Everyone who has ever lost important data knows how annoying, painful, or even life-ruining it can be. Yet, there's all this backup software and everyone gives "backup your shit" as the most important advice, so how can it happen? Well, even if you are familiar with all the backup software and regularly use it, think about what's actually required to backup something. First of all you need a secondary drive that has enough space to hold everything you want to. This is a bigger problem than it seems, especially now in the age of laptops which usually can't hold more than one drive so have to rely on USB drives / SD cards (which are limited in space). And those backup drives can still fail. Those few who still have a stationary computer have it easier, but not foolproof since theft or a fire could still just ruin all the backups. Smartphone users, obviously, are in the worst position, since their devices lack ports for external storage. So the unfortunate victims of "modernity" and "progress" are left only with online storage as a backup option. Almost always meaning big tech that simply loves to have you chained inside their ecosystem of evil. They will bury you with doxing requirements, recaptcha, or similar stuff. And when the EU ID requirement comes around, they will surely implement that, too. Not to mention that they spy on your files and can ban you from the internet or even get you in trouble with the law for something totally innocent. Therefore Big Tech is not a reliable solution. But maybe we could repurpose online storage in another way? Enter the Mutualist Backup System:
Details remain to be elucidated. But as a concept it's a great solution for me. Mutualism and justice enforced by software, fixing a very real problem that so far hasn't even been truly touched, if I have to be honest. Many features could be added to this system after the basics are done. Maybe choosing the people that can or can't host your backups (though I like the randomization). Maybe someone could decide to be more generous and offer 2x for every x uploaded backups. Maybe if we get enough "available space" we could let people take without giving (useful especially for the smartphone users). Maybe an account-less, or one independent from the website, system can be done somehow. In general, the idea is that everyone's disk becomes partially yours; storage is distributed between the world's computers. Immunizing everyone to fires, thefts, apartment block collapses, or just having to juggle too many drives in their own setups. Oh, and of course you wouldn't have to pay for cloud storage, thus avoiding resource extraction by big tech. Imagine, there is so much disk space being unused right now inside people's hard drives, that are rotting in the cupboard or basement, or simply right there inside the computer because someone simply isn't storing much data. Despite that, we're still paying ransom to businesses for backups - so inefficient! With the MBS, since the uploads and downloads would be done in the browser, nothing new would have to be learned. Of course, all of this needs devs, so feel free to share this with others, or pick it up yourself if you are one. Or maybe there is something similar to this already, but if so, I have not been able to find it (notify me in this case).
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