The Growing Energy Footprint Of The Information Economy

Back in 2009 I wrote a piece entitled 'The unbearable lightness of information.' Since then the information economy has become ever more resource intensive. Examples include Bitcoin, the widely recognized digital-only currency, which, as it turns out, consumes about as much electricity as the nation of Norway each year. Why a currency with no physical bills should weigh so heavily on the energy system is explained in the same linked piece.

I know proponents of AI are telling us how it is going to revolutionize our life by, among other things, making diagnosis and treatment of disease easier; spotting all manner of trends to help businesses, government, educational institutions and individuals make better decisions; and generating text for myriad purposes both mundane think instruction manual and creative think movie script.

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