By now, it’s no longer news: the digital cloud is earth bound. It is a tangle of wires, minerals, water molecules, plastics, electricity, and sweat. Current configurations of cloud-based digital technologies—exemplified most recently with the boom of artificial intelligence—have initiated an expansive and growing footprint of always-on data infrastructure. In these places, the droning hum of the data center imposes a sonic reminder: our digital lives require constant and finite sources of energy, water, labor, and minerals to keep everything running smoothly. In this talk, Dustin Edwards will highlight the entangled damages (ecological, climatic, colonial) of large-scale digital infrastructures. As awareness of digital damage continues to grow in our collective public consciousness, the talk will emphasize that how we respond and enter the story matters. Under the banner of “Sustainable AI,” many tech companies and consulting firms are banking on techno-optimism, insisting that the environmental technofix is within reach. But there’s a catch: the industry will need more data and more computing power to arrive at more sustainable practices. In addition to highlighting what this approach downplays and ignores, the talk will outline what walking a more accountable path might entail.
