Greg Newby sees the potential to save the planet in a group that many would find unlikely: hackers.
But the Ontario, Canada, tech expert and environmental activist is urging people to think beyond mainstream notions of hacking that are often packaged for the masses in films like “War Games.”
It’s a counterculture that he believes can be harnessed to solve some of the planet’s biggest problems, including pollution, disease and extinction.
“We need talented people with great ideas and a lot of energy to address the climate crisis,” Newby told The Cool Down about a month before he speaks at HOPE XV, a hacker conference taking place July 12-14 in the Queens borough of New York City.
In addition to Newby, speakers are scheduled to talk about topics such as artificial intelligence, DIY geoengineering, and “Ensitization” (look it up).
Newby sees the conference as a platform for presenting solutions to social consciousness, election fairness, privacy issues and the health of the planet, and he plans to appeal to hackers about the important role they can play in the world.
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Key points from his talk at the conference include hints at how hackers can help with climate-related disasters that NASA has linked to global warming. Information engineering for social contribution and pollution reduction is also on the agenda.
“What are the chances,” he asked, “can something be done with methane?”
While there are hackers out there who want to do bad things, Newby said they are in the minority. He called “white hat” hackers the good guys — those who find solutions. “Black hat” perpetrators are exploiters and are often “less talented,” he added.
Newby, 59, has a master’s degree in sustainable business and a doctorate in information communication. He began teaching university classes on the Internet in the late 1980s and has taught at universities including the University of North Carolina and the University of Alaska. Before immigrating to Canada, he worked at the Supercomputer Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. He is currently an IT security specialist for the Yukon government.
Newby said useful hacks often lead to practical, everyday solutions. In that respect, it’s proof that underground hackers aren’t an exclusive group that communicates through encrypted channels. The main ingredient needed to find useful workarounds seems to be an inquisitive mindset.
He gives the example of figuring out how to make your Tesla faster without expensive upgrades, but even inventing a way to give empty Parmesan cheese shakers a second life is a hack that can have an impact. Instituting a composting program at work (most hackers have other jobs too) to prevent trash from piling up in landfills is another example.
“They’re trying to improve the situation by pushing the boundaries of the design and looking for vulnerabilities,” he said.
But Newby says it takes more than recycling programs to make a noticeable difference. He believes many big innovations, particularly carbon sequestration, are far from scaling up to the levels needed. The U.S. government has invested $1.2 billion in technology to capture air pollutants and store them, often safely underground. But Newby said that’s not enough.
“There’s no silver bullet,” he added.
Newby, who is vegan, has lived in Alaska for a time with his wife Ilana and their 24 sled dogs. It’s not what many would consider a vegan paradise, but he says his time there is proof that embracing a vegan lifestyle isn’t as difficult as many people think.
Newby’s other endeavors include Project Gutenberg, an online library of free books, mostly classics. The books are scanned and made available for download; Newby said Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is one of the most popular. He advocates for free access to information, a concept that fits with the hacker mindset.
Newby said he is “cautiously optimistic” about whether the world can overcome the environmental problems plaguing it in the future. As a child, news stories about species extinction, recycling and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident intrigued him. Many of the issues from decades ago remain concerns today.
But maybe hacker innovation inspired by HOPE will lead to a useful breakthrough “because we need one,” he said. That could be in the form of a Mylar sail to block the sun’s warm rays, a breakthrough in carbon capture technology, or an easy way to recycle everyday trash.
Ultimately, “the absolute imperative to survive will prevail,” he said.
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