This could be interesting. I'm not sure if I could be much of a contribution to the conversation as I am not a software engineer. But I think I may have some shared values and could listen.
You don't need to be a software engineer to join! We welcome anyone who would like to come and share ideas :)
To quote the wiki:
Permacomputing can take many forms, and every context and situation is different, but even without a one-size-fits-all solution, we can share knowledge and resources that could be useful.
For someone, getting started with permacomputing may be:
That's an interesting idea that I've never thought about...
My first thought is that we should be preserving information instead of computational power, but that's a library.
Libraries are fine, but you need some way to store and and analyze raw data, and calculate simulations, and a computer is definitely needed for that.
A quick google tells me that the oldest functioning computer is the Harwell Computer, or WITCH and it looks like it needs a fair amount of somewhat advanced manufacturing to keep it in spare parts.
Just look at those dekatron things that it uses for memory!
I don't know where they dredged up spares of those things for the 2012 restoration