SensePublishers Online Bookstore

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Science, Action and Intergrated Environmental Research
by Lorrae van Kerkhoff

TOWARDS HUMANE TECHNOLOGIES: Biotechnology, New Media and Ethics
Naomi Sunderland, Phil Graham and Peter Isaacs

are now available on the SensePublishers Online Bookstore. Both books are from the Transdisciplinary Studies series that Jeremy Hunsinger and I edit. And you can get them from Amazon.ca

AoIR 9.0 Second Life workshop

Uploaded the #IR9 photos from the Second Life workshop yesterday. Have a gander. It was loads of fun, and there were plasticine peeps!

Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians

Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians says, interestingly enough,

So an avatar consumes 1,752 kWh per year. By comparison, the average human, on a worldwide basis, consumes 2,436 kWh per year. So there you have it: an avatar consumes a bit less energy than a real person, though they’re in the same ballpark.

Now, if we limit the comparison to developed countries, where per-capita energy consumption is 7,702 kWh a year, the avatars appear considerably less energy hungry than the humans. But if we look at developing countries, where per-capita consumption is 1,015 kWh, we find that avatars burn through considerably more electricity than people do.

More narrowly still, the average citizen of Brazil consumes 1,884 kWh, which, given the fact that my avatar estimate was rough and conservative, means that your average Second Life avatar consumes about as much electricity as your average Brazilian.