LOCOS Seminar – Sylvia Wenmackers: “A Philosophical Exploration of Frugal Computing”

Low Carbon Computing Seminar

Sylvia Wenmackers, BOF Research Professor at the  Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLPS) of KU Leuven, will deliver their talk “A Philosophical Exploration of Frugal Computing”

In response to the unsustainable rise in materials and energy required for current and projected computations, Vanderbauhede (2021) argued that we urgently need to adopt a more frugal approach to computing. To develop this proposal, this talk explores related ideas from economics and philosophy. For instance, Schumacher’s (1973) Small Is Beautiful gave rise to the notion of ‘appropriate technology’, which suggests supplementing frugal computing with a people-centered focus. In addition, environmental virtue ethics can be used to refine a question that frugal computing already poses: in light of human flourishing, which computations are worth doing in the first place? Finally, we may wonder whether the study of what needs to be done should ever take precedence over the investigation of the facts themselves. Vermeersch (2001) argued that our current environmental problems do indeed warrant such priorities.

See past and future LOCOS Seminars at https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/computing/research/researchthemes/lowcarbon/