Computing within limits
Big Tech's extreme investments in generative AI has led to a tremendeous acceleration in the carbon footprint of data centers and digital services, but the environmental impact of computing has been under scrutiny for many years before AI took the center stage as ICT's main polluter. Several research fields exist for exploring more environmentally responsible ways forward, such as Green IT, Sustainable ICT, Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction, and more recently, Green AI.
In addition to these, there are other concepts within computer science that proposes more radical approaches to dealing with our ecological crises. Last year, a colleague of mine discovered the workshop series Computing within Limits, or "LIMITS" for short. This workshop, and the interdisciplinary community around it, focuses on envisioning and exploring ways of computing that acknowledges and works within the limits of our existence, whether those are ecological, epistemological, social, or other boundaries that are relevant for supporting life on earth in a sustainable and just way.
The topics of the workshop gave us great inspiration, so we launched an internal research project to explore "Computing within Limits" and adjacent research fields, such as permacomputing and frugal computing. We have already done quite a lot of investigation of the existing body of literature within LIMITS, and going forward, we will share resources on a publicly available knowledge hub.
The LIMITS workshop is held June 23rd-25th, and is organized as a virtual, distributed event. In practive, this means that local gatherings, or "LIMITS-hubs", all around the world connect to the virtual event, enabling local community-building while avoiding the need for people to travel far to participate. We in SINTEF, together with UiO and the Norwegian Data Association, are organizing the first ever LIMITS-hub in Oslo, and we sincerely hope that as many as possible would like to participate. If you don't live in Oslo or Norway, you can check other hub locations here.
If you would like to join us in Oslo, sign up here!
