THE MATRIX OVERLOADED
Computers will use more electricity than the entire world can generate by 2040, tech experts claim
Nightmare scenario means humanity will be simply unable to power the systems which keep us alive
But the current digital big bang could end with a disappointing whimper because humanity may be unable to produce enough power to keep computers running, experts have warned.
A leading technical organised called the Semiconductor Industry Association has produced a study which said that computer-crazy society will be running short of electricity by 2040.
Will the world end up running out of power?
It wrote: “Computing will not be sustainable by 2040, when the energy
required for computing will exceed the estimated world’s energy
production.”
The Semiconductor Industry Association meets every year to discuss
how electronic components called transistors – which power computer
circuits – can be made ever smaller.
Now the organisation is conceding that they probably won’t get any
tinier, heralding the end of an era where computers got faster and
faster as transistors shrunk to every tinier sizes.
This means tech firms will have to think of new ways to make computers powerful enough to keep up with demands.
“Driverless cars and personalised medicine along with countless other
applications of intelligent systems are on the horizon, the
Semiconductor Industry Association added.
The year 2040 carries a huge resonance in the tech world, because
some people believe that’s when artificial intelligence will become as
clever as us humans – a moment known as the singularity.
