Douglas Fisher

“Computing, Sustainability, and the Environment” (ES 101, Section 12) will convene in ‘virtual space’ in Fall 2008; we will talk and read about Computing’s burden on the natural environment, “green” computing, and Computing’s possible role in larger sustainability strategies. Fuller descriptions can be found at es101 and on the seminar OAK site.

Some research questions at the intersection of computing and sustainability include: How can artificially-intelligent computer systems be adapted to analyze data, integrate knowledge sources, educate and increase awareness to inform sustainability decision-making — at personal, corporate, and government levels? How can social networking systems be architected and exploited to better motivate and support community activism and awareness?  How can data analysis and ecological modeling software provide better models of changing local climate conditions and local resource (e.g., water) supplies? How can computers embedded in cars, buildings, and in many other things reduce energy use? How can new hardware and software technology reduce the energy requirements of computers themselves? How can computers be designed and constructed with non-toxic materials, and in general be built so as to ease recycling? You’ll notice that the relevant questions range from those of social science to those of electrical and materials engineering, with a slew ‘in between’.

The motivations for my designing and leading this seminar are severalfold and they are not independent of one another.

1) Some motivations stem from concerns for ecological (including human) sustainability. Problems related to sustainability, the most immediate being rapid global climate change, aren’t fads. Consider this from Energy and American Values (Barbour, Brooks, Lakoff, Opie) published in 1982: “The greatest potential risk, but also the most uncertain, is the effect of CO2 from burning coal and oil. … typical temperatures might rise as much as 3 degrees C (and considerably more near the poles) [3 degrees C is equivalent to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit — DF] . … These changes would probably occur slowly enough that we would have some warning and could perhaps act to mitigate the disaster. …“ (p. 99). It floors me that a problem as significant as global warming has been on our radar for 30 years and we only now seem to be waking to it !?! As an educator and engineer/scientist I want to understand (and contribute to correcting) the mechanisms that keep such important issues out of our classrooms, and specifically, I want to infuse sustainability into our education and professional practice. I hope that more people start asking “What do I do — what am I good at — that bears on sustainability in general and climate change in particular?”  This isn’t enough, of course.

2) Second among my motivations are wanting to keep a view from 30,000 feet on what’s important, as well as what is (simply) urgent — it’s easy to get lost in administrative and professional processes that are locally urgent. This seminar is one way to keep me reflecting on issues that are vitally  important to me.

3) Interesting, varied, and hard computer science problems emerge when we consider computing’s role in addressing sustainability questions, in part because sustainabilty concerns impose constraints, and thinking and problem-solving under constraints is some of the hardest and most interesting thinking around.  

4) Generally, I want to explore ways to fold treatment of contemporary issues into computing education — its terrible, even dangerous, that one of the most transformative and societally influential technologies around isn’t attracting more students interested in developing and understanding the technology, though we have oodles and oodles of people using the technology. Development of this radical technology will happen — its just too popular — but will development be done by people that know what they are doing, or will, for example, health record databases be created and managed by amateurs because we just don’t have enough professionals? I think that some of the problem with the scarcity of students in computer science (as majors or minors) is that educators aren’t teaching it’s social relevance, and some students are saying to themselves — “In a world of rapid global climate change (or issue X), why on Earth would I study computer science, even if I’m good at it, even if I love it? Heck, I can already do real cool things with it. Aren’t my brains better used in some other discipline?” Computing has already changed the world — I’d like more students aware that we need competent, socially-aware computing professionals to direct the changes in good directions.

5) Finally, much of what I’ve said above boils down to a desire for more and better critical thinking, and the intersection of computing and sustainability offers a whole bunch of opportunities to exercise and hone critical thinking skills. We will look at simple case studies, asking about the underlying assumptions that seem to be behind our conclusions, and ask what alternative assumptions might be more plausible. One long term dream I have — and this is an aside — is driven by the observation that (most) humans and human institutions seem incredibly myopic — if we are thinking 5-10 years ahead, we call that long-term planning !?! It’s not our fault, of course — we are just limited. How can we use computing tools to analyze consequences of decisions, to extend the reach of our thinking, and generally how can the coupling of human and computer power expand the critical thinking of humanity? 

Separate from the issue of why I am leading a seminar on Computing, Sustainability, and the Environment, is the question of why do it in ‘virtual space’? I’m at the National Science Foundation (NSF), a Federal agency in the Executive branch, which funds basic research in all areas of science and engineering, with offices in Arlington, VA, right across the Potomac from Washington, DC. As part of my Independent Research and Development (IRD) I am leading this seminar from afar. In principle, I could travel to Vanderbilt to lead this seminar weekly — my IRD plan allows that — but why not put “our money where our mouth is” and explore how to use different computing and communication technologies so as to reduce ecological footprints in the travel sector — we need to start figuring out different ways of doing things, and traveling cross-country for an hours-long or a day-long meeting only passes for normal because it is done so often — it’s a dubious extravagance whose time is coming to an end. I hope and expect students to garner several insights from meeting in ‘virtual space’: (a) it’s different than a physical meeting, (b) it can actually be better on some or even many dimensions, …, (c) that the quality of experience depends on the task/goals of the meeting, the technology (and its bandwidth) being used to enable the meeting, and the ’skill set’ of the participants relative to the task and technology — i.e., quality depends on a number of factors.

Its Sunday afternoon — I’m at the Arlington library. It has been a while since I sent an update and wanted to touch base.

I try and venture out at least once a weekend to DC when I’m in town, because too many people (according to their reports) spend their rotations in the DC area, thinking that they can see the city anytime, and end up, therefore, never seeing it. Sounds familiar. In any case last weekend I went to Christ Church on Capital Hill, then went to the Botanical Gardens, and the Mall. I snapped some pictures, which you can find at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/DouglasHayesFisher/

Yesterday, I went to a climate change rally at the base of the Lincoln Memorial (and forgot my camera!!). I am not shown in either picture found at  http://stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=697 – I ended up on the cutting room floor, I guess, just off camera … but I was holding up my green finger too ) In any case, I was moved by it … to my surprise it was a relatively small gathering, I thought…it made me gladder that I went, to be a worker among workers.

After the rally I went up to the Lincoln Memorial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Memorial )– the statue of President Lincoln, watching over the Mall, gives a sense of what I imagine was the majesty of the man. Here was a guy that appointed men to his cabinet that disagreed with him. The Gettysburg address is on one side wall, and the second inauguration speech is on the other. This was all emotionally moving as well, despite the crowd, or maybe more so, because of it – I really don’t know.

Then to the Korean War memorial, a description of which you can find at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War_Veterans_Memorial (in both this case and the case of the Lincoln Memorial, the Wikipedia sites seem more complete than the National Park Service sites, at least overtly). I have to read more about the symbolism of the memorial – its main feature are statues representing a squad on patrol … but the most astounding thing I found about the whole memorial was this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Korean_Memorial3.JPG . The number of our-side dead (and the US/UN proportions for missing and wounded are roughly the same) blew me away. The park service Website lists American dead as the number of dead (and I think that I’m going to email them about this), but that doesn’t do justice I think to either the
Memorial designers for recognizing the greater whole and greater loss, or for the sacrifice itself, which is being memorialized. In any case, I was moved again, in this case, because the UN dead was acknowledged and the UN countries were engraved in the stone. This whole worker among workers thing gets to me, positively, more and more, be it worker individuals or worker nations, ….

Its getting cold here, and while I love the cold crispness (my nickname in college was “Polar Bear”). I walked to the Hospice Thrift Store in Falls Church last week. Its a little place with some endearing features ..I didn’t take to any of the warm coats they had, but found a beautiful London Fog raincoat with warmish liner marked at $16 … took it to the
counter glad to not go home empty handed, because its a long walk. I started chatting it up with the elderly ladies behind the counter … very charming … and the one that is searching for the tag excitedly shouts that I’ve got a $1 special … “You HAVE the special!!” … the coat has a blue price tag and all stuff with blue tags are $1 that day !!! Much excitement behind the counter and in line among the other customers … much, much excitement … me too!! I payed $1.05 with tax, and fifty cents for the recycled plastic bag to carry it home…. as AJ would say … fantastico!! I’m going back…need some pants.

I am alive and well in Arlington, VA. I am at the Arlington Public library, which is where I spend some of my evenings and weekends with personal email, looking out over a park,
people watching, Goggleing, etc.

My apartment on the 18th floor is being furnished through Internet purchases, and I am about done for phase 1 — am awaiting an inflatable easy-chair to complement an
inflatable bed, and inflatable sofa (with an inflatable foldout bed !!!!), a regular “card” table with two regular fold-out chairs, a regular floor lamp, desk lamp (…regular), and a regular chair for the balcony. I decided to start off spartan, because I know that once I get something familiar I’ll fall back into unconsciously, comfortable ways. I have a coffee maker, BTW !!! No TV — not yet, perhaps not never, while here (?? hard to imagine, right now, no TV set or a year or so, but thats the point!!) … but I did get a couple of DVDs at the good ol’ Arlington library to watch on my laptop at night when the audio/visual withdrawal was too overwhelming, and I also stumbled upon a CD by Ashley Cleveland …
“you are there” … a great cover of “Gimme Shelter” … and “Lucky Never Had It So Good” is a great song. The Arlington library classifies the CD as “ROCK” … thats right!!

My balcony is large and way high up. I fought a battle with two pidgeons that were hanging around with a tenacity that was disturbing — I tried to shoo them away, because they were soiling my balcony … turns out that they have a nest with babies on the neighboring balcony…I no longer take their presence as a disrespect directed at me,
my annoyance is less, and live and let live is a bit easier …. .. and I’m doing some artistic things to discourage them from my balcony … a “scare hawk” … we’ll see.

“Green IT”, where “IT” stands for “Information Technology”, is a breaking wave — it’s breaking NOW! It’s not a fad, but is important for a number of reasons, some of which are touched on in this Scientific American article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=digital-diet&sc=rss.  

The first is that Computing (aka Information Technology) has an increasingly large ecological footprint — Computing is becoming part of the problem. Green IT refers to development of environmentally-friendlier computing technology and infrastructuture, and it includes concerns with the environmental costs of computer manufacture and disposal — disposal, in particular, can release toxins, which is not an aspect of computing’s burden on the environment that is touched on by the Scientific American article.

A second point is that Computing can be part of larger susatainability strategies, as suggested in the opening lines of the article. Computing and communication technology can be used, for example, to offset ecological footprints in the travel sector. My experience is that meetings can be effectively run over the phone (with headset or speaker/mic), perhaps augmented with online conferencing software of various sorts. Some might respond “A teleconference just isn’t like being there one-on-one”. No, its not — sometimes its better! And it depends to a great extent on the purpose of the activity. Sometimes a lower bandwidth helps a group meet goals — I want a domineering, inconsiderate personality to operate with smaller bandwidth, for example. If you and I are trying to survive in the jungle, I want you there side by side, but to reach a decision on an academic paper, teleconference can work very well, perhaps while we both look at a source document over the Web. That said, there are interactions that can’t be captured by teleconference — sometimes we just have to sacrifice. If giving up some of the nicities of traveling to an airport, getting on a plane, often delayed, etc etc etc so that I can attend a one-day meeting and return, is the hardest thing that I have to do in response to severe environmental problems, I’ll count myself very lucky. There are of course other technologies, like Web calls and virtual worlds, which may evolve to a point, pushed by a new generation of computing professionals (see below), where they become effective tools for environmentally-friendlier human interaction.

I’ve only rambled on here about computing and communication technology’s possible offset in the travel sector. There are many other applications for direct and indirect environmental benifits of computing, such as embedded computing’s role in smart buildings and vehicles, the use of computing for ecological modeling and data analysis, and as an educational and public awareness tool (e.g., an ecologically-friendly island in Second Life).

A third point, one that I really didn’t appreciate until now, is that Computing companies — because they are energy hogs, because they are societally powerful, because their leadership is business savy and environmentally/societally responsible — may push the transition to alternative energy sources at a rate that is much faster than might otherwise be expected — that is just fantastic! If technological advances to the foundations of the automobile happened at a rate that approximated the advances in computing, we’d have cars that would be cleaning the air and sequestering carbon (? ) … and now computing companies may trigger societal advances, which they have done already of course, but perhaps now, like never before, along planned trajectories. 

Green IT, broadly construed as including computing as part of larger sustainability strategies, is a massive, breaking wave (see also www.oecd.org/sti/ict/green-ict for example), which can be used by educators as a way of embedding computing in social and environmental contexts. The people that go to college nowadays are like every past generation, I’m sure – most of them are motivated by a lot more than money. Computing educators should have answers to their question — “Why, in a world of rapid global climate change, and birth defects, autism, cancer stemming from environmental poisoning, of resource conflicts such as seen in Darfur  – why on Earth would I study Computer Science — even if I loved it — even if I were really good at it?!” We can have answers to this and like questions. 

I’ve been a faculty member in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University since 1987. For much of that time I bought into the idea that computer science particularly, but also science and engineering generally, could be taught decoupled from larger societal and ethical concerns. I may not have realized I was doing that, but I suspect that like many faculty, I thought that a course called ‘Computers and Society’ or ‘Computing and Ethics’ or the like was the proper place for students to see the connections between computing (for example) and larger ethical and contemporary issues. I did not think it my place, in a technical course, to talk about larger concerns. Thus I was supporting and modeling the kind of compartmentalization that I would hate to see in a computing professional who was afraid to stand up and say “I don’t think that’s right!”

In the last few years a number of activities have conspired to change my views — to dismantle the compartmentalization that I was stuck in — one was ABET accrediting site visit of the Computer Engineering program, in which we (Vanderbilt’s computer engineering program) were expected to demonstrate the inclusion of contemporary and ethical issues in our technical program — engineering is not divorced from purpose and context. I also became a faculty-member in residence, the last couple of years in the “Philosophy Dorm”, McGill Hall, where I interact with students on a more informal basis. It was students at Vanderbilt that fought the good fight for a living wage for employees; it was students that were instrumental in getting LEED certiified dorm facilities in the first-year student COMMONS.

As a Computer Science (CS) professor worried about the decline in student CS enrollment, particularly the steep decline in participation by women and minorities, all of whom were already underrepresented, I started to ask myself questions such as “If I’m a 20 year old coming of age in a world of rapid global climate change, or any of a large number of pressing issues that I’ll be facing, why on earth am I going to study computer science — even if I’m really good at it — even if I love it.”  Love and good just may not be enough for a smart, societally and environmentally concerned student! And my gosh, we need such people to be studying and developing one of the most transformative technologies around! It doesn’t help the case for COMPUTER SCIENCE study that we can already do some real cool things with computing — Computer science is about building those cool, transformative artifacts — not (simply) about using them.

Frankly, my journey to this point was also influenced by losing one of my best friends, Will ClenDening, on June 3, 2006 in a motorcycle wreck, a few hours after I’d been riding with him on the Nathez Trace — what’s it all about?!

So a large number of things have conspired to start me thinking about science, society, ethics, and the environment. I’m at the National Science Foundation (NSF) now, 9 months into a 2-year leave from Vanderbilt, as a program officer in the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering — retooling for the second half of my career — probably the more productive and interesting half, because I expect that it will be less compartmentalized.