Building sustainable computing systems is not only the conscientious thing to do, but curbing carbon emissions may result in a seismic shift in how we develop the hardware of the future.
https://www.techspot.com/article/2474-sustainable-computing/
What is Sustainable Computing? A shift in how we develop the hardware of the future
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Uncle Al
Posts: 10,171 +9,648
Good article! It amazes me that we still insist on every effort being "profitable" when common sense tells us that simply retrieving and reusing precious materials needs to happen just to insure we don't run out at a critical time.
ultra-capitalism will kill us all
At this point, I'm surprised that it hasn't already killed us. This obsession with ever unending growth is simply unsustainable.
Bottom line. Everything we do has an impact. Period.
While we can work towards solutions, they'll never be good enough because the problem is less what we do, and more how many of us are doing it. Sure we can make tech more environmentally friendly, but as more non tech countries make the transition to a tech enabled if not based economy we end up right back where we started.
We have 8 billion of us all trying to have the same standard of living. It's projected to be 10 1/2 billion by 2080. And as each of those 10 + billion raise their standard of living we'll have a greater impact on our environment no matter what band-aids we apply. We've been screwed from the moment we plowed our first field...
While we can work towards solutions, they'll never be good enough because the problem is less what we do, and more how many of us are doing it. Sure we can make tech more environmentally friendly, but as more non tech countries make the transition to a tech enabled if not based economy we end up right back where we started.
We have 8 billion of us all trying to have the same standard of living. It's projected to be 10 1/2 billion by 2080. And as each of those 10 + billion raise their standard of living we'll have a greater impact on our environment no matter what band-aids we apply. We've been screwed from the moment we plowed our first field...
Underdog
Posts: 424 +303
A profound observation indeed. There really is no need for exponential growth. It only results in more consumption of finite resources, more waste, and more debt. How rich do the rich really need to be?
Infinite growth in a finite world will lead us only toward a brick wall, and it's getting closer everyday....
MakeMSGreatAgain
Posts: 245 +185
Greed and corruption, which is pretty much the basis of our "modern living" as we know it, will be our undoing. Whether based on capitalism or communism, greed and corruption destroy these supposed utopias.
Fastturtle
Posts: 145 +79
The worst offender to my thinking is the former CEO of Intel. Hopefully Geislinger can get things changed around as they have little technical reason to introduce a new socket every two years/generation of chips. Sure they sell more chips then anyone else but if they intend on pulling what TSMC does and fab for others, they don't have a reason to keep changing things for "Oh Shiny!"
AMD proved that quite convincingly with how long each of their sockets lasted from AM2 through AM4, which was 5 years each before they had to change things and even then, they were backwards compatible as they went to the AM2+/3+ and such but suddenly they're pulling an Intel with AM5 only being supported for 3 years (2025) before a new socket comes out?
That right there means I will not buy into the AM5 ecosystem as there is no long term support for the design unlike AM4. Hopefully Lisa Su will kick their advisers who are pushing for the new sockets in the rear and shove them out the door. They're not doing anyone a lot of good. As AMD doesn't produce chips directly anylonger, it makes more sense for them to remain on the same socket as long as possible and nothing we've seen so far from Zen4 indicates it's much better. Just has the DDR5 requirement and that doesn't bring much to the table for consumers and desktop users from what I can see. Now if they'd doubled the memory support to 256GB of DDR5, then I might be interested but having to replace a working system with something that's not compatible - sorry folks but that horse left the barn 20 years ago and is deader then a door knob as it lost the race.
AMD proved that quite convincingly with how long each of their sockets lasted from AM2 through AM4, which was 5 years each before they had to change things and even then, they were backwards compatible as they went to the AM2+/3+ and such but suddenly they're pulling an Intel with AM5 only being supported for 3 years (2025) before a new socket comes out?
That right there means I will not buy into the AM5 ecosystem as there is no long term support for the design unlike AM4. Hopefully Lisa Su will kick their advisers who are pushing for the new sockets in the rear and shove them out the door. They're not doing anyone a lot of good. As AMD doesn't produce chips directly anylonger, it makes more sense for them to remain on the same socket as long as possible and nothing we've seen so far from Zen4 indicates it's much better. Just has the DDR5 requirement and that doesn't bring much to the table for consumers and desktop users from what I can see. Now if they'd doubled the memory support to 256GB of DDR5, then I might be interested but having to replace a working system with something that's not compatible - sorry folks but that horse left the barn 20 years ago and is deader then a door knob as it lost the race.
WhoCaresAnymore
Posts: 775 +1,221
Say what? Have you seen what China is doing? Capitalism will be the cure to this problem. If there is money to be made, the problem will be solved. With Socialism and Communism there is no motivation for creativity, unless the government deems it so.
Look at most people who live off of gov't handouts. They don't contribute to society at all. Don't want to work, no motivation, no creativity. Except how to get the next entitlement that those of us who work, pay for.
I told you that capitalism will kill us and you instantly suggested that I was a commie... no communism is the same sh!t, either of them don't work in the long run or are destructive... iam for a 3rd way... royalty was useful in bringing civilization out of the ground,capitalism to sustain it, but it has had its day , It's time to change...
and for "" Look at most people who live off of gov't handouts. They don't contribute to society at all. Don't want to work, no motivation, no creativity. Except how to get the next entitlement that those of us who work, pay for. """
iam disabled, didn't moved from my house for nearly 12 yrs , at the end of this year, I launch my own business, and I'll pay my taxes happily because, even with all it's flaws, my "socialist" govt made me survive this long, to get my head out of the water and iam gratefull for this, if I was in the USA, I would be dead long ago...
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Endymio
Posts: 2,666 +2,689
Common sense -- as well as mounds of past experience -- also tells us that retrieving those "precious" materials often requires more energy and resources than simply producing new ones, making so-called "green" recycling efforts counterproductive.
It's ironic that those ignorantly espousing these trite little aphorisms are those clamoring the loudest for social structures which require continual growth. Our modern welfare-state social safety net, for instance, collapses entirely without continued population growth. It demands a pyramidal demographic structure.
Endymio
Posts: 2,666 +2,689
As Winston Churchill said, "capitalism is the worst system ... except for everything else we've ever tried."
Which raw materials do you believe we're irreparably depleting?
WhoCaresAnymore
Posts: 775 +1,221
Can't argue with some of those very good points. Thanks for the reply and well done with your business and life.
Bullwinkle M
Posts: 911 +817
Land / water & air
Endymio
Posts: 2,666 +2,689
All three of which we have exactly as much as we did ten years ago, or ten million years. And in the US at least, our air and water is enormously cleaner than it was in the 1970s.
And not just the US. Air pollution was once so bad in Britain, for instance, that during 1950s, there were periods you could literally not see your hand held at arm's length at high noon. In ONE SNGLE DAY in 1952, 4,000 people died in London alone from smog-induced respiratory problems, tens of thousands of others were hospitalized, and cars and buses needed to be directed by people on foot, walking just in front.
Today, the air in London is more than 100 million times cleaner, by particulate count.
So much for the fearmongering. The sky isn't falling, Chicken Little.
WhoCaresAnymore
Posts: 775 +1,221
Don't blame him so much as the sources he reads. So many people stick to certain sources, which are probably biased one way or another. Gotta stand up and look at the bigger picture and other sources. High level view does wonders. And, you are so right about the air and water quality today verses the 70's. Jesus. It's like night and day. No acid rain spots on my cars either.
Bullwinkle M
Posts: 911 +817
Thank you for correcting me
What was I thinking.....
Record Temps, floods, fires, the largest reactor in Europe about to melt down
Silly me
Oh wait....
There really IS a Storm Coming!
Don't worry about the riots, food shortage and extreme weather
Those are just preludes to the storm
It won't be a day, a week, a month or a year
It will be the remainder of your short life
So drink your contaminated water and Enjoy
Just forget the fact that there is not enough Lithium on the Planet to support an EV economy, or that you cannot afford an EV vehicle, or that the rolling blackouts will prevent you from charging one even if you could
Just Be happy and smile
Everything is .......
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MarcusNumb
Posts: 154 +299
Really nice article!
As a normal end user, I prefer to keep it simple. I try to build a computer with components that can stay with me at least in 3 to 5 years. I choose components that do not burn a hole in my wallet and burn my electric bills every month. When something new is released, I try to read all the news and reviews without being caught up in the hype.
You know, simple things and that's all I can do. I do believe that if the majority of normal end users can raise their consciousness, things can be changed cause in the end, companies run after the needs of people, although they always try to manipulate it.
As a normal end user, I prefer to keep it simple. I try to build a computer with components that can stay with me at least in 3 to 5 years. I choose components that do not burn a hole in my wallet and burn my electric bills every month. When something new is released, I try to read all the news and reviews without being caught up in the hype.
You know, simple things and that's all I can do. I do believe that if the majority of normal end users can raise their consciousness, things can be changed cause in the end, companies run after the needs of people, although they always try to manipulate it.
On the topic of cloud providers, it will be interesting to see how they tackle the sustainability issue, since so many businesses run exclusively from cloud providers these days. AWS recently added sustainability as one of its pillars to the Well Architected Framework, but it has a lot of work to do to flesh out the details of what that means and to publicize it in a way that gets other businesses on board. There will always be areas that require the cooperation between the cloud provider and the customer in optimizing for sustainability, even if the entire cloud infrastructure runs off of green energy sources.
Indeed. While it is all of our responsibility to live sustainably, I think some groups try to push too much responsibility on the individual person, rather than advocating for systemic change that makes it easier for people to live sustainably. There's only so much we as individuals can do, and it is the simple things, like you said.
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