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The Best Programming Language for the End of the World:

Dupras started building Collapse OS in 2019 in an attempt to preserve mankind’s ability to program 8-bit microcontrollers. These tiny computers control things like radios and solar panels, and they can be used in everything from weather monitoring to digital storage. Dupras figured that being able to reprogram them with minimal remaining resources would be essential post-collapse. But first he had to teach himself a suitably apocalypse-proofed programming language for the job.

So Monsieur Dupras wants to make it possible to fashion low-key computers out of old, scavenged hardware. Of course, he then wrote an operating system for that, and had to find a programming language that could thrive in this environment. Step Forth:

“The way we understand efficiency is so skewed,” Dupras says. Forth is a scythe to Python’s lawnmower. “If you calculate the number of joules per blade of grass, you’ll find that the person scything is more efficient,” he says. “When you think of speed, you’d see the lawnmower as more efficient.” Forth forces you to be precise and memory-efficient—to marshal your resources carefully, as you would after the collapse. Dupras cuts his own lawn with a scythe, obviously. “At a certain point, you can go as fast as a lawnmower,” he says.

He is driven.