Hundred Rabbits – Low-tech living while sailing the world

Love 100r! There aren't a ton of examples online, but their livecoding music software/language, ORCA, is a remarkable instrument. https://100r.co/site/orca.html

I posted a clip to bsky a few weeks back: https://bsky.app/profile/r.whal.ing/post/3lpyrm4vrqs2d

And Allieway Audio made some great Youtube videos about ORCA too if people would like to learn how it works in more of a tutorial format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaI_TuISSJE&t=446s

(I love the Dwarf Fortress background for this video, it absolutely nails the vibe)

I love the contrast in "Low tech/bootstrapped tech" this way vs, say, duskos.org. I call this "rabbits vs forth" tech bootstrappers. [1].

It's somewhat strange to me that their tech journey is so narrative and ends up with a VM stack, rather than any kind of salvaged / repurposed hard tech. But then again, I'm probably on the forth side of the spectrum.

https://jodavaho.io/posts/rabbits-or-forth.html

A friend asked me whether I was concerned about energy usage of AI. I didn't have a good answer. It feels inevitable.

But, I love the write-up here on why the sailboat, and why UXN, because those two things are complementary when you are living in a sailboat and are thinking intimately about your power consumption.

https://100r.co/site/why_a_boat.html

https://100r.co/site/uxn.html

Seeing Devine at StrangeLoop last year was a treat (and took a lot of mental energy!)

It has been a while since I found a site this interesting, I have been reading it on and off for the past few days. As per their site: "Hundred Rabbits is an artist collective that documents low-tech solutions with the hope of building a more resilient future. We live and work aboard a 10 m sailboat named Pino in remote parts of the world to learn more about how technology degrades beyond the shores of the western world"

100 Rabbits is the most successful example of solarpunk I've ever seen.

Tech with a focus on sustainability and creation.

Love their work!

Related:

Hundred Rabbits is a small collective exploring the failability of modern tech - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41131181 - Aug 2024 (488 comments)

Gimballed Stove - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39733829 - March 2024 (12 comments)

Weathering Software Winter - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34219654 - Jan 2023 (28 comments)

Internet in Paradise (2006) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32080305 - July 2022 (18 comments)

Artists are making tiny ROMs that will probably outlive us all - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31410838 - May 2022 (1 comment)

Off the Grid - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30031472 - Jan 2022 (118 comments)

Busy Doing Nothing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26760803 - April 2021 (6 comments)

Working Off-Grid Efficiently - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25723819 - Jan 2021 (142 comments)

North Pacific Logbook - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24489257 - Sept 2020 (7 comments)

(I omitted threads about their software projects, even though those are super interesting: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...)

Well I've been a big fan of 100r since I heard of them through the Future of Coding [0][1](and esoteric.codes [2]).

BUT JUST NOW I'm kicking around the website again today and find out that Devine made the game Hiversaires way back in the day [3] which is a banger. So I guess I've been a fan for like 12 years. I'm very tempted to buy it again.

100r are also an inspiration that a different way of life and relationship with creativity and society are possible... so if I ever drop out definitely don't look for me doing permacomputing on a sailboat in coastal BC. Don't look for me - because I won't want to be found, ok thanks in advance?

[0] https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/044

[1] https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/045

[2] https://esoteric.codes/blog/100-rabbits

[3] https://100r.co/site/hiversaires.html

> Collapse won't be addressed by buying a Prius, signing a treaty, or turning off the air-conditioning. The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one: understanding that this civilization is already dead. The sooner we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there's nothing we can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality.

> This is why we are committed to fighting normative violence, fascism, colonialism, and white supremacy in all of its forms. To undermine the capitalist structure and its abusive scripts about human worth in relation to work, productivity, and ownership. To subvert oppressive gender norms and put in question the binary. To actively unlearn biased and colonial thinking. To look inside and face these parts of our darkness, personal and collective, and come out of it with more kindness and compassion.

Their work has molded a lot of my views on technology, such a breath of fresh air when I first found out about them! They really inspired me to look at my own work and ask how to make it more resilient, how to decrease dependencies.

From my experience, achieving provider independence boils down to: own your stack, work offline-first, test failure modes constantly.

Been trying to get a setup going with NixOS + local AI + custom CLI tools for development work, and I never would have thought to pursue this sort of thing if I hadn't found these people. Great stuff!

Oh and ORCA is a LOT of fun! Give it a shot if you're into sounddesign, or generative electronic music stuff: https://100r.co/site/orca.html

I'm honored to call these rabbits (and a decent portion of their community) my friends.

It's remarkable how good you have to be at tech to be low tech and low maintenance.

I'm forever impressed by these folks' energy and creativity

I recently got my basic cruising sailing license. And I also enjoy hacking on low-power, low-end salvaged computers that are repairable with a minimal set of tools and a manual. I'm hoping one day my tech journey will lead me to spending more time aboard and working on projects in this space.

100r and https://screenl.es and dynamicland are huge inspirations.

This is a fascinating website which I look forward to exploring a bit more, along with the authors personal sites.

Are there any other off-grid low-tech sites/projects/sites like this?

I remember another interesting site that was being run off solar posted here on HN that went down when the batteries went out.

I think I first came across them from seeing #ORCΛ tag on Twitter, which I highly recommend peeking at. I love their website.

Does anyone know if they're able to support themselves purely on donations via Patreon, etc., or if they need to do contract work, too?

Where I discover that there people learning solresol in 2025

Spoiler alert: no actual rabbit content.

Ah, another Blame! fan.