[Environment-readinggroup] restarting after summer - share your own writing with the group

Wed Sep 25 13:50:48 CEST 2024

Thank you Fieke!

I’ve been working in AI for a while, and am curious how to define degrowth
computing.

Growth at OpenAI and Google and Anthropic is defined in terms of number of
AI model parameters (weights and biases), number of datapoints
(tokens/iotas of text data), and number of floating points operations per
second utilized by the model during training (corresponding to 100
megawatts or so per training run).

Does that make sense?

If these definitions somewhat make sense than degrowth would imply smaller
models, perhaps not running on data center GPU hardware (which is 60% lost
in terms of heat/entropy for common GPUs like NVIDIA H100s).

This is happening - perhaps the following reading could help?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02998-y

Thank you so much! I’m learning a lot from these sessions 🙏🙇‍♂️

On Wed, Sep 25, 2024 at 5:41 AM Fieke <fieke at criticalinfralab.net> wrote:

> Hi environment readers,
>
> We had another great session talking about resourcification, and how this
> is different or relates to extractivism.
>
> Now that we moved from reading books to reading articles, our own and
> others, the schedule keeps on shifting. We might not always use the mailing
> list to update people on the chances. So *CHECK* the critical infra lab
> website
> <https://www.criticalinfralab.net/2024/02/01/environment-reading-group/>
> for the next reading and updated schedule!
>
> What has changed for the next two session is that we move the degrowth and
> IETF paper around. The new schedule is:
>
>    - October 8: What might degrowth computing look like? + Strategies for
>    Degrowth Computing
>    - October 22: Fieke Jansen – paper on IETF; framing environmental
>    concerns and sustainability solutions (email fieke for a copy) + Solar
>    Protocol: Exploring Energy-Centered Design
>
> See you in two week
>
> Fieke
>
> On 10-09-2024 18:53, Fieke wrote:
>
> Hi environment readers,
>
> It was great to read and discuss Janna chapter with you today. I'm
> emailing to share a change in our reading schedule.
>
> To dive deeper in Asia's comment about resourcification vs extractivitsm
> we will read the following text next reading group session 'A
> resourcification manifesto: Understanding the social process of resources
> becoming resources
> <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733321000986>' .
> This will be an interesting discussion on resourcification vs extractivitsm
> vs green capitalism.
>
> We will read the ‘The compost engineers and sus saberes lentos: a
> manifest for regenerative technologies
> <https://codingrights.org/docs/compost_engineers.pdf>‘ by Joana Varon and
> Lucía Egana on Decemer 17th.
>
> See the full schedule here
> <https://www.criticalinfralab.net/2024/02/01/environment-reading-group/>.
>
> Happy reading
>
> Fieke
>
>
> On 03-09-2024 08:28, Fieke wrote:
>
> Hello environment and tech readers,
>
> The new reading schedule is online
> <https://www.criticalinfralab.net/2024/02/01/environment-reading-group/>.
> Thanks to Janna, Becky and Kimberly for volunteering their articles and PhD
> chapters as reading in this reading group. If others want to share their
> writing, reach out to me at any time!
>
> *Upcoming readings:*
> - September 10: Janna Frenzel – ‘How ‘Green’ Computing is Opening Up a
> New Frontier in Arctic Norway
> <https://ln5.sync.com/dl/f3d343cf0/9d4msu7r-t7ahg3ey-9tvj8sjb-2zfrcg3r>’
> - September 24: [manifesto!] ‘The compost engineers and sus saberes
> lentos: a manifest for regenerative technologies
> <https://codingrights.org/docs/compost_engineers.pdf>‘ by Joana Varon and
> Lucía EganaJuli & Aug
> - October 8: Fieke Jansen – paper on IETF; framing environmental concerns
> and sustainability solutions (email fieke for a copy) + Solar Protocol:
> Exploring Energy-Centered Design
> <https://computingwithinlimits.org/2022/papers/limits22-final-Brain.pdf>
> - October 22: What might degrowth computing look like?
> <https://criticaledtech.com/2022/04/08/what-might-degrowth-computing-look-like/>
> + Strategies for Degrowth Computing
> <https://computingwithinlimits.org/2022/papers/limits22-final-Sutherland.pdf>
> - November 5: Becky Kazansky –  TBD (email fieke for a copy)
> - November 19: Water justice and technology. The Covid-19 crisis,
> computational resource control, and water relief policy
> <https://ainowinstitute.org/publication/water-justice-and-technology-report>
> - December 3: Kimberly Anastacio – Dissertation chapter about the ITU and
> IETF work on environment-related standards (email fieke for a copy)
>
>
> Someone asked if we could change the time and date of the reading group.
> This is unfortunately not possible considering the timezone and other
> commitments f the core members of this group.
>
> See you all on September 10th at 16.00 CEST
> https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/5689070082
>
> Best Fieke
>
>
>
> On 19-08-2024 16:58, Fieke wrote:
>
> Hello fellow environment and tech readers,
>
> Greetings from a summery Amsterdam.
>
> On the 10th September we will restart the bi-weekly environment and tech
> reading group. This time we will try something new! We want to start
> engaging with each others writing. Are you working on or have your
> published a writing and want to share and discuss it with the rest of the
> group, let us know! Write me or the list serve an email and we will include
> your piece in the reading group syllabus.
>
> *Engaging with each others work*
> Sharing works in progress can feel daunting at time, so we want these
> session to be constructive. As an author you can use the reading group
> session to ask for feedback on specific parts/aspects of your writing.
>
> We will start these session with a small introduction, where you as an
> author can give context about the paper. Why did you write this paper, what
> was the jump off point, the constraints etc. Afterwards we will proceed by
> talking about main argument and look at each specific section.
>
> Feedback guidelines:
>
>    - Don’t be an asshole 😀
>    - Give constructive feedback (not only point out what doesn’t work,
>    but make suggestions for improvement)
>    - Share ideas of where to take the piece (f.ex. If it hasn’t been
>    published)
>
>
>
> *Readings *
> After the summer we will take a break from collectively reading a book and
> alternate between readings our own writings and reading the following
> articles and reports:
>
>    - The compost engineers and sus saberes lentos: a manifest for
>    regenerative technologies
>    <https://codingrights.org/docs/compost_engineers.pdf>
>    - Solar Protocol: Exploring Energy-Centered Design
>    <https://computingwithinlimits.org/2022/papers/limits22-final-Brain.pdf>
>    - What might degrowth computing look like?
>    <https://criticaledtech.com/2022/04/08/what-might-degrowth-computing-look-like/>
>    + Strategies for Degrowth Computing
>    <https://computingwithinlimits.org/2022/papers/limits22-final-Sutherland.pdf>
>    - Water justice and technology. The Covid-19 crisis, computational
>    resource control, and water relief policy
>    <https://ainowinstitute.org/publication/water-justice-and-technology-report>
>
>
> Looking forward to seeing you all in September
>
> Best Fieke
>
> --
> Fieke Jansen, PhD
> Postdoctoral Researcher - Media Studies Department - University of Amsterdam
> co-pi critical infrastructure lab
> Member Green Screen Climate Justice and Digital Rights coalition
>
> W: https://www.criticalinfralab.net/
> E: fieke at criticalinfralab.net
>
> Branch Magazine Special Issue 6: Green Screen Edition https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-6/
>
>
> --
> Fieke Jansen, PhD
> Postdoctoral Researcher - Media Studies Department - University of Amsterdam
> co-pi critical infrastructure lab
> Member Green Screen Climate Justice and Digital Rights coalition
>
> W: https://www.criticalinfralab.net/
> E: fieke at criticalinfralab.net
>
> Branch Magazine Special Issue 6: Green Screen Edition https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-6/
>
>
> --
> Fieke Jansen, PhD
> Postdoctoral Researcher - Media Studies Department - University of Amsterdam
> co-pi critical infrastructure lab
> Member Green Screen Climate Justice and Digital Rights coalition
>
> W: https://www.criticalinfralab.net/
> E: fieke at criticalinfralab.net
>
> Jansen, F.  (2024). The Practice of Predictive Identification: Optimising for Organisational Needs. Surveillance and Society Vol. 22 No. 3 https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/15788/11734
>
> Branch Magazine Special Issue 6: Green Screen Edition https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-6/
>
>
> --
> Fieke Jansen, PhD
> Postdoctoral Researcher - Media Studies Department - University of Amsterdam
> co-pi critical infrastructure lab
> Member Green Screen Climate Justice and Digital Rights coalition
>
> W: https://www.criticalinfralab.net/
> E: fieke at criticalinfralab.net
>
> Jansen, F.  (2024). The Practice of Predictive Identification: Optimising for Organisational Needs. Surveillance and Society Vol. 22 No. 3 https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/15788/11734
>
> Branch Magazine Special Issue 6: Green Screen Edition https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-6/
>
> --
> Environment-readinggroup mailing list
> Environment-readinggroup at criticalinfralab.net
> https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/environment-readinggroup
>
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