ICT Within Limits Is Bound To Be Old-Fashioned By Design

Olivier Michel; Emilie Frenkiel

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arXiv · 2508.08311

ICT Within Limits Is Bound To Be Old-Fashioned By Design

Olivier Michel·Emilie Frenkiel

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Abstract

Crossing multiple planetary boundaries places us in a zone of uncertainty that is characterized by considerable fluctuations in climatic events. The situation is exacerbated by the relentless use of resources and energy required to develop digital infrastructures that have become pervasive and ubiquitous. We are bound to these infrastructures, dead technologies and negative commons, just as much as they bind us. Although their growth threatens the necessary reduction of our impact, we have a responsibility to maintain them until we can do without them. In university setting, as well as in any public organization, urban mines per se, we propose an IT architecture based on the exclusive use of unreliable waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as a frugal alternative to the incessant replacement of devices. Powered by renewable energy, autonomous, robust, adaptable, and built on battle-tested open-source software, we envision this solution for a situation where use is bound to decline eventually, to close this damaging technological chapter. Digital technology, the idol of modern times, is to meet its twilight if we do not want to irrevocably alter the critical zone.

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Olivier Michel, Emilie Frenkiel. 2025-08-08. ICT Within Limits Is Bound To Be Old-Fashioned By Design. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08311

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