Future Memories: Sustainability of Computing

Not too long ago I was asked to have lunch with people at the Brakke Grond, Vlaamsch Cultuurhuis in Amsterdam, and had to ask a question about the future of memory. [1] This is what I shared with them: The circular economy is one of the leading frameworks guiding sustainable development currently. Like in the Cradle to Cradle framework previously it considers the bio-cycle and the techno-cycle as two distinct cycles, each with their own ways of cycling.[2] Considering some advancements in bio engineering and computing I think the diagram needs to be expanded upon.

The circular economy diagram needs to be expanded upon.

In the emerging internet of things network we’re seeing exponential growth in the amount of sensors that are creating big data. It is expected that within 4 years there will be between 25 and 50 billion devices hooked up and the amount of data will have multiplied by 50.[3] Currently, the ICT network is already using about 10% of the world supply in electricity.[4] That amount of electricity is enough to have supplied the whole world with lighting in 1985, the year I was born. According to the REN21 report on 2014[5], 22.8% of total global electricity demand was already generated using renewables and more then half of net additions to global power capacity were renewables. So fingers crossed that the latter upward trend keeps up with the first.

We are running against the limits of silicon-based computing.[6] That’s a pity because silicon is the second most abundant element on the planet. Moore’s law is ending. To keep increasing computing capacity scientists and entrepreneurs are working on storing and reading data from DNA (the most basic information of biological life) while others are looking at brain functions to replace chips. A human brain uses 40k times less energy then a computer running on silicon based chips while processing vast amounts of data around the clock.[7] If we can figure out this trick of nature it could be the next step in computing that would meet the growing demand in data processing (and storage) capacity of the internet of things.

Why not have a repair loop in the biological cycle? Why not have data as a cycle?

Here is where I start questioning whether the circular economy diagram is comprehensive enough if it were to be used in the future computing industry. For example, we’re already able to grow and repair human tissues by cell engineering, so why not have a repair loop in the biological cycle? Going even further, data (and memory or even information) itself isn’t taken into account as a material that needs to circulate. That can be data stored on physical drives and servers but also genetic data, like those of plants that are being preserved in the Svaldard Global Seed Vault.[8] Plants already had an “internet of fungus” in order to exchange information before we did, connecting about 90% of them peer-to-peer. Plants on this web, like us, commit cyber crimes but also help each other. [9] Without information freely circulating, materials will not freely circulate. But another technological advancement might help us get one step further.

Plants have an internet of fungus that connects their roots.

With blockchain technology the origins, traces and authenticity of all physical products could theoretically be guaranteed because the accounts (data) are kept in a distributed and open fashion and have to be verified by all peers.[10] This technology will pressure companies to open their books because competing on the basis of privatized information will become outdated. This integration of information and material flows should then also form the base for a valuing of natural assets agreed upon by all participants. Kind of like the concept: Eco-coin.[11] And considering we are building it with natural assets and include data as a flow, this system is recursive and complex. This is the future memory, or perhaps even consciousness, we need to build with the internet of things in which we integrate all cycles.

Integration of information and material flows should form the base for a valuing of natural assets agreed upon by all participants.

Never mind that integration of databases across different programming cultures is hard, as Vinay Gupta (socio-technical systems evangelist) also advocates; we should be wary of the incentives we build into these systems and how we divide the governance thereof in separate powers.[12] It’s hard to keep a system intended for common good from becoming corrupted by market forces if it’s not open-source. And if its power is not distributed then it’s primed to become a natural monopoly. The Ethereum platform builds upon blockchain technology with smart contracts that can essentially promote a circular economy like this:

Recycling contract (uploaded to blockchain on date by Recycler A)
if product batch from Supplier B contains recyclable materials
then calculate added profit margin and send percentage x to Supplier B
else send reminder to Supplier B to include recyclable materials

This does not only add a further step in automation, where machines can take care of contracts, but also creates positive incentives throughout chains of production and fosters win-win scenarios. Recycler A profits, Supplier B profits and they’re both ecologically responsible.

Above: The top row of blocks represent web interfaces and applications, the bottom layer(s) are data handling and storage. Today your data is stored in a silo. With blockchains your data will be stored (publically or pseudo anonymously) in a shared database. This diagram is adapted from a diagram by Nick Grossman, GM at Union Square ventures, however his also includes time.

Now I’m going to take a leap. In the anime ‘Psycho Pass’ a super computer that has been built up by the brains of about 200 criminally asymptomatic people (psychopaths) rules Japan.[13] Together, these brains form an entity that constantly monitors people via street scanners, to be able to arrest them before committing a crime (sounds like Minority Report, right?) and also assigns people their jobs based on aptitude. In theory the system wants to provide the greatest amount of wellbeing for the greatest number of people. But it’s a centralized power that moves the citizens around like pawns and they are so far reduced of having autonomy that some of them even lose all lust for life and die.

In the anime 'Psycho Pass', not only things but also people are constantly sensed by a super computer AI that is built out of brains.

Post-silicon alternatives like nano and quantum computing seem to be converging towards bio-mimicked design, even design with biological components, as we constantly discover new things about our brain functions.[14] Blockchain platforms like Ethereum offer a promise for a circular economy through smart contracts but are also heading towards a world super computer. With the emergence of the internet of things this computer will soon be sensing all living and non-living things on the planet, as soon as we solve the problem of integration. The call for robust and beneficial AI[15] is similar to what we need to ask in this matter and I’ve pointed out aspects like distribution of power and freedom of information. We need to start asking ourselves what most defines us as humans, competition and collaboration, and criticize the capitalist narrative that we’ve been fed before we head into an age of abundance with the notion of scarcity.

[1] https://www.brakkegrond.nl/agenda/all-future-memories

[2] https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/interactive-diagram

[3] https://digital-me-up.com/2016/01/26/big-data-and-internet-of-things-new-dilemmas/

[4] https://science.time.com/2013/08/14/power-drain-the-digital-cloud-is-using-more-energy-than-you-think/

[5] https://www.ren21.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/GSR2015_KeyFindings_lowres.pdf

[6] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3257910/The-end-silicon-IBM-reveals-carbon-nanotube-breakthrough-revolutionise-computing-lead-ultrafast-Artificial-Intelligence-brain-chips.html

[7] https://www.livescience.com/45304-human-brain-microchip-9000-times-faster-than-pc.html

[8] https://www.croptrust.org/what-we-do/svalbard-global-seed-vault/

[9] https://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet

[10] https://www.provenance.org/whitepaper

[11] https://www.nextnature.net/projects/ecocoin/

[12] https://medium.com/@ConsenSys/programmable-blockchains-in-context-ethereum-s-future-cd8451eb421e#.qp6fe7pjn

[13] https://psychopass.wikia.com/wiki/Sibyl_System

[14] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/stuart-hameroff/is-your-brain-really-a-co_b_7756700.html

[15] https://futureoflife.org/ai-open-letter/