Resistance Technologies: Moving Beyond Alternative Designs

TL;DR

The paper addresses the inadequacy of green or efficient substitutes in a climate and geopolitical polycrisis, arguing for Resistance Technologies that prioritize sovereignty and privacy. It surveys critical design approaches and design frameworks, highlighting limitations and the need to define what should be built, not just how to build it. The authors propose concrete criteria and guiding questions, framed around anticipation, cooperation, and anti-centralization, and advocate for privacy-enhancing, anti-surveillance technologies as foundational. They call for a paradigm shift within academia and the Computing-with-Limits community toward developing resilient, just, and community-centered infrastructure that can endure crises and reduce dependency on centralized tech corporations.

Abstract

The discourse about sustainable technology has emerged from the acknowledgment of the environmental collapse we are facing. In this paper, we argue that addressing this crisis requires more than the development of sustainable alternatives to current online services or the optimization of resources using various dashboards and AI. Rather, the focus must shift toward designing technologies that protect us from the consequences of the environmental damages. Among these consequences, wars, genocide and new forms of colonialism are perhaps the most significant. We identify "protection" not in terms of military defense as Western States like to argue, but as part of sovereignty. We seek to define the term of "Resistance Technologies" for such technologies, arguing further that anti-surveillance technologies are a foundational component of sovereignty and must be part of future conversations around sustainability. Finally, our paper seeks to open a discourse with the Computing-within-Limits community and beyond, towards defining other essential aspects or concepts of technologies that we see as core values of "Resistance Technology".