Technology Archives – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

The Data Center Showdown in Lackawanna County

May 28, 2026/4 Comments/in Dave Rollo, Energy, Governance, Jobs and Employment, KEEP Our Counties Great, Money and Investments, Politics, Pollution, Steady State Herald, Technology, Water /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

As the artificial intelligence (AI) boom explodes with a race for ever more powerful models, so does the need for its infrastructure. This takes the form of huge, windowless buildings housing thousands of data servers. Projects may involve numerous buildings—sometimes a dozen or more—with added infrastructure such as hundreds of backup generators. These amalgamations are termed data centers or, in some cases as an indication of their enormity,

Blinded by the Light: Techno-Optimism in Overshoot

April 9, 2026/7 Comments/in David Shreve, Economic Policy, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Ideology, Limits to Growth, Population, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by David Shreve

Lovers of technology tend to love quantitative analysis. But when it comes to the accounting of Earth’s biocapacity and our ecological footprint, these same technophiles are often happy to ignore simple arithmetic. While increasingly rigorous and reliable, the “overshoot” accounting they dismiss does include some difficult-to-measure variables. It will always be imperfect.

But for many nearsighted techno-optimists, this is beside the point. They argue that modern scientists have engineered such technological marvels that we should only expect more,

Nuclear Safety Now Optional Under Trump

April 2, 2026/4 Comments/in Economic Growth, Energy, Environment, Governance, Kirsten Stade, Limits to Growth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Kirsten Stade

At the beginning of his second term, President Trump pledged a regime of aggressive deregulation to stimulate economic growth. Unfortunately he has followed through on that promise, claiming 646 deregulatory actions over the past year. These have aided industries ranging from slaughterhouses to automakers no longer bound by emissions standards under the Obama-era Endangerment Finding, which has now been reversed.

The energy sector has been among the foremost beneficiaries.

Dear AI, It Never Wasn’t an “Intelligence Economy”

November 20, 2025/12 Comments/in Brian Czech, Energy, Ideology, Limits to Growth, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

(With apologies to Johnny Cash and Ira Hayes.)

Once upon a Pleistocene evening, AI, just below the ridgeline, tracks were everywhere. So was the scent. Mammoth! Cupping hands behind ears, the hunter pointed them like parabolic amplifiers. The mammoths were close; he could hear them tearing grass with their massive molars.

But there was a problem, AI. The horizon was reddening,

Tucker County: “Yellowstone of the East” or Appalachia’s “Cancer Valley”?

August 21, 2025/11 Comments/in Biodiversity, Conservation, Corruption, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Governance, KEEP Our Counties Great, Pollution, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Amelia Jaycen

In Tucker County, West Virginia, two towns with populations of about 600 each are nestled next to the largest high-elevation wetland valley east of the Mississippi. After a long history of coal mining and logging, these tiny mountain towns found a way to reinvent themselves by creating a thriving arts district and promoting the stunning local natural landscape.

Now, the area is at risk of backtracking into heavy pollution,

Technocene Ground Zero: Counties Face Off with Data Centers

July 24, 2025/5 Comments/in Climate Change, Consumption, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Limits to Growth, Materials use, Steady State Herald, Technology, Water /by Alix Underwood

by Amelia Jaycen

In counties across the U.S.—rural and urban, democrat and republican—communities are living up close and personal with data centers. And the new neighbor is a real nightmare.

The number of data centers in the U.S., whether planned, under construction, or operating, is 3,897. This is by far the most anywhere in the world, and the number is increasing weekly.

We are hitting our heads on the ceiling of limits to growth.

Circularity in the Gold Sector

June 26, 2025/2 Comments/in Consumption, Corporate Reform, Economic Policy, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Ramachandran Kallankara and Vivek Vivek

Twenty years ago, visionary economist Herman Daly exhorted the readers of Scientific American to create new ways of thinking towards a sustainable economy:

“The global economy is now so large that society can no longer safely pretend it operates within a limitless ecosystem. Developing an economy that can be sustained within the finite biosphere requires new ways of thinking.”

Economies are triangular,

Influenced to Overconsume: How Social Media Hijacks Sustainability

June 12, 2025/8 Comments/in Consumption, Ideology, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology, Wellbeing /by Alix Underwood

by Priya Thompson

We live in an age defined by contradiction. On one hand, the climate crisis demands urgent and systemic action. On the other hand, we are more connected to a digital world that profits—at great ecological cost—from our distraction, desires, and deeply human need to belong.

This tension is constant and personal for many Gen Z users, who overwhelmingly identify with sustainability as a lifestyle and a moral imperative.

Unsafe at Top Speed: “SAFE” Summit Shoots Off the Rails

April 10, 2025/1 Comment/in Brian Czech, Climate Change, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Ideology, Limits to Growth, Politics, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

The 2025 SAFE Summit in Washington, DC, was anything but. Sure, the hallways of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center were free of hooligans, and the attentive staff kept the floors cleared of banana peels. Yet if your idea of safety is big-picture, long-term—as expected at an energy-security conference—you could have left the summit fearing for your children’s future.

The three main themes percolating on stage were “energy dominance,” “all of the above” (as in all forms of energy),

Winds of Change in Lincoln County

February 13, 2025/7 Comments/in Climate Change, Dave Rollo, Energy, KEEP Our Counties Great, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Alix Underwood

by Dave Rollo

Rolling hills and wide-open plains typify eastern Oklahoma. Gulf Coast and Canadian air masses converge over these plains, creating a near-constant pressure gradient called the low-level jet (LLJ). The result is perpetual air currents in the central U.S. “wind corridor,” which make the region ideal for wind energy projects.

The United States’ top five wind-energy producers—Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Illinois—form a southwest to northeast diagonal through the center of the country.