Dr. Anne Pasek from Trent University will be joining us for Science Litercay Week 2023!

This talk presents a survey of American computer history and present-day infrastructural politics, told through the story of energy efficiency. Much of the success of the computer revolution can be explained through the combined exponential growth in chip density and energy savings. We often think of this in terms of Moore's Law: the presumption that computer chips will always be smaller, faster, and cheaper as time goes by. However, this trend has run against real material limits, both in terms of chip architectures and in the planet-wide climate impacts of cloud computing and AI. This should prompt us to ask new questions about energy and computing: when is efficiency more of a means of deferring a contradiction, rather than resolving a problem?

Take a look at our Science Literacy Week calendar to find other great events on campus beginning September 18.