and even exercise equipment designed for gyms rather than home use.       * This can be applied to all kinds of other appliances - commercial washing machines used by laundromats and hotels, kitchen appliances and tools used by restaurants, tools intended for mechanics, factories, or metal shops, and even exercise equipment designed for gyms rather than home use.
-  *  Old Stuff - if you look around a mechanic's shop, it's not uncommon to see a Sears Craftsman Drill Press from the 1940s, or some other tool that's been used for generations (I once saw a drill press whose column was a metal pipe which had been cemented right into the floor! If that's doesn't demonstrate trust that a thing will last I don't know what does.). To some extent this stuff has already been winnowed down by survivorship bias, but it also exemplifies a lot of the qualities which make a thing both durable and fixable. I've seen consumer-grade washers and dryers from the late 1970s still limping along in some homes too. +  *  [[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wspYo94xr4hufTOFfSjnltoTc6-DCXRs/view?usp=drivesdk|Old Stuff]] - if you look around a mechanic's shop, it's not uncommon to see a Sears Craftsman Drill Press from the 1940s, or some other tool that's been used for generations (I once saw a drill press whose column was a metal pipe which had been cemented right into the floor! If that's doesn't demonstrate trust that a thing will last I don't know what does.). To some extent this stuff has already been winnowed down by survivorship bias, but it also exemplifies a lot of the qualities which make a thing both durable and fixable. I've seen consumer-grade washers and dryers from the late 1970s still limping along in some homes too. 
     * It's important to note that generally older devices were much more fixable because they were so much simpler and that simplicity came with fewer features, fewer settings/modes, fewer safety considerations, and fewer concessions to efficiency.      * It's important to note that generally older devices were much more fixable because they were so much simpler and that simplicity came with fewer features, fewer settings/modes, fewer safety considerations, and fewer concessions to efficiency. 
     * If you'd like a good example of these differences, compare an antique sewing machine to a modern one - the older one is much easier to fix (the motors are often entirely external and easily replaced) but it'll jam more often, makes sewing your fingers to the fabric easy, and good luck using it on heavy canvas, spandex, t-shirts, or any of the other odd fabrics they've developed special modes for.     * If you'd like a good example of these differences, compare an antique sewing machine to a modern one - the older one is much easier to fix (the motors are often entirely external and easily replaced) but it'll jam more often, makes sewing your fingers to the fabric easy, and good luck using it on heavy canvas, spandex, t-shirts, or any of the other odd fabrics they've developed special modes for.