As a bit of an aside, I really like the idea of trying to design things with the constraint of it having to be able to run off a hand-crank.
I feel like it is not only an interesting engineering challenge but one that might lead to a more efficient and sustainable framing.
Or we could... hear me out... build more power plants. The de-growth stuff is pretty evil when you take it to it's logical conclusion of population control.
There's a bit of a difference between population control and reaching a sustainable equilibrium. One can also argue the death of all life on earth is a pretty evil logical conclusion of infinite growth on a finite planet.
What does "sustainable equilibrium" mean?
What are you balancing if not human growth? And how do you plan to do that?
Doesn't it kind of work itself out?
If it’s unsustainable population growth there will eventually be some catastrophic environmental effects and the population will be reduced to a sustainable level. Of course living during that reduction could be a rather unpleasant experience but it probably also won’t last too long.
If it’s already sustainable everything is fine.
Do not confuse curiosity and caring for extremism.
If someone said they pick up trash on the side of the road to help the environment you wouldn't say the logical conclusion of their ideology would be that they become the unabomber
In a similar vein, the solar-powered website. [0]
[0] https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/
It's not more sustainable though. It takes more energy to grow the food to get the calories to metabolize to turn the crank than it would to run an electric motor or a engine to do the same work.
Totally true that what is and is not sustainable is more complicated than it first appears.
I think what I'm honing in on is the idea that hand cranks produce very limited, often interrupted power and are relative low-tech, both of which are directionally the right way for us to be putting our efforts.
I would love a crank-powered router. Would be a good way to curb internet addiction!