Chi-lites – Mike

Over the last decade, the growth in data traffic across the Internet has been dramatic, and this is associated with remarkable consumption: one-tenth of global electricity. We need to understand and steer these trends, as Internet energy levels become ever more problematic. Mike Hazas will explore what we know about the energy intensity of digital stuff, and the growth in flows of data over the Internet. He considers how such traffic relates to digital services such as video streaming and social networking, how these link to everyday routines that use and generate data, and what this implies for future energy use.

Mike Hazas is a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University (UK) who interrogates how digital systems such as learning thermostats, smartphones, superfast broadband, and robotic vacuum cleaners contribute to increasing standards for comfort and service provision, and thus tend to ratchet energy demand and carbon emissions. Mike is an interdisciplinary researcher, working at the confluence of computer science (PhD, University of Cambridge) and sociology (BA, Lancaster University). Mike’s past work has included interventions in thermal comfort, practices around food and cooking, and on-demand streaming and social networking. Mike strives for critical reflection, working with technology designers, policy makers, and third sector organisations.