Do you want to do something to help this planet? Stop flying.

[NoOneMan]

158. Did you know...

The human brain uses about 20+% of our energy, just sending around energy in a biologically evolved multiprocessor. Thats pretty demanding. When you think about the internet, its just a big network that allows energy to flow in directions (stopping at the server level for more processing) and creates outputs at the IO points. As long as you need energy flowing, Im not sure what you can do about it.

On the server side, a bad thing is happening in this regard. Hardware is becoming so cheap (due to technology) that it encourages vast inefficiency. Why write a better program when you spend less money (by not paying developers) just doubling down on RAM and CPU? Why use better image compression (or smaller media) when hard drive space is amazingly cheap and the internet becomes faster? Many, many sites uses terribly inefficient programming and instead throw money at hardware.

A lot of what is produced is also not "helpful". They encourage the consumption of energy (by downloading the content) for trivial matters.

I really, really am not sure the net as we know it could possibly be part of any type of sustainable future. Its only going to get bigger, allow more information (or energy) flowing, and probably become more wasteful. Though, its not going away soon (suggesting maybe the sustainable future is what is on the block)