Interesting read - http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/can-the-internet-run-on-renewable-energy.html What do you think?
Bit of a clickbaity article in my view, and it's a "problem" that he hasn't given a credible solution/proposal to. I mean libraries with DVD collections and then bicycle access to reduce car traffic, in an effort to stop on demand video streaming? His head is in the clouds. The debate he is going on about is far far wider than just the internet, electricity consumption is a global problem across every facet of life. I think speed limits would slow innovation as there is less incentive to then contribute to it. As soon as it is legislated, we then have to make a case for that legislation to be changed and then some sort of guarantee that it will be before innovation will proceed. Essentially every roadblock to innovation makes progress slower. It's a luddite and backward view. That view is propagated across that blog pretty heavily, he's a cynic and he only demonstrates a cynical perspective. Advances in microcomputing have meant computational processes are now far more energy efficient than 10, 5 even 1 year ago. You only have to look at how small our transistor processes are now for physical evidence of this.
You have to look at the energy problem from the correct angle. Energy consumption is not the problem, energy generation is. My light bulb does not produce carbon pollution, it's the big ass coal burning power stations that do that and they're the ones who should be made to reduce their pollutant output regardless of the energy output. As usual it's money that talks and the energy producers have the ear (if not the pockets) of the politicians who can legistate that. I know that if we use less power then less will need to be generated but they still polute and anyway they'll just bump the prices to make up for the lost income.
I doubt they are a cynic.However, they do touch upon an interesting issue which is related to internet use and social relationships. I am not sure if putting a hard limit on internet speeds will improve social relations but rather through taking other design and economic issues into consideration too. I posted the article, not because I think its completely correct, but because it raises some very interesting issues. For example, does constant increase in internet speeds really make a positive difference to society? Or what are we primarily using the internet for currently and how it can be used in the future without simply falling back to the "MOAR SPEED!" arguement.
The guy is an idiot (stopped reading about halfway though it was so bad). The amount of worldwide GDP directly or indirectly tied to the internet has got to be astounding. I guess we should stop investing in roads, rail (commercial and public transit) and shipping because those consume energy too. Who cares if it cripples the economy?
Yea, maybe having limits has something to do with innovation that's widely useful to society. Its an interesting question. If only the article was written better.