Ethical Manufacturing and Supply Chain

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Hi everyone,

I’m highly interested in MNT for the innovation and move away from big tech.

I have one question, it’s kind of the elephant in the room for hardware.

Processors, graphic cards, almost everything.

I’m personally choosing to boycott companies that choose to involve themselves in military projects.

It’s a big task, most processors do involve themselves with military contracts if they get the chance.

I wanted to ask about MNT manufacture ethics.

I see that a lot of the products are built in China.

From my understanding, there is some oppression involved in some electronics manufacturing in China in the Xinjiang region where there is documented forced labor of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

Rockchip, Firefly Technology, how can I be sure that these are ethical manufacture companies?

Limited transparency here: no detailed supply chain audit information. Is there any kind of reassurance or nuance about the manufacture of processors that could help me understand this better?

IDEALIST: I DREAM OF A WORLD WHERE TECHNOLOGY IS PRODUCED ETHICALLY. WHERE WE ADVANCE WITH ETHICS IN THE FOUNDATION OF OUR EVERY MOVE.

I know that this is not the way most people work.

I know that I need technology to be able to do what I feel needs to be done to make the technology industry more ethical.

Maybe I need to revert, stay second hand, but I want to find some options with new developments.

It’s a difficult road but I feel like within the challenge and complexity of the multiple layers here, I might find some like minds in this community who can advise if MNT is ethical ready or if no such thing exists as of yet.

I understand the sheer cost of producing even just one processor is so high that it takes a mega-company to be able to produce these items.

Any advice or insights appreciated.

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MNT does not produce its own processors, although the machines are hand assembled in Europe. Processors (and individual chips, components, memory, etc) are unfortunately beyond the reach of small companies to produce on their own.

This is my own personal opinion, but it’s not possible to buy modern technology without indirectly supporting arms manufacture and either imperialist oppression or domestic oppression in some country. Technology in general is deeply connected to military production and surveillance industries.

By supporting small, ethically minded manufacturers like MNT, you are diverting as much money as possible from the large companies that produce technology of oppression while also supporting the buildout of an open hardware ecosystem. One day it may be possible to produce our own processors (or piggyback on others to do this, as in the Tiny Tapeout project). But this day will never arrive unless people support those who are trying to make it happen.

If you have specific concerns about China, some MNT products support Raspberry Pi modules, which are British-owned and are currently manufactured by Sony. A CM4 adapter exists and a CM5 adapter is currently under development if you look at Lucie’s Mastodon.

(Also, you may want to look more carefully into the claims of oppression in Xinjiang. It is more complicated and less extreme than Western press presents, and to me it is not a good reason to pick Western tech over Eastern, as Intel also used prison labor until 2021. If you want a reason that is more up to date, you could look at the war in Ukraine, as Chinese chips have often turned up in Russian drones. But of course Western tech is also used in surveillance and unjust wars.)

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As fantastic as it would be to only be able to use ethically produced tech, that is not feasible right now so I think you have to frame it as what has the best meaning behind the tech and do the best overall for tech and for me MNTRE are right up there.

Now yes, sadly China do and are going to be the key source of many components in a computer, and yes China do use forced labour (from multiple ethnicities in multiple regions). Can that be stopped by us, no? Can that be documented and made clear using the tech you buy? Absolutely and that is where I feel you should go.

Of course software is a different thing, for example boycotting Israeli made software is quite simple or boycotting US based software companies is very possible. So again, you can focus on your ethical desires in that respect too.

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