The original purpose of this project was to design and then construct computers that would be able to survive a societal collapse.

After working on the project, it became apparent that the point of the project should not be to imagine a hypothetical future, but to engage practically with the problems of the present.

The entire computing stack of the modern era is large, confusing, and unsafe. People would rather excuse themselves from having to learn about it. Who can blame them?

The first aim of the project is to be exceedingly cost effective: “if the oppressed cannot access some technology, then it is not revolutionary”.

The second aim of the project is the promotion of digital literacy. Digital literacy should promote a joyful user experience that is non-exploitative. It should also foster a sense of community–“no-one is an island”.

To this end, the scope of the people’s permacomputer project was deliberately limited to programs around or just over 100 lines. Definitely not more than 200.

The project therefore decided to investigate BASIC as the paradigmatic human-computer interface for the permacomputer.

For the application towards which it was targeted, the investigation the project has done so far into BASIC has been fruitful, and even quite surprising–the 70s/80s hobby computing scene was far richer and more creative than the project previously assumed: not less than five (5) different text editors in BASIC were unearthed!