Steven spent five years studying the Cloud’s ecological and cultural impacts. The focus here is on server farms/data centers — their staggering carbon footprint and their contribution to issues around water scarcity and noise pollution in particular. But the longer case study has an additional focus on the engineers running the centers. It's a fascinating on-the-ground study, carefully researched and beautifully told (in part, through vignettes based on the his fieldwork.) Part of the college's new SERC (Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing) program, which is freely accessible and full of resources that may be of interest to HN readers. More info here for anyone curious: https://mit-serc.pubpub.org/
"""As he mills about his home, as he works, and eats, and bathes, it is there, a monotonal drone, a clatter unceasing, a constant, undesired companion to his life. It festers in his mind, clawing at his thoughts, probing his sanity, poisoning him with a constant spell of dread and anxiety. He cannot leave; he is not allowed to. He cannot escape. He is there, with it, a prisoner to its bewitching monotone."""
Steven spent five years studying the Cloud’s ecological and cultural impacts. The focus here is on server farms/data centers — their staggering carbon footprint and their contribution to issues around water scarcity and noise pollution in particular. But the longer case study has an additional focus on the engineers running the centers. It's a fascinating on-the-ground study, carefully researched and beautifully told (in part, through vignettes based on the his fieldwork.) Part of the college's new SERC (Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing) program, which is freely accessible and full of resources that may be of interest to HN readers. More info here for anyone curious: https://mit-serc.pubpub.org/