Green Computing

While in a session at SC07 there was a power outage. At first we thought someone was playing with the lights again...as they were tricking us at breakfast before the caffine set in. But nope, this was a real outage for a few minutes. There was so much energy going on at the Reno convention center we glitched the system momentarily.

The night before I was talking with my friend Zaida about a creating a science project with doll houses and solar energy to teach kids about solar energy. Also, building the house helps with geometry skills.

Then she told me about green computing. She said that it is so important for K-12 to teach about energy efficiency. As computing power increases (e.g. petaflops, exabytes) the heat will be a real challenge. I thought this was really interesting. So, considering the future of technology...we really need to consider green computing.

I once wrote an article for my college paper on SMART plants developed for NASA to go Mars. I called my article Twinkle, Twinkle Little Mars...thankfully my journalism professor gave me some freedom to be quirky. She was wonderful. But I digress...The scientists at my college cross-bread a mustard plant with an incandescent jelly fish to test the soil in mars. The plants would glow and were really cool....

Now, in my ADHD brain, in thinking of green computing I thought back to those SMART plants. Hence, as I drink my early holiday egg nog, I'm wondering will computer scientists tap into the energy of bioluminescence? Can we genetically engineer green computers? And how will nanotech come into play?

With that, imagine if we had organic computers...leafy beings that ran off CO2 and gave back oxygen...a techno-photosynthesis, if you will. They would thrive in smog. Hopefully, it wouldn't turn into a Little Shop of Horrors though...Green Computing...fun to think about!

Image refs: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7082/images/440280a-i1.0.jpg

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/graphics/2007/03/14/horror.jpg