315. Net Zero Change in the Tech Sector (Ft. Mel Gregg)

This Machine Kills

We are joined by Mel Gregg – an anthropologist who worked at Intel for a long time before becoming an industry consultant for sustainability in the tech sector – to discuss the deficiencies in how the tech sector is thinking about sustainability, the corporate governance regimes and net zero dashboards that manage how change does (and does not) happen, the paradoxes of green software and engineering for efficiency, and why we need to insert more social science and local activism into the tech sector. ••• Follow Mel https://twitter.com/melgregg ••• Counterproductive by Mel Gregg https://www.dukeupress.edu/counterproductive ••• Work's Intimacy by Mel Gregg https://www.wiley.com/en-au/Work%27s+Intimacy-p-9780745650289 ••• Electronics <> Ecologies series https://www.admscentre.org.au/electronics-ecologies/ ••• Getting beyond Net Zero dashboards in the information technology sector https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629623004577 ••• A.I. Could Soon Need as Much Electricity as an Entire Country https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/climate/ai-could-soon-need-as-much-electricity-as-an-entire-country.html ••• Sam Altman Says AI Using Too Much Energy, Will Require Breakthrough Energy Source https://futurism.com/sam-altman-energy-breakthrough Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)