Computing Efficiency, Sufficiency, and Self-sufficiency: A Model for Sustainability?

Computing is an activity that is based on natural resources like any other human activity. Technological progress has made it possible to perform more and more computations with less material and energy input. This paper looks at this development through the lens of the three concepts of efficiency, sufficiency, and self-sufficiency, asking the question of whether it could lead to a state of self-sufficiency. This vision, which seems attainable for the activity of computing, is then taken both as a model and as an enabling element for a transition towards a sustainable circular economy based on relative regional self-sufficiency.

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