Reverse Engineering, Community, and the Yoga of Non-Attachment: How Tech Survives When Companies Fall
When the developer behind Vitruvian, my favorite weight machine, went bankrupt in Australia, it felt like a familiar story: beloved technology abandoned, users left stranded, and hardware on the brink of obsolescence. But in a recent piece for Yanko Design, Pooja Khanna Tyagi explores how innovation sometimes arises not from within the tech giants, but from the communities that gather around their forgotten inventions.
The Humane AI Pin—once a bold vision for context-aware, wearable AI—became just another casualty of proprietary lock-in, its advanced features lost when cloud services vanished. Yet, rather than fading into irrelevance, the Pin found new life through open-source collaboration and reverse engineering. Its story is a lesson in impermanence, adaptation, and the quiet power of resourceful communities.
🛠️ When Attachment Fails, Community Steps In
Yoga invites us to practice Aparigraha, or non-possessiveness—a trust that release can bring abundance. In technology, clinging to proprietary formats and closed systems can make even the most innovative hardware fragile. When companies falter, it’s often the users—those with the most love for a device—who step up to keep it alive.
The transformation of the Humane AI Pin through PenumbraOS, a community-built operating system, is a living example of this philosophy. By letting go of what was lost and reimagining what’s possible, users sidestepped the gatekeepers and created new value from the ashes of corporate ambition. Isn’t there something yogic in the way open-source communities gather, share, and re-invent?
🌱 Impermanence, Adaptation, and the Value of Resourcefulness
Everything changes. Whether it’s software, hardware, or the structures of our own lives, what is secure today may vanish tomorrow. The story of rescued tech is a reminder: impermanence isn’t just to be feared—it opens the door for adaptation and growth. Systems, whether biological or technological, thrive when they can evolve in response to disruption.
Yoga’s teachings on adaptation (parinama) and impermanence (anitya) invite us to become skillful in uncertain terrain. Community-led projects like PenumbraOS are testaments to this: when the original vision collapses, resilience and ingenuity take center stage. The most lasting innovations may be those not designed to last, but to transform.
🤝 Practice: Open-Source Sangha
For yogis, sangha—community—is a space for co-creation and mutual uplift. The open-source movement, with all its messy beauty, is a technological sangha. It reminds us that when we release attachment and cultivate collective resourcefulness, even what seems obsolete can be reborn.
On and off the mat, the lesson is to trust in our adaptability and the wisdom of many minds. Let’s ask: What have we been holding onto past its time? Where can we invite in the creativity of community, and let transformation flourish?
— MJH