Planned longevity is the opposite of planned obsolescence: the way of designing systems, especially hardware, so that it supports lifespan maximization.
planned obsolescence
Planned obsolescence is a capitalist strategy where companies design and produce things with a limited useful lifespan — on purpose. The intention is to encourage new purchases, when none would be necessary. This tactic emerged in the early 20th century and has become common across all industries and especially in electronics, fashion, and home appliances. Companies implement obsolescence through various approaches.
obsolescence
Obsolescence takes place when something is no longer maintained or required, even if it could still be usable. Planned obsolescence takes place when obsolescence is actively designed and initiated by the manufacturer/maintainer.
lifespan maximization
Lifespan maximization is the extension of hardware lifespan by the users. It may be supported by planned longevity from the manufacturer's side, but it rarely is.
Commitments on model deprecation and preservation
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
You have to beat the models at something
In 2025, I wrote that software engineers ought to be assessed by “value over replacement”: not how much money they made for their company, but how much they…
Permacomputing
Permacomputing is a computing design philosophy which aims to improve resilience by using regenerative design in computer and network technology. It is inspired by permaculture.[1] Permacomputing approaches to computing often involve paying more attention to the life-cycle of hardware (including re-use and designing for older hardware),[1] using low-level languages such as FORTH that have greater operability with older hardware, and fostering a more mindful relationship with technology.[2]
Retrocomputing as a Model for Sustainable and Cognitive Computing: Lessons from Low-Resource Systems
This paper argues that retrocomputing constitutes a conceptually productive model for rethinking sustainability in contemporary computing. Early computing systems operated under strict hardware constraints, necessitating efficiency, clarity, and minimalism in both software and interaction design. In contrast, contemporary systems are frequently characterised by computational excess, software bloat, and attention-fragmenting interfaces. Drawing on examples from early home computing and command-line environments, this paper analyses how low-resource systems make visible forms of computational minimalism with relevance to present-day design challenges. A central theoretical contribution is the distinction between interface-level and system-structure-level design analysis, which demonstrates that cognitive effects arise not only from visual and interactional surface features but from deeper computational organisation. The discussion integrates perspectives from human-computer interaction and cognitive science, particularly in relation to attention, cognitive load, and user experience. The paper adopts a conceptual and exploratory approach grounded in systematic literature review, aiming to identify design-relevant patterns rather than to provide empirical validation. It introduces the concepts of computational minimalism and cognitive sustainability as complementary analytical frameworks, and derives five principles for sustainable system design. Crucially, the paper also address
Increlution
Survive the ever increasing pressure of time for as long as you can! A minimalistic incremental game about time management that takes inspiration from roguelite games, with a focus on meta-progression. Every generation has a better chance at survival, because previous lives influence its instincts
Caring for the Chips: Repair and Reuse as Permacomputing – Michelle Kaczmarek
Our Longing for Inconvenience
People are pining for old technologies—CD players, VCRs, Walkmans. What’s behind our longing for inconvenience?
If you think your profession is dying, it could soon be gone
Younger workers once foresaw the demise of horse-drawn carriages — but anticipating obsolescence can be self-fulfilling
7. Death, and how tech forgot about mortality / Michael Kibedi / FFConf 2024
FF26 – This is not the tech I signed up for! – An approach to permacomputing - Darío Gutiérrez Mori
software rot
Software rot is generally thought of as degradation of software due to a changing environment. For example, a program written a decade ago may no longer work with new versions of the libraries it depends on because some of them have changed without retaining backwards compatibility. This kind of thinking encourages a culture where software becomes obsolete unless it is constantly maintained.
Sustainable software manifesto
The systems we build are never neutral. They can magnify harm or support a just and sustainable society. How we build today shapes tomorrow’s possibilities.
