Computers, Society, and Nature

As seen on slashdot, Burlington Vermont is embarking on a plan to run fiber to the home. It’s interesting to note the approach: provide a fibre infrastructure at low cost, and then allow the private sector to lease a part of the bandwidth for phone, television, and internet.

The article is actually fairly informative, and does a nice job of presenting the head of the project, as well as some of the hurdles the project has faced. It’s interesting to note that the city feels it’s unlikely any private sector companies would get around to putting in the fibre for a good many years.

What we take for granted as technological niceties are easily cloaked becuase they seamlessly mesh with our human needs. Or, our human needs mesh with technology? An interplay evolves, and happily, the two combine. Hence, the “Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Harraway. This is old-hat for most, but reconsider the slurry of new gadgets with consumer comfort as their prime design goal, or, better, yet, consumer performance. The attack comes from both sides: humans being copied into computer/robot models and also computers complementing the mind&body. Some more glib developements: Ãœbergeek keyboard, ultra-manipulative computer interface, and reading to maximize space and efficiency.

Okay, it’s not about computers or the environment, but it’s a feel good article. Canada ranks number one in astronomy, in terms of the frequency that others cite our publications in astronomy-related scientific journals.

I love the title of the article, which isn’t explained but the reference should be apparent (the author knows his Canadians): Canada Looks Up, Way Up

In lieu of the status quo, what new technologies will be the top contenders against coal-fired power plants? No sectors will die out entirely (they’re all so neat!), but some will shine brighter… say, solar power? British Petroleum is picking up the slack and pouring money into this sustainable technology. Sustainable? Well, the costs of materials and energy-intensive production process have been depressing solar power.

Several months ago, radical departures form the standard volatic cell design emerged – my favorite was a spray-on polymer that aligned its molecules to conduct electricity from sunlight. For others, dive through the Technology Review issues of 2004.

Of course, technology works best in conjuntion with a support network. Just because there may be a patch of sunny-year-round grassy fields, it doesn’t mean electricity can be shipped efficiently enough without a proper power grid. Also from Tech. Review, May 2005; new superconductivity shortcuts include nanotube wires, with virtually ZERO resistance. Maybe wind farms will spring up in North Dakota like they’ve always wanted.

As for BP’s new solar program – it’s comforting when petroleum-intensive R&D makes room for green technology. But, one must always wonder, where is the line between greening and greenwashing?

Nick Christof, of the NYTimes, believes that the Chinese government is doomed. What or who’s going to do it? Blogs.

the Internet is beginning to play the watchdog role in China that the press plays in the West. The Internet is also eroding the leadership’s monopoly on information and is complicating the traditional policy of “nei jin wai song” – cracking down at home while pretending to foreigners to be wide open.

Colour me sceptical, but the Chinese government has been around for a long time and, I’m guessing, can find ways to use a new technology just as well as its citizens.

In a realistic breakdown of energy source options, the tally puts nuclear power far in the lead. A true-to-their-roots assortment of environmental movements continue to speak out against shifting energy supply to nuclear power plants, refusing to budge. Greenpeace sent an emergency email requesting petitions in favor of Sen. McCain releasing the generous subsidies for nuclear technology from the bill on climate change. They and others view such actions as a surrender, whereby conservation and clean energy are dismissed. Since when is nuclear energy such a hero?

But the long and short of it is that, as Stewart Brand and others are beginning to admit, and hard-line no-nukes folk are beginning to concede, the need for carbon-free energy eclipses the risk from nuclear power. In the three decades since a reactor has been built, technology has improved considerably; managerial concerns (the ‘Human Factor’) may never be infallible, and are what draw the most criticism towards nuclear power.

Shortly after his article in Technology Review (accompanied by a pitcure of Stewart the saintly prophet), the New York Times kicks in with a comprehensive follow-up, chock-full of reactions from across the board. Perhaps nuclear energy will get its wings after all.

See previous post for all the environmental heresies.

Wired Magazine reports on a new generation and demographic of people deciding to reduce their reliance on traditional power. Solar panels and wind turbines are popping up all over the suburbs.

Wired calls it moving from the hardcore to the hybrid (or “hygrid”). The assumption is that the class of individual has changed. However, I would warrant that all the hippie ‘back to the landers’ in the 60s and 70s came from middle class families. What’s more interesting is the variety of reasons driving this new group of individuals:

Start with the cost of energy. Most US homes use natural gas for heat. Natural gas prices have been soaring. So has the price of electricity produced by coal-burning power plants. And that’s not even factoring in the more than $1 billion in subsidies that go to the oil and gas industry, or the environmental damage – increased greenhouse emissions and mercury pollution – caused by burning fossil fuels.

At the same time, the conventional power grid is showing signs of age. Energy use has increased far more quickly than capacity has been added. So blackouts and brownouts occur more often. According to Jay Apt, director of the Electricity Industry Center at Carnegie Mellon University, every four months the US endures a blackout large enough to cut power to half a million homes. Add the threat of terrorism, and homeowners understandably want greater security and control over their power. “I’d rather do it myself than trust the experts,” Bell says. When the grid goes down, his lights stay on.

The article adds that the cost of alternate energy has decreased for the average consumer. After all, “Only a handful of hardcore greens were willing to multiply their energy bills by eight to save the planet. ” To help with the cost, some US states have stepped in to subsidize purchases. So it seems that we’re finally moving past the paradox of the cost decreasing once more people start using the technology but people will only start using the technology once the cost decreases.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known – Carl Sagan. Interesting outreach program supported by the SETI Institiute that teaches interdisciplinary science to kids. They are dedicated to “…the role of science and technology in health, the environment, and sustainable development.” I guess searching the universe for intelligence lends one a perspective that sees Earth as a small fragile planet in need of careful management.

This year’s World Expo in Nagoya, Japan is subtitled Nature’s Wisdom.

Thanks to rapid technological development, the 20th Century was characterized by mass-production and mass-consumption, which in turn led to material improvements in our daily lives. At the same time, these trends resulted in various global issues such as desertification, global warming, and a shortage of natural resources. As these issues cannot be resolved by any one nation, the international community needs to unite in confronting them: we must come together and share our experience and wisdom, in order to create a new direction for humanity which is both sustainable and harmonious with nature.

Environmental considerations were taken very seriously in both the building and the subject matter on display. An environmental impact assessment was conducted and steps were taken to preserve the ponds and vegetation, although the definition the developers have for preservation of what was an existing youth park as well as the effectiveness of protecting a site that will experience 10m visitors has yet to be evaluated. Numerous innovations are showcased in the park, such as wall greening, permeable pavement, bamboo for building and cooling huge buildings, biodegradable plastics for all the eating utensils, ozone to process the waste water and, I imagine, plenty of super toilets. All the buildings are designed to be broken down into modules and reused. The Expo 2005 website has plenty of artists’ renditions but few images of the actual site, so it’s difficult to get a sense of what it looks like. I gues you have to be there.

In particular, check out the NGO Global village, subtitled the ‘Interactive Fun Zone’. And what expo with nature as a theme would be complete without a pavillon on robots?

Official Mascots of Expo 2005: Morizo (Forest Grand Father) and Kiccoro (Forest Child)

The Guardian has a great review of the Expo–the article is worth reading on its own–that compares the Expo to an Edo-dynasty palace garden instead of a techno-fest. The article also contains these wonders of translation:

Following the exhortions of arcane signs through the grounds, I promised to avoid making “exhibitions of collective enthusiasm”, to refrain from “scattering gas, liquid, powder and other items”, and the “sowing of seed”.

An interesting personal web site I came across today, the site of Mr. Keunwoo Lee, of the University of Washington. It has a few interesting links, including a Society and technology wiki, as well as some tips he has for professors considering using wikis in courses.

Among other mildly interesting things to be found, UW seems to allow people to sign up for various credit weights for the same course, for example, if someone wishes to participate only in the discussions for credit, they can sign up for 1 credit, if they wish to present a paper in addition, they can sign up for two credits, and so on. It’s an interesting amount of flexibility, which would seem beneficial when students want to take a broader range of courses.

To request this at McGill would no doubt result in commissions to investigate the possibility of creating a steering committee to create the new forms allowing it to be passed to the senate for approval before being sent to more implementation commitees.

Want to hunt deer or bear remotely? You pay your money and you are given remote control of a rifle physically located in the Texas brush. The Washington Post explains how it works:

The Remington .30-06 rifle is mounted atop a homemade contraption of welded metal and a piece of butcher block, and is attached to a small motor, three video cameras (two linked to the Internet, including the one embedded in the gun scope) and a door lock actuator, like that used in a car. The actuator is attached to a wire that pulls the trigger at the click of the mouse. From virtually anywhere, someone with an Internet connection can fire the rifle.

Not surprising what the Internet enables. What is surprising is the coalition that supports a ban on animal hunting by remote control.

In a rare alliance, hunters and the National Rifle Association have joined forces with their traditional foes, the animal welfare and Humane Society activists. And some scholars, not surprised to see violent computer games elevated to another level, are questioning the propriety of an enterprise that blurs the line between the reality of man-stalks-beast in the great outdoors to the virtual anonymity of shooter-pulls-trigger from thousands of miles away.

This application inevitably begs the question of whether diabolical individuals wouldn’t propose this for a city street in Bagdad. Let’s hope the alliance is as vocal about humans as they are about hunting.

BTW, why can’t someone design a remote control device that is more beneficent towards the environment, like a tree seedling planter or a litter remover?

I stumbled across the blog of Zach Braff today, specifically his garden state blog. It is a reminder of how powerful celebrity has become. Some of his posts have over three thousand comments, and the average seems to be about one thousand comments per post. Admittedly, the posts seem to be on the order of about one per month, allowing more time for comments to be made.

Such large numbers of posts, particularly when compared to most other blogs seems to indicate something about the internet audience. Mainstream North American culture has a huge presence on the internet, and its presence seems to justify the use of the term audience, the majority of its presence on the internet is not interactive, it is one way communication: no one would expect Mr. Braff to respond to comments, and the comments reflect that. Because of this, I feel many people tend to underestimate its online stature.

It is this mainstream which is being completely missed by most websites. Sites like RealClimate and even much larger sites like slashdot or fark, still can’t address even a fraction of the audience that conventional media reaches. In addition, the internet audience of those sites generally tends to be the converted, not exactly the median view on any given issue.

I feel it is the challenge of the left to push their message into the mainstream in such a way that it is for the most part indistinguishable from entertainment.

Even as they used the technology, residents of rich North American communities thought they were free of its infrastructure. Instead the ugly but necessary–if you want to use cellphones–towers are invading even the wealthiest burb.

Their losing battle is becoming commonplace as hundreds of communities around the country wage the same fight against cellphone companies and the march of spindly, metallic and freakishly tall antennas into quiet, affluent precincts of suburbia.

Fears that the gigantic towers will reduce property values and cause health problems from radio-frequency emissions have created the kind of opposition that is usually reserved for waste treatment plants in many towns.

From the UK newspaper, The Independent:

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body.

And the debate:

[Professor Richard Meilan, a geneticist at Purdue University in Indiana]: “I do not have any ethical issue with using human genes to engineer plants”, dismissing talk of “Frankenstein foods” as “rubbish”. He believes that that European opposition to GM crops and food is fuelled by agricultural protectionism.

Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.