socially-responsible-computing

Jesse Dodge, Taylor Prewitt, Remi Tachet Des Combes, Erika Odmark, Roy Schwartz, Emma Strubell, Alexandra Sasha Luccioni, NOah A. Smith, Nicole DeCario, Will Buchanan Bottom Line Up Front I rate this 6.6. Two papers wearing a trenchcoat. The first half is about how much electricity machine learning models use, and lots of experiments and high quality data are used to work this out. The second is two half-baked ideas about what to do with this information, with a few strange figures spit out hinging on assumptions that have nothing to do with either machine learning algorithms or reality....

Udit Gupta et al. in a wonky curvy font. Bottom Line Up Front I rate this 5.1 New model is proposed. Multiple different ways to use it depending on what the type of hardware is. Goal is for designers themselves to build hardware that minimizes life-cycle impact, not just operational. Summary Intro We want to reduce consumption for the environment, we want to increase consumption for all the new applications and cloud-scale fun....

A paper by Udit Gupta about the environmental impact of computing systems. Bottom Line Up Front I rate this 4.1. Making computers is worse than using computers. Comprehensive overview of all of the different sources of carbon in computing, very citation dense, and probably best used as a jumping-off point to go in-depth into any one of the paragraphs on this paper. Summary Information and communication technology includes consumer devices, networking tech, and data centers....

First chapter from Michael F Ashby’s book “Materials and Sustainable Development”. Bottom Line Up Front I rate this 5.7. Many very good visuals show that we’re using rarer materials and more of them.t Summary Michael starts by defining sustainable development. Not everyone perceives sustainable development the same way. Environment, Economy, Society. Development, in a purely technical sense, is just economic growth. Environment is something to be exploited to help progress society from farmers to industrial and beyond....

Everybody loves Dennard scaling and living in the Post-Dennard future. Here’s the paper that gives us Dennard scaling. Bottom Line Up Front I rate this 6.4. A technical paper outlining why very small transistors are difficult to make, how to make them, and why they’re so great. Highly technical specifics but key nuggets presented in a way a layperson can understand. Obvious why this became The scaling law. Summary Intro Starts describing the state of the art in 1974....

Bottom line up front I rate this 5.5. With zero formal ethics background, this did a good job of laying out definitions, problems, and solutions. The recommendations are good, but even the most optimistic author must have intended for these to be aspirational. Summary Preface Computing research community must address ethical and societal impacts of computing technologies. The National Academies has created a Committee on Responsible Computing Research. They have been tasked with coming up with practical guidelines....

The first “Your Computer Is On Fire” essay, the second part of the “Introductions” section. Written by Mar Hicks. Bottom line up front I rate this 3.2. A handful of insightful parallels to past disasters buried among a long-form version of May 2020’s liberal Twitter. Begins summarizing some of the worst of all of the usual suspects. Ends with a call for regulation, unionization, and protest. Summary This one will age like milk....

The titular essay from Thomas S Mullaney’s book “Your computer is on fire”. The book itself is a collection of arguments about how awful computing is for the environment. Bottom line up front I rate this 2.3. 8 pages of directors-cut feeling intro, the radio edit would only include the punchy bits of the first paragraph and the first half of the last paragraph. Summary Thomas is writing to me. Right out of the gate, he compares himself to a Luddite and then provides examples of excuses I would use to hand-wave away issues....

Bottom Line Up Front I rate this 1.2. Unreadable formatting. Too much jargon for an amateur. The paper is mostly describing the vomit of figures found on the last pages. It also introduces roughly a million acronyms (RaMA) that are never used again. More complex chips take more to build. Only considers manufacturing cost, not lifetime cost. Summary Intro Semiconductor manufacturing ignores life cycle assessments in favor of more performant technologies....