On computer sustainability

2012/05/01 Leturia Azkarate, Igor - Informatikaria eta ikertzaileaElhuyar Hizkuntza eta Teknologia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

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The so-called green computing covers from the process of making devices to the energy efficiency of the calculation centers, through the energy management of computers (screens, storage devices, etc.) until the recycling of materials. When these concepts become public, they come with all paraphernalia: catalogue of good practices, certifications... many manufacturers have them. I will not say that these things are not good and that the manufacturers do not take into account those mentioned. However, I do not think that sustainability is the most important criterion in the way that the world of computer science in general takes, much less, but something that is done to stay well. And I have many doubts as to whether the current digital device model is sustainable.

A feature of the world of ICTs is the short life of devices: shortly after buying them you need to buy a new one. Not because the devices cannot last longer (or in some cases yes, because the programmed obsolescence is also), but because they immediately become obsolete. These two practices are totally contrary to sustainability, but, in short, computer manufacturers are companies, companies have to have benefits and have to sell to have benefits. To do this, they continually launch new, increasingly better devices. But are those best characteristics really necessary or are they artificially created needs by producers? We need a camera of pictures of the mobile increasingly better, because our photos do not look so good on screens with an increasing resolution; we need bigger and bigger hard disks to be able to save videos or Blu-ray movies recorded on the mobile in HD; we need a microprocessor faster and faster to manage them all; and a long etcetera.

Missed opportunity

The possibility of stopping this crazy wheel about 5 years ago. An One Laptop Per Child project that aims to promote the education of children in developing countries through ICTs (see No.240) manufactured a computer designed according to other criteria: light, low consumption, sustainable, with visible screen also in the light of the sun, cheap... Conceptually revolutionary, and technologically speaking, the low energy consumption was an important factor in this device: it did not have a mechanical storage device, that is, a reader or CD or DVD recorder or a hard disk (with flash card or SD), and it was the first device with electronic ink screen; the microprocessor was less powerful and a real effort was made for the Ux to function properly. It was also called 4P Computing, for its importance in energy consumption, performance exploitation, portability and price ( power, performance, portability, price ).

The concept of Netbook arises following the model of the OLPC computer. They have hard disk and have no electronic ink screen, but they are not as powerful as conventional and have less consumption. They are, in short, more sustainable. E-book readers began to spread around the same time, coinciding with the departure of Kindle by Amazon. They work with electronic ink and have a very low energy consumption, they can last weeks without the need to charge the battery. Computer science is also more sustainable than other devices with screen. It is true that they have disadvantages (not colors, too slow to move the video...), but the technology of the fastest color electronic ink is on its way (see nº 271). ).

However, they are about to die because of the tablets. Apple took the iPad in 2010 and, fascinated by its Neonese lights, we have set aside the path of sustainability, if ever, and we are rolling back into increasingly powerful and energy-efficient devices. Netbooks are barely sold and the major producers of ebook readers have discarded electronic ink in the latest models of their devices (Kindle Fire and Nook Color).

On the other hand, there is an obvious trend that lately is absolutely "unsustainable" (i.e., unsustainable): a lot of devices we have. The home computer, the mobile phone, the tablet, the laptop, the photo camera... are ultimately computers capable of doing similar things. Canonical, author of the Ubuntu Linux operating system for desktop computers, recently presented a product that can help avoid it: Ubuntu for Android. It is an application for smartphones with Android operating system that runs an Ubuntu system and is complemented by a dock that connects to a keyboard and a screen. Putting our phone in the dock and running the Ubuntu for Android app, we can use our phone as a computer for home or work.

Economic sustainability: economic sustainability

Not only from the environmental, but economic point of view, is not sustainable the path that leads to computing. Faced with the economic crisis, we often heard that the previous life was not real, that we lived above our possibilities, that the prices of housing and many things were too inflated... Everything looks very clear a posteriori. But we do not see that in computer science we live the same situation. It is not normal, for example, that there are queues every time the latest models of the most expensive and luxurious tablets and smartphones on the market come out, when they hardly have anything new with respect to the previous model that came out six months earlier, or that in a home there are so many devices so similar for the same functions. It is not sustainable and the economic bubble will explode as it exploded. Fortunately, electronic devices are a few lower steps in the scale of needs and prices, and the explosion will not affect us so much.

In addition, I believe that the technology model is not economically sustainable if you can't reach everyone, including those of the Third World. The model driven by OLPC took into account the price and represented a model for computing to reach everyone. But now this factor is hardly taken into account: there are very expensive apparatuses, although in the background there are many cheaper (four or five times cheaper) that can do the same.

Computer science is immersed in a crazy race that is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable. Unfortunately, we do not learn from the lessons of other fields, and that race will not end because we have realized it; when it is too late we will realize that it has exploded into our hands when the damage is done.