[crmd]

After all networked smartphones and computers were placed under control of the regime, resistance hackers relied on microcontrollers harvested from ordinary household devices like smart lamps and vape pens to slowly rebuild the covert but resilient mesh internetwork that became known as FreeNet.

[PeaceTed]

Congratulations, welcome to the dev team of Collapse OS. https://collapseos.org/

Now they are more focused on supply chain break down but your scenario would also be valid.

[Neywiny]

When I think of what's out there I think of cheapy ARMs, maybe STM32 knock offs. Honestly the F103C8T6 is so prolific that's probably a solid chunk of all processors in existence. And then things like ESP32s. So to not see ARM or Tenscillica on there is a bit weird. But maybe I'm reading too much into it and it's more of a thought experiment

[sgt]

The future is Forth? We're... Forthed!

[xarope]

Someone write a novel please. Not sure who will be more appropriate: Stross (more fun?), Stephenson (more of a slog through the first 600 pages, then an abrupt 180 and frenetic action in the last 100 with newly introduced, yet game-changing characters?).

[ErroneousBosh]

> Stephenson (more of a slog through the first 600 pages, then an abrupt 180 and frenetic action in the last 100 with newly introduced, yet game-changing characters?).

With the six pages in the middle where he may as well say "Right, I had to learn a lot of algebra for compiler optimisation to make this bit work, so now you get to learn it too"

[johanvts]

Fits well with William Gibson. The Turing-police will visit anybody who consumes more than 5 yearly vapes.

[protocolture]

Stross, because you get the added value of seeing him hate any new concepts he uses 10+ years later.

[QuadrupleA]

Cory Doctorow perhaps? At first glance I thought the OP was quoting him.

[jaredhallen]

Agreed on the ridiculous page counts, but I don't find Stephenson's pages a slog. Exhausting, maybe. There's a lot going on. But he makes me laugh. I'd like to meet that guy.

[ddalex]

I really love Stephenson's world building and detailed research, but I get the feeling he himself gets bored with the book at a certain point :)

So I vote Stross

[officeplant]

It's not the greatest piece of fiction ever written, but Robert Evans of Behind the Bastards podcast has a pretty easy read[1]. It's also offered as a free audiobook read by him as a series of podcasts.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Revolution

Might not be what you want if you want more technical & hacking versus dystopian capitalism collapse. But he gets bonus points for Texas getting nuked as a lore point.

[shadyKeystrokes]

Then a end midsentence and a black page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War closest you can get to vape insurgency

[olirex99]

The FreeNet is an amazing and wonderful solution to the current problem of a free network. At least for me :)

[lionkor]

Maybe this is not such a bad side of history to be on after all.