It’s art. Commentary on our current state of affairs.

Not absurd: artistic!

The latter does not preclude the former. :)

That said, the wastefullness of it doesn't appeal to me, though some of the ideas behind it do. I would think an adaptation of a e-ink display would be much more practical and much less wasteful, while conveying similar meaning.

AFAICT it's a mix of vapourware and pseudo-'edgy' ranting.

Yep! Let's get rid a forest on this idea alone.

I second that. It’s absolutely impractical.

It’s hilarious that I’m getting down-voted on Hacker News for this. Does anybody actually disagree with me?

I don't disagree with you, it is impractical. But the whole point of the project is to challenge the exact tech conventions that lead one to conclude that it's impractical. So while I agree with you, saying "it's impractical" seems to miss the point.

I appreciate a whole host of conceptual, provocative, performance, and abstract art. I even enjoyed the frisson of the idea of the famous goldfish-in-the-blender. But I have difficulty assigning an actual cognitive validity to this project. It’s probably just me.

Judging by the readily quantifiable responses on HN expressing disapproval, I definitely don't believe it's "just you". As far as "cognitive validity" is concerned, the closest you'll get to an answer from the author is their "Why Screenless" section. But you may still be left in "agree to disagree" territory with them.