Category: podcast-DG-en

Digitalisation, like our economic model, is geared towards growth. But to what extent does the resource consumption of digitality grow when more and more things have to be available faster and faster? It quickly becomes clear that digitality is not “immaterial” at all when you think of the many raw materials we use for it. And the demand is growing all the time. In Europe and Germany, we hardly notice the luxurious hardware of the digital. Raw materials usually only become a public issue here when they are not available in the usual way. For us, what counts most is the increasingly powerful technology that we consume or take for granted as part of our environment. We are used to regularly buying new devices because the old ones can no longer keep up with the successor models. Supposedly “obsolete” items that could continue to be used or at least recycled then often disappear in a drawer or simply in the trash.

However, the resources for new smartphones and laptops – especially metals – are usually mined elsewhere in the world at great expense. Or poorly paid workers recover them from scrap devices, possibly using methods that cause harm to nature and people. Industrialised countries like Germany have only recently started to promote their own efficient recycling practices for e-waste. These projects are complex. They promise paths to a more ecologically sustainable digitality, but also react to geopolitical developments. And whether they achieve their goals – less dependence and more sustainability – depends not only on technical progress in the field of professional recycling.

Mathias Schluep is managing director of the World Resources Forum and an expert on environmental sustainability in the resource cycle. In this episode of Digitalgespräch, the environmental engineer explains where our use of resources for digital causes damage to the environment and people’s health, describes places and structures that are affected and how international projects and cooperatives are tackling these problems. It describes what opportunities for recycling exist and how well they are being implemented. With hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring, Schluep discusses political motivations for a sustainable use of valuable resources and also what role – and power! – consumers have in this matter.

Further informationen:

Link to the website of the World Resources Forum: https://www.wrforum.org/

Link to an SRF-documentary about the former e-waste scrap heap in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, feat. Mathias Schluep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DFjA2Y1RXU

The term “darknet” is usually directly associated with crime in the public mind. However, very few people know what exactly this word means, what functions and structures it denotes – and even if a different impression can easily arise: according to our jurisdiction, neither surfing nor operating sites on the darknet are illegal per se. On the contrary, the infrastructure of the darknet is also used for purposes that are not only in line with democratic law, but can even prove to be important instruments for strengthening democracy, preserving individual freedom and protecting privacy. Corresponding arguments come up again and again in debates about possible interventions or even a de facto ban of the “anonymous internet”. So does the darknet simply have “bad” and “good” sides? And do we have to live with the fact that this technology, as long as it serves whistleblowing, political opposition or good journalism, also fosters serious and most serious crime?

Dr. Kai Denker is a philosopher, computer scientist and historian. He researches and teaches at the Institute of Philosophy at the Technical University of Darmstadt and has also dealt intensively with the Darknet. In this episode of “Digitalgespräch”, the expert on net cultures explains technical basics and gives an impression of possibilities the Darknet offers for different users with different intentions. He discusses with hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring why many net activists defend the darknet in its current form despite its bad reputation, which basic values play a role in this context, which technical aspects of the darknet are crucial for its democracy-promoting functions – and which others could possibly be dispensed with in favour of fighting crime, at least in theory.

Further informationen:

Link to the Website of the Tor Project:
https://www.torproject.org/

Link to an article on the Website of the BKA (from 2017):
https://www.bka.de/SharedDocs/Reden/DE/vogtArtikelDarknet.html

If we want to keep climate change within tolerable limits and foresee the changes we will face, then we must make climate as calculable as possible. Climate research has therefore become increasingly significant in recent decades, for policy makers as well public discourse. How do scientists arrive at the results that we perceive as scenarios, forecasts and warnings? Part of the answer is: on the basis of simulations, for which mathematical climate models have to be combined with large amounts of data. In Germany, researchers have had access to the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) in Hamburg since the late 1980s – a high-performance computing centre that is maintained by the public sector specifically for the purpose of climate research and which, in addition to computing time on optimised supercomputers, also offers broad support and services for its users. What exactly happens at DKRZ and how does it differ from other high-performance computing centres? What contribution does it make – to science in Germany and in international cooperation? Could modern technologies such as quantum computers or machine learning help us to understand the climate better and more quickly in the future? And: What does the climate impact of climate computing look like?

Prof. Thomas Ludwig is a computer scientist and heads the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ). As a scientist, he also researches and teaches at the University of Hamburg. In this episode of Digitalgespräch, the expert for scientific computing presents the mission of this special computing centre. In the process, Ludwig also explains how high-performance computing has developed since the 1990s and how the interaction between scientific modelling and the possibilities offered by state-of-the-art supercomputers leads to breakthroughs in climate research. With hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring, Ludwig discusses what concrete benefits the results of climate research and data collected in the process can bring to other scientific communities and the public, whether research infrastructure receives too little attention – and why it’s not such a big deal if incorrect weather forecasts become a little more incorrect through machine learning.

Further informationen:

Link to the Website of the German Climate Computing Centre: https://dkrz.de/en