Green Language

[foodchain]

Do you think how culture encodes its information could be changed to reduce our carbon footprint? For instance, could you change a sign that gives direction to a bathroom to say the same thing but with far less material? Such as some other use of symbols, perhaps just a universal bathroom logo plus arrow.

 

With the internet I could think of such a possibility due to the use of emoticons. The Lol emoticon for instance is beyond famous, and it can represent so much while it itself could be written out with so little.

 

I know it seems like an awkward question, but if you could .zip the alphabet by 50% while retaining full meaning, to me it would just mean our communications should ultimately need less energy to be efficient.

[bascule]

Getting rid of email spam would help

[Sisyphus]

This idea is doubleplusungood.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

There's already a mechanism for the Internet. Most of the static files on SFN (CSS and JavaScript) are served zipped, meaning they take far less bandwidth to transfer. As most content delivered over the Internet is not text but data, like HTML, XML, and all that junk, compression algorithms are the way to go.

 

(We also cache the compressed files so the server doesn't have to compress them every single time someone requests them.)

[bascule]

There's already a mechanism for the Internet. Most of the static files on SFN (CSS and JavaScript) are served zipped, meaning they take far less bandwidth to transfer. As most content delivered over the Internet is not text but data, like HTML, XML, and all that junk, compression algorithms are the way to go.

 

But you're just trading bandwidth for CPU on the other side!

 

Want to save energy? Get rid of those CRT and plasma displays and replace them with more energy efficient LED-backlit LCDs.

 

Get rid of your incandescent light bulbs and replace them with CFL or LED ones.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

But you're just trading bandwidth for CPU on the other side!

Hence us caching the compressed files. We're just trading bandwidth for a few hundred kilobytes of disk space.

[Mr Skeptic]

But you're just trading bandwidth for CPU on the other side!

 

This might matter over small distances, but generally sending and receiving data requires high powered signals that get occasionally boosted or re-directed.

[foodchain]

I think computers should be diversified technologically if you want to talk about them. People should be able to purchase internet computers, much like hand held stuff. Instead people have the option of an entire computer when in all reality they may only use a small fraction of its total functions.

 

I am sure this generates billions for software and hardware vendors, but is it really an environmentally sound policy?

 

Think of a gaming computer, with hardware and software just built or dedicated for the sole purpose of gaming out over the internet. Then again who knows how much money is lost in waste plastic let out into the oceans. Such material could probably pay for a chunk of socialized healthcare if put to a better use.

[Sayonara]

I think computers should be diversified technologically if you want to talk about them.

They are.

 

People should be able to purchase internet computers, much like hand held stuff.

You mean like netbooks?

 

Instead people have the option of an entire computer when in all reality they may only use a small fraction of its total functions.

People do have the option. Computers are modular and configurable. What needs to change is how people are educated about computer technology, because right now they basically aren't.

[Rickdog]

Do you think how culture encodes its information could be changed to reduce our carbon footprint? For instance, could you change a sign that gives direction to a bathroom to say the same thing but with far less material? Such as some other use of symbols, perhaps just a universal bathroom logo plus arrow.

 

With the internet I could think of such a possibility due to the use of emoticons. The Lol emoticon for instance is beyond famous, and it can represent so much while it itself could be written out with so little.

 

I know it seems like an awkward question, but if you could .zip the alphabet by 50% while retaining full meaning, to me it would just mean our communications should ultimately need less energy to be efficient.

 

I, personally love the use of emoticons, since as a tool, they can express universal emotions, and as you stated in your post, foodchain my friend. Their use allows us, to express ourselves even if our native language is not the same, and since through a computer we don´t really have the possibility to read our mutual body language (through sight) in a computerized conversation, these small drawings, can do the trick perfectly well.

 

:-)

[foodchain]

People do have the option. Computers are modular and configurable. What needs to change is how people are educated about computer technology, because right now they basically aren't.

 

With how widespread computer use is I would wager that most people can probably do a variety of tasks on them.

 

 

To a different part of the topic. If you could accept phenotype pertaining to language, tools, computers and communications I think there is then some kind of selective pressure maybe.

 

Having high speed communications that use less by being more efficient is something that could be applied to language itself. I don't know if it was in sociology or anthropology but a good deal of progress was made in understanding foreign language by analysis it in some abstract format. Point is language can change which I will charge with being self evident in the world today.

 

Having a more compact language to say the same thing would to me mean less material has to be used when manufacturing such goods like signs, or books, or web content. That would mean a reduction of energy use in a variety of other ways too.

[CaptainPanic]

Choose a famous book, go to amazon, check how many pages the book is in different languages.

 

Do this a couple of times to rule out the possibility that other countries just use smaller print, and you got your efficient language.

 

Next step: convince the world to change its language.

[Sayonara]

With how widespread computer use is I would wager that most people can probably do a variety of tasks on them.

I meant with respect to understanding why they don't need an 800 watt PSU and a mega super gfx card to pick up their emails.

[Tau Meson]

Having high speed communications that use less by being more efficient is something that could be applied to language itself. I don't know if it was in sociology or anthropology but a good deal of progress was made in understanding foreign language by analysis it in some abstract format. Point is language can change which I will charge with being self evident in the world today.

 

Have you ever heard about Lojban? This language is based on Boolean Algebra and it is specifically designed to make human language much more efficient and less ambiguous.

 

Having a more compact language to say the same thing would to me mean less material has to be used when manufacturing such goods like signs, or books, or web content. That would mean a reduction of energy use in a variety of other ways too.

 

Less does not necessarily mean better though. If anything, less vocabulary words means more ambiguities, and thus more energy usage trying to translate it.

---

Merged post follows:

Consecutive posts merged

I meant with respect to understanding why they don't need an 800 watt PSU and a mega super gfx card to pick up their emails.

 

Most people who have those also play games like Crysis or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I personally think what really needs to change is our perception of how much stuff we actually need in general. The vast majority of all people can probably get by just using public resources like computer labs or internet cafes, for example.

[bascule]

This discussion is rather moot. Natural language in its texutal form is a comparatively low-bandwidth medium which is easily compressed.

 

Pretty much any other medium of communication: images, sounds, video... are going to be much higher bandwidth than text.

[Mr Skeptic]

This discussion is rather moot. Natural language in its texutal form is a comparatively low-bandwidth medium which is easily compressed.

 

Pretty much any other medium of communication: images, sounds, video... are going to be much higher bandwidth than text.

 

But, with a more efficient language, you could say the same information more quickly, so much less sound and video required.

[CaptainPanic]

.zip it.

[Sayonara]

.zip it.

A bit off-topic, but the other day I saw a computer case for sale, new, on a retail site... with a "ZipDrive" bay on the front of it.

 

I was confused. For a minute there I thought it was 1998.

[CharonY]

Hey, do not diss my poor zip drive. Also my MO drive still rocks.

[ewmon]

I think the easiest way to change the carbon footprint caused by my computer is to dim my screen (ie, lower the Brightness and Contrast) and/or to invert the colors (Press Ctrl+A to see a bluish example of this). Instead of "bright white" pages, our computers could show gray pages with white or black lettering, or black pages with white letters or gray lettering. Black letters on white pages could be optional. Screensavers could simply be black; the power lights will tell me that the computer is on.

[Sisyphus]

Don't LCDs actually use more power to show dark colors?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

From what I've heard, that's true. Dimming the screen will still work, as long as the dimming actually dims the backlight bulb rather than just making all the colors darker. (I don't know if you can dim the fluorescent backlights in some computers, or if it's faked in software. You can probably dim LED backlit LCDs.)