Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/08/sadville_carbon/
Sadville 'causes global warming'
The carbon emissions of a furry penis
Posted in Servers, 8th December 2006 12:49 GMT
This week, Richard Posner made a bid to be the Saddest Judge in the World (http://nwn.blogs.com/), as he addressed an audience of "several aliens, mutants, babes in six inch stiletto heels, and a human-sized raccoon" in the Virtual Reality environment Second Life.
But the glorified chatroom comes at a price, we now learn. The giant furry penii are under fire for the size of their carbon emissions. Was a system which required power for 15,000 avatars "sustainable ecologically?" asked a blogger.
Nick Carr followed up with a quick back of the envelope calculation and reckoned the electricity usage of a Sadville avatar was equivalent to that of a Brazilian: 0.2 kwatts/hour.
In the discussion that followed (http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/avatars_consume.php#comments), Sun's Microsystems Dave Douglas calculated the annual carbon footprint of 1,752 kWH/year as around 1.17 tons of CO2. "That's the equivalent of driving an SUV around 2,300 miles". Only a lot less fun.
Two things emerge from this discussion. One is that the real activity in Sadville nowhere measures up to the hype. Second Life's boosters (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/19/terdiman_rosedale_resume/) in the press like to quote the figure of a million signups, but with only 10,000 playing at any one time, businesses are wasting their money by rushing into Sadville: they may as well spend it on the local cable access channel. And secondly, even the escapist fantasies come at a price. More reason for "Saddenfreude" all round, then. ®