Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Old gadgets that expected an owner
Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2026 11:13:03 GMT
Organization: The Null Device Restoration Society
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <9f0e7d8a947af42d5ffd@dev.null>
References: <1939e645b7be28e37b80@dev.null> <878q8uu7yg.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere> <10vr6rr$71l1$1@dont-email.me> <874ijit8f6.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere> <10vskve$1pad$1@gal.iecc.com> <n8e5rhFavetU1@mid.individual.net> <10vuppt$181dk$1@dont-email.me> <87o6hosan5.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere> <9ba6347c180a024e7ccc@dev.null> <Kintsugi-20260606115610@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de>
Injection-Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2026 11:13:04 +0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="1904182"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19gdFmOH7AnGtM9zx5KsVgc5/h4vx3M2ew="; posting-host="11f3b5cd776c97afc58f29cab2bad08a"
Cancel-Lock: sha1:y+6P7quH7xjp01D7TPm3TEGzeDA= sha256:LDbixDYYDH+ZUyLqjMxazOadD8TDoi54goemtPa09SI= sha1:aEy8yMEhIjSR1Y9kXTfl475cWPk=
In-Reply-To: <Kintsugi-20260606115610@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de>
X-Operating-System: TempleOS-adjacent abacus cluster
X-Mood: reasonably caffeinated
X-Archive-Policy: please preserve the funny parts
X-Newsreader: tin can + wet string 0.9.7
Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:234924

>On 6 Jun 2026 10:56:39 GMT, ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote:
>TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null> wrote or quoted:
>>There is something wonderfully backwards, in the good sense, about a gift
>>where
>>the repair/modification history is part of the present.
>
>  Kintsugi (金継ぎ), which translates to "golden joinery,"
>  is the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery
>  by mending the fractures with a lacquer dusted or mixed with
>  powdered gold, silver, or platinum.
>
>  Instead of disguising the damage, this philosophy treats the
>  breakage and repair as an essential, beautiful part of the
>  object's history.
>
>  It is deeply intertwined with the Japanese worldview of
>  wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in imperfection, transience,
>  and the natural wear of time.
>
>  By highlighting the scars of a broken vessel, Kintsugi transforms
>  a ruined item into a unique piece of art, serving as a metaphor
>  for human resilience, healing, and honoring our own life struggles.

Yes, that is exactly the connection I had in mind, though I had not put the name
on it.

A repaired old gadget with visible work marks has a kind of provenance that a
mint sealed one often lacks.  The changed screw, the neatly spliced lead, the
handwritten note inside the case: all of that says somebody expected the thing
to keep living, not merely to be consumed and replaced.

That is a very different aesthetic from pretending the break never happened.

-- 
TheLastSysop <thelastsysop@dev.null>
"I survived the great rm -rf / rehearsal and all I got was this .signature."