We have launched a new series of books opening up Low-tech Magazine’s archive by theme. The first volume collects all articles on digital technology and is available in our bookstore.

We were told that the internet would dematerialize society and decrease energy use. Contrary to this projection, it has become a massive infrastructure and a rapidly growing energy consumer. In this series of articles, Low-tech Magazine examines the reasons behind the ever-expanding resource use of digital communication and what we can do about it. The internet isn’t an autonomous being. Its growing energy use results from decisions made by software developers, web designers, marketeers, publishers, and internet users. By placing communications in a historical context and with the development of its lightweight, off-the-grid, and solar powered website, Low-tech Magazine challenges our high-tech approach to sustainability and highlights the possibilities of alternative solutions.

Table of contents:

1. Why we need a speed limit for the internet
2. Email in the 18th century: the optical telegraph
3. How to build a low-tech internet?
4. How to build a low-tech website?
5. How sustainable is a solar powered website?
6. How and why I stopped buying laptops
7. Why the office needs a typewriter revolution

This book contains 70 images in black & white.

Marie Otsuka and Roel Roscam Abbing contributed to this volume. Marie Verdeil made the cover.

How to build a low-tech internet?, Kris De Decker, 162 pages, Low-tech Magazine, 2023.

Other books in the series:

How to downsize a transport network, Kris De Decker, 162 pages, 2023.

The Low-tech Magazine archives are also available as a chronological series consisting of three volumes.

Patrons get early access to new books at a reduced price.