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ᴡʜʏ ᴅɪꜱᴄᴀʀᴅ ꜱᴛᴜᴅɪᴇꜱ ɴᴇᴇᴅꜱ ᴛᴏ ɢᴇᴛ ɪᴛꜱ ʜᴇᴀᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅ: When we talk about digital discards we should also be talking about cloud computing. In this thread for the @DiscardStudies #Discard2020 Twitter conference, I’ll explain why (1/10)
The #datacenters in which #cloud data is stored produce vast quantities of #ewaste. Running 24/7/365, the computing equipment inside these buildings is quickly exhausted, with servers often being replaced in 12 month cycles: https://mcp.theenergyst.com/the-drivers-of-power/ #Discard2020 (2/10)
But #cloud #datacenters do not only directly generate discards through their regular upgrading of exhausted equipment. They also indirectly contribute to #ewaste economies by facilitating the quick and easy turnover of digital devices #Discard2020 (3/10)
It’s been widely noted that tech companies profit from designing digital devices with limited lifespans. Planned obsolescence, battery degradation, performance-slowing updates and black-boxed, unrepairable systems, sustain a culture of perpetual upgrading (4/10) #Discard2020
Consumers are increasingly aware of the limited lifespans of their devices and are now turning to cloud storage providers like @Dropbox, @Apple’s iCloud and @googledrive to back-up the precious digital photos and files stored on their doomed devices (5/10) #Discard2020
Cloud providers promise that, when our smartphones, tablets or laptops inevitably break, the data from these devices, backed-up in their #datacenters, will be instantly available to be re-downloaded to another device without delay (6/10) #Discard2020
To guarantee our digital files and photos are always accessible, cloud providers distribute them across multiple back-up #datecenters in case the primary facility should fail. Exhausting further equipment, this duplication of data also duplicates discards (7/10) #Discard2020
By making it quick and easy for users to simply redownload their data to a new device, the cloud props up and supports tech business models based on planned obsolescence and perpetual upgrading (8/10) #Discard2020
The cloud and the device must be seen as two mutually reinforcing sides of the #ewaste economy. This is something I touch on here: https://allegralaboratory.net/clouds-of-failure/ (9/10) #Discard2020
With its subscription fees, cloud storage has the benefit of enabling tech companies to extract profit from device failure before it happens. Why wait for customers to upgrade their broken products when money can be made from anticipations of device failure? (10/10) #Discard2020
Thank you for all your questions! I’ll check back periodically to catch up on any I have missed and to see if any more pop up. You can also DM me after the #Discard2020 conference!
