This article focuses on energy savings for distributed computer systems, particularly using autonomous devices such as smartphones. According to the authors, this problem “is hindered by a lack of knowledge and a lack of tools.” Yet in the last few years, basic data structures have been extensively studied, for example, “where an element is inserted in a list can greatly impact energy consumption.” “Parallel programming techniques have also been the subject of several studies,” according to the article, and it has been observed that a “parallel framework is more energy-friendly when performing fine-grained” rather than thread-based computations.

The energy concerns, however, do not only pertain to mobile platforms. Corporations that maintain data centers also struggle with soaring energy costs. Interestingly, in a recent issue of New Scientist [1], it was indicated that handling Bitcoin calculations consumes energy matching an energy bill of a country such as Ecuador.

Thus, the growing demand for energy by computer developments is just a part of a general energy crisis in the modern industrial society. It cannot be successfully resolved by further hardware and software modifications; similarly, the dearth of energy is unlikely to be corrected by being more careful with energy conservation. The energy crisis can only be overcome by producing clean abundant energy on the whole, and specifically in the computer industry.