Computing within limits

Big Tech's extreme investments in generative AI has led to a tremendeous acceleration in the carbon footprint of data centers and digital services, but the environmental impact of computing has been under scrutiny for many years before AI took the center stage as ICT's main polluter. Several research fields exist for exploring more environmentally responsible ways forward, such as Green IT, Sustainable ICT, Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction, and more recently, Green AI. In addition to these, there are other concepts within computer science that proposes more radical approaches to dealing with our ecological crises. Last year, a colleague of mine discovered the workshop series Computing within Limits, or "LIMITS" for short. This workshop, and the interdisciplinary community around it, focuses on envisioning and exploring ways of computing that acknowledges and works within the limits of our existence, whether those are ecological, epistemological, social, or other boundaries that…