The “coolness” leaving Computer Science for EcoStuff?
One conversation from SXSW has been causing more of my few remaining brain cells to fire randomly than any other.
It was where I was lying on the ground chatting with Ethan Zuckerman, cofounder of Global Voices Online. (Awesome blog that tries to bring bloggers all over the world together).
Now, you probably don’t know Ethan, but he’s one of the smartest mofos around. He regularly gets invited to speak at conferences like Pop!Tech and TED.
Last week he attended TED and told me it was the first time he didn’t feel like a rock star.
Why not?
He says that the attention of the world’s biggest venture capitalists has left the computer world and moved to the world of environmentalism. Says that the attention there was on material scientists and other scientists who are coming up with ways to save energy, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, etc.
You know, all the cool stuff we see over on TreeHugger.com (awesome blog too).
I write this because if the world’s richest people are going to start pouring their resources somewhere other than computer science, that’s important to know, especially if you’re someone trying to decide on a career.
Who’s leading this charge? John Doerr. The VC behind Google and many of the world’s hottest companies. Michael Parekh wrote up John’s tearful talk at TED. So did a WiredBlogger. Darryl Siry, who is chief marketing officer at Tesla motors (which makes awesome electric cars) wrote about his thoughts at the TED talk as well.
I saw the pressure on this change everytime 2008 US Presidential Candidate John Edwards spoke too when he toured the country announcing he was running back in December (I was invited to hang out with the campaign). Everytime he mentioned Global Warming the crowd erupted into the largest applause lines of his talks.
There’s going to be a lot of political pressure in the next year on candidates to have a really great plan for energy and environmental stewardship. John Edwards, on Twitter the other day, said his campaign would become carbon neutral. Watch other candidates to do that and more.
What are you seeing? Is this an issue that’s started hitting you yet?
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March 15th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
[...] Scobleizer himself has an interesting post about how all the venture capitalists are looking to invest in the next hot environmental [...]
March 15th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Yup lots of focus on “green” however many of these green technologies are driven by computers and smart software. This is a very exciting time for computer science we will see tons of innovation because many diverse fields are now pushing its boundaries.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I never thought I’d live to see the day when people put vast amounts of money into finding ways to destroy what plants breathe and think that it’s a noble cause.
I’d rather take my chances with the alternative, but it looks like they’re deciding for all of us.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Oh brother, the godless commie Left, losing one religion, gaining another.
March 15th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I was at TED and felt exactly the same thing. It is smart of you to suggest that this might be a career thought. The environment is an issue on which it is easy to do small things, like switching off the air-conditioning in your hotel room while you’re at the TED conference weeping at a weeping VC, but harder to do bigger things, like not taking that intercontinental flight, or even just switching to scheduled flights …
March 15th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I know Ethan and I am doubtful that he means ‘either/or.’ More than one thing can be ‘cool’ at one time. Indeed, to be truly cool one should be interested in more than one thing.
March 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
does twitter have to be mentioned in almost every post?
March 15th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
It’s definately hitting me - especially when it comes to items being marketed to women. I’m done promoting anything that can’t hold environmental, social and economic benchmarks. Luckily, sustainable consensus standards are in place, it’s just a matter of educating consumers on what is green and what is greenwash.
March 15th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
[...] Source: The “coolness” leaving Computer Science for EcoStuff? « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger [...]
March 15th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Is Edward’s definition of carbon neutral the same as Algore’s? Use as much energy as I want (221,000 Kilowatt hours if I remember correctly) provided he buys an equal amount of carbon off sets from a company he himself owns? So, basically buy them from himself? Better still, buy them with money you make from a relationship with a “big oil” firm, like, oh I dunno, Occidental Petroleum? Not that that’s exactly what Algore does.
@8 And what, exactly, are those benchmarks and standards?
Aren’t we all smart enough to understand that consensus is not science?
March 15th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I did a post about the carbon neutral thing last two days ago :) I thinks its the Makers that will make a difference.
March 15th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
This is huge news. Thanks for blogging it.
March 15th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
John Doerr is a fraud, any other time he woulda been frog-tied in handcuffs, and strung up on securities charges galore. And so is the whole global warming CO2 government-funded research dollars; Science turned into a political movement, with VC frauds, abandoning tech utopia, and picking up the faux green banner? Well, one thing sure in sheer abundance, stupidity.
March 16th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Green Business and alternative energy are the new internet. It’s a good thing for the planet but I’m afraid it will be a bad thing for the planet. I’m seeing many of the same faces in “Clean Tech” that I saw in the late ’90’s in internet.
March 16th, 2007 at 5:22 am
There is a running series on the BBC news at 10pm about Climate Change. One farmer has started planting olive trees in the south of England. It’s increasingly in our conciousness in the UK.
March 16th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Interesting, we had noticed the same trend and blogged on it earlier this week - didn’t go down well, quite a bit of -ve karma on the post!
Should’ve written it on renewable typeface ;)
My main frustration is that a lot of the “Green” stuff is not really green, its an interesting alliance of Govt, commercial interests and forward-to-the-past types trying (as usual) to screw the poor consumer - but to be a naysayer brands you a heretic.
Green is the New Fundamentalism?
March 16th, 2007 at 10:32 am
@15 Tell that to the people in NYC today. Snowing….in March. Or tell that to one Ann Bancroft, who had to call off a 530 mile treck across the Arctic to “bring attention to Global Warming” because is was TOO COLD and she got FROSTBITE in three toes. HA HA! She said “they were experiencing temperatures that weren’t expected with global warming”. The promptly attempted to blame it on “unpredictabilty” due to global warming. So, I get it: Even if it gets TOO COLD, we can attribute it to global warming!
March 16th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
environmentalism and software
Drive a hybrid. Buy carbon-dioxide offset points when flying. Use the bike. Things you and I can do. Renewable energy. RD funding. Taxes on fuel. Tax rebates. Stuff our governments can do. All good, all important. Then I read Robert’s
March 16th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
[...] Scoble The attention of the world’s biggest venture capitalists has left the computer world and moved to [...]
March 17th, 2007 at 3:37 am
extreme man masturbating
March 17th, 2007 at 9:48 am
[...] [STARTUPS] The “coolness” leaving Computer Science for EcoStuff? (scobleizer.com, 2 saves) [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Those that can afford to lead by example don’t
Many of us have seen this time and time again. The people who can afford to lead by example don’t. What is most interesting here is that many of these people are the loudest ones complaining about environmental issues or gas prices. Al Gore in my opin…