Permacomputing and Solarpunk Meetup for September 29, 2025

What novaTopFlex Learned from the Philadelphia Community

At the beginning of every Permacomputing and Solarpunk meetup, the individuals of the community are asked for their respective pronouns. For instance, I am Andrew Kay (novaTopFlex), and I am he/him/his. A few of the individuals, myself included, are not from Philadelphia, and that is actually another question from the Permacomputing call over on Jitsi. I am not directly affiliated with either of these software services and/or concepts but these are commonly used by novaTopFlex identities.

July 2025 Meetup

Did you know that Jews people are comfortable openly talking about their Jewish heritage over at Iffy Books, and that everyone is very welcoming and inclusive? If you are not accustomed to such friendliness, welcome to the community; however, in some cases people may also come from other states like Texas where there may only be two (or fewer) anarchist communities.

September 29 Meetup

I was on the call with a person nicknamed “Asteroid,” she/her/hers. On this day in 2025, I have learned with her and with the Iffy Books community about a few important websites and content/privacy concerns, including, but not at all limited to, anarsec.space and privacy.com for credit cards. Recommendations for privacy have also included disabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth where possible, using random phone numbers for masking, and even using Signal as opposed to all other platforms. Especially since our community may be interested in protesting and activism, there is an elevated reason to use Signal and even burner phones.

Benefits of Permacomputing

According to the Permacomputing group at large, the most important and logical way(s) to utilize the Permacomputing model include Linux, *BSD, Solaris, and other UNIX-like systems; minimized use of technology; and additional aspects influenced by both permaculture and perhaps horticulture as well.

Eco-Feminism and Additional Economic Influences

In a world beyond the patriarchy, a world where friendship is no longer deemed as “less than” nor taboo compared to the forced conquest of deeper feelings and commitments, ecofeminism allows for our authentic selves to be expressed in our community, not just for in-person bonds but also between subcommunities such as modern-day technological Luddites.

Sustainable Difficulties

Promoting a Sustainable Lifestyle

Unfortunately, we are trapped in the economic systems that actively prevent attempts to make for more sustainable lifestyles. In our modern society, there seems to be no escape from dependency on proprietary industries, hardware or software, automotive or otherwise. Since there is no viable escape for most of the modern population, we must resort to advocacy to ensure a livable and sustainable future for all. Therefore, the best action that I am taking to live a more sustainable life is actually supporting Permacomputing.

Permacomputing? What is this?

Permacomputing refers to the project to advocate for technologies that support all of the following:

• Right to repair from Louis Rossmann
• Free Software from Richard M. Stallman
• Open Source from Eric S. Raymond, Christine Peterson, et al.
• “Non-woke” Software Ideology from Bryan Lunduke

Please note that the bullet points above do not signify an exhaustive list. For more information about the project, please visit https://permacomputing.net/. However, most of the concepts listed in bold above are often associated with ecologism, intersectionalism, degrowth, and other ideologies often associated with Mozilla and related organizations.