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I finished reading World Wide Waste by Gerry McGovern. I'd consider it essential reading for anyone working with computers!
https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/world-wide-waste/
It's well cited (though I still need to check those citations) & uses maths effectively to make it's point.
That computers + (surveillance) capitalism is actually worse for the environment than the predigital era. That we can and must move slow and fix things, and fund that vital work directly.
Don't get me wrong, computers can absolutely help us regain our environmental efficiency. They just *aren't*.
Not as long as we're:
* constantly syncing everything to the cloud,
* expecting same-hour delivery,
* funding our clickbait via surveillance advertising,
* buying a new phone every year,
* using AIs because they're cool rather than useful,
* running bloated software & webpages,
* buying into "big data"
* etc
Computing is environmentally cheap, but it rapidly adds up!
@alcinnz If people really paid what cloud sync costs, they would do it in a wiser way…
@alcinnz Agreed. But I think you mean gain rather than regain. I have the same feeling everytime I hear Internet of Things. The main idea to fight against, imho, is convenience. What is the real cost of convenience?
@3Dneuro Maybe, but ultimately I do think accidentally or not we used to have this environmental efficiency.
@alcinnz
What about streaming videos?
@marion_grau I answer your question with a question: Does streaming video match your usecase?
My beef with "streaming services" is that they go out of their way to be streaming-only services. If you like me enjoy rewatching/relistening to art you love, gathering a collection of media files on your harddrive (all else being equal) is more energy efficient.
If you're only going to watch or listen once, streaming services can better optimize for that usecase.
@alcinnz sorry, non-expert here. What is a usecase? I have gotten the impression that streaming should be avoided and I would like to but am finding that it diversifies the information I can access. Also, your first one is syncing... Afraid I have Dropbox but I think it only syncs the changed files and it often does it it download everything to every machine.
@marion_grau In software design we use the term to refer to answers to the question "how do you want to use it?".
Oh, and I would add: Video is the least efficient way to communicate information. It has its uses, but see how well other mediums serve your need.
@alcinnz good point. Podcasts I guess are better. Thanks!!
@alcinnz I dream of a new Internet made of community-owned, solar-powered nodes designed to relay information in the most energy efficient way
@antanicus conosci il protocollo gemini?
https://gemini.circumlunar.space/
@sirvoe @antanicus Gemini is still client-server: it doesn't relay. It's barely more efficient than HTTP: Gemini sites have less non-content bloat than the average webpage, and the protocol doesn't have the massive header block HTTP has, but Gemini doesn't support compression.
@alcinnz code has ballooned so much. Even relatively simple applications these days require large downloads.
DaveNull
pResident Evil@alcinnz
- Accepting e-waste from things that could be repaired if it were documented properly. But it's not, in the name of "trade secrets" BS…