Hundred Rabbits is a small collective exploring the failability of modern tech
A pair of artists–programmers living and working from a small sailboat are attracting attention for their minimalist approach to computing, exemplified by projects like the Uxn/Varvara virtual machine and the Orca live-coding environment. Commenters highlight how their severe constraints on power, connectivity, and hardware longevity lead to unusually efficient, self-hostable tools and a “permacomputing” ethos that questions mainstream, resource‑intensive software and capitalist work norms. Alongside admiration, some raise concerns about the practicality and privilege of this lifestyle, alleged toxicity in their broader community, and minor inconsistencies such as embedding a YouTube tracker on a site that promises no tracking.
Boat‑based constraints and motivations
- They live and work on a small 1980s sailboat with ~180W of solar and limited batteries and connectivity.
- This drives an offline‑first, low‑power, low‑bandwidth approach; they explicitly resist the “just add more panels/batteries” mindset.
- Some argue their power/weight/windage constraints are exaggerated and that they chose the fun solution instead of the most practical one—but many see that as valid and interesting.
Technology stack and design goals
- They favor 9front/Plan 9, self‑contained tools, static binaries, and the Uxn/Varvara VM instead of mainstream stacks like Windows, Electron, or big IDEs.
- Uxn/Varvara is framed as a tiny, portable “virtual computer” inspired partly by NES/6502, aiming for intelligible, self‑hostable software.
- Debate over efficiency: some see an 8‑bit VM on 64‑bit hardware as wasteful; others share benchmarks showing it’s “less inefficient than expected” for text/editing workloads.
Resilience, permacomputing, and collapse scenarios
- Thread connects their work to “permacomputing” and projects like CollapseOS/DuskOS: maximizing hardware lifespan, minimizing energy, planning for partial civilizational collapse.
- Opinions split: some call collapse‑focused OS work “cosplay” or quasi‑religious asceticism; others see it as quirky but worthwhile “civilizational insurance.”
- There’s deep discussion of microcontrollers (6502, Z80, STM32, etc.) and what’s realistically scavengable or self‑hostable.
Lifestyle, privilege, and “cult” concerns
- Many find their sailing, minimal‑tech life romantic and inspiring; others regard their problems as self‑imposed “first‑world” constraints.
- Several commenters describe their wider community as cult‑like, with alleged abusive moderation and driving out queer members; others express surprise and ask for more evidence.
- Some critique the political framing (anti‑capitalist, gender‑nonconforming) as off‑putting; others see that as integral to the experiment.
Privacy, tracking, and web minimalism
- Their site claims “no tracking,” but an embedded YouTube iframe pulls in multiple Google trackers.
- This sparks a long subthread on how to avoid that (YouTube‑nocookie, click‑to‑embed, Peertube, self‑hosted MP4/WebM, strong CSP).
- Some see the oversight as undermining their credibility; others call it a minor, fixable mistake.
Community impact and tools
- Orca, their 2D music/sequencing language, is widely praised for breaking musical ruts and treating programming/composition as play. Tutorials and posts are shared.
- Uxn/Varvara and related tools are seen as serious, coherent experiments in constrained, long‑lived computing, even by skeptics of their politics or lifestyle.