scholarly journals The Digital Sublime: Orientation Strategies for a Vertiginous World

2021 ◽  
pp. 226-243
Author(s):  
Alejandra López Gabrielidis ◽  
Toni Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Philosophy Of Art ◽  
Art And Design ◽  
Digital Infrastructure ◽  
The Sublime

This article addresses the increasing levels of complexity and abstraction that digital technologies produce, which generate a feeling of amazement nowadays similar to what the philosophy of art and aesthetics deemed the experience of the sublime. Through the idea of the “digital sublime”, we aim to find ways to find direction in this vertiginous world. Our intention is to research the extent to which art and design can function as mediators of scales that translate the digital sublime into concrete images that are more digestible, as well as easy to understand and perceive. We believe this is one of the challenges that these disciplines must face in our era governed by extra-human scales, both technological (the cloud, artificial intelligence, 5G, etc.) and geological (the Anthropocene and global climate change). With this in mind, we will analyse the work of several artists whose careers reflect their commitment to these issues. If we, and our bodies, are constantly translated into data, can art and design reverse meaning and make our data transform into bodies in such a way as to produce an aesthetic (sensible) experience of them? Can this help us to understand digital infrastructure and its materiality in a more intuitive and approachable way so that a body can imagine and/or visualise it? Can these actions encourage the production of collective emancipation strategies that allow us to be active agents when reconfiguring the governance and algorithmic regulations imposed on us?

scholarly journals The AI gambit: leveraging artificial intelligence to combat climate change—opportunities, challenges, and recommendations

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh Cowls ◽  
Andreas Tsamados ◽  
Mariarosaria Taddeo ◽  
Luciano Floridi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Winning Strategy ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Training Data ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ethical Challenges

AbstractIn this article, we analyse the role that artificial intelligence (AI) could play, and is playing, to combat global climate change. We identify two crucial opportunities that AI offers in this domain: it can help improve and expand current understanding of climate change, and it can contribute to combatting the climate crisis effectively. However, the development of AI also raises two sets of problems when considering climate change: the possible exacerbation of social and ethical challenges already associated with AI, and the contribution to climate change of the greenhouse gases emitted by training data and computation-intensive AI systems. We assess the carbon footprint of AI research, and the factors that influence AI’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in this domain. We find that the carbon footprint of AI research may be significant and highlight the need for more evidence concerning the trade-off between the GHG emissions generated by AI research and the energy and resource efficiency gains that AI can offer. In light of our analysis, we argue that leveraging the opportunities offered by AI for global climate change whilst limiting its risks is a gambit which requires responsive, evidence-based, and effective governance to become a winning strategy. We conclude by identifying the European Union as being especially well-placed to play a leading role in this policy response and provide 13 recommendations that are designed to identify and harness the opportunities of AI for combatting climate change, while reducing its impact on the environment.

Research in the cross-section of community psychology and global climate change: A call for action

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marci Culley ◽  
Holly Angelique ◽  
Courte Voorhees ◽  
Brian John Bishop ◽  
Peta Louise Dzidic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Community Psychology ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
The Cross

Impact of climate discourse on national scientific networks in energy technologies: the case of Estonian science and industry linkages

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-45
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
National Level ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Global Discourse ◽  
Research Agendas

This article examines how the global climate change discourse influences the implementation of national science policy in the area of energy technology, with a focus on industry and science collaborations and networks. We develop a set of theoretical propositions about how the issues in the global discourse are likely to influence research agendas and networks, the nature of industry-science linkages and the direction of innovation. The plausibility of these propositions is examined, using Estonia as a case study. We find that the global climate discourse has indeed led to the diversification of research agendas and networks, but the shifts in research strategies often tend to be rhetorical and opportunistic. The ambiguity of the global climate change discourse has also facilitated incremental innovation towards energy efficiency and the potentially sub-optimal lock-in of technologies. In sum, the Estonian case illustrates how the introduction of policy narratives from the global climate change discourse to the national level can shape the actual policy practices and also networks of actors in a complex and non-linear fashion, with unintended effects.

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