Engineered complexity in our systems is what keeps us shackled to the whims of big tech. The key to devolution is simplification. Simplify, simplify, simply. Remove, reduce, distill… and then maybe we stand a chance at owning and controlling the infrastructure as individuals.
@aral Efficient Computing is not about running your energy wasting thingies on solar panels. You first want your thingies to waste less energy.
Hi Performance Computing is not about buying bigger machines, but making optimal use of what you have and use *smaller* machines if they can do the task.
Less is more! Learn to think 21st century.
@alcinnz @gert @aral Yes, kind of. The bad side effect of that paradigm is that although machines become more efficient with each advancement, chronic upgraders use that as an excuse to buy new hardware every year. I think my 12+ y.o. hardware is good for the environment because I didn't dump 12 machines/phones in that span of time.
https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8657487494?profile=original Page 9, from a group I'm involved in.
There can be nuance here, but agreed: Embedded energy needs to be taken into account, there is truth to the "sunk cost fallacy". Upgrading software rather than hardware *can* help with that, though the strong expectation seems to be that it doesn't.
@aral @gert @alcinnz So I struggle with the idea of everyone dumping old CRTs to buy LCDs & dumping old cars to buy EVs, when EVs and their batteries take a huge toll on the evironment at manufacture time. How do we measure when an upgrade does more good than harm? It's non-trivial.