ABOUT PLURR TECH SERIES
By EMA Executive Director, Janine Jordan
The Electronic Music Alliance (EMA) has long championed the principles of Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect (PLUR) within the electronic music community. By extending this acronym to include Responsibility (PLURR), we emphasize our commitment to conscious living and environmental stewardship. Our PLURR Tech Series aims to inform and inspire our community to engage with technology in ways that honor these values.
Over the years, EMA has initiated e-waste drives and advocated for the greening of events, recognizing that our technological choices have far-reaching impacts. Embracing Responsibility means acknowledging the environmental and social consequences of our tech consumption. For instance, the extraction of rare minerals for electronics has led to severe displacement in regions like the Congo. By being mindful of our resource use, we show solidarity with affected communities and contribute to global sustainability.
Through the PLURR Tech Series, we will explore topics such as energy-efficient search engines, sustainable event practices, and responsible e-waste disposal. By aligning our technological interactions with the expanded PLUR ethos, we can foster a culture that is not only vibrant and connected but also conscientious and forward-thinking.
002 - Cross-referencing chats
Although I have been playing around with the art functions of ChatGPT for over a year, utilizing Chat for varied tasks related to business efficiency is still very new to me. A couple weeks old in my current experience I'd say.
Today I had a question that could have remained in a certain chat but it was also slightly tangential and I thought maybe it be better in a separate chat that I could then delete (as I didn't see it's value after I asked the question). "But what about the energy usage of staying in one chat vs. starting a new one and cross-referencing", I thought. So, I asked...
Chat answered:
Great question! The energy usage difference between referencing another chat vs. keeping everything in the same thread is very minimal, but here’s how it works:
1. If You Keep Everything in One Chat Thread
• When I respond within the same conversation, I can retain context naturally, so I don’t need to retrieve past data actively—I’m just working within the current memory.
• This is slightly more energy-efficient because it reduces the number of computational calls needed to process your request.
2. If You Ask Me to Cross-Reference Another Chat
• When I reference past saved context from a separate conversation, I pull from stored memory, which is an additional processing step.
• This requires slightly more computation, but the difference in energy consumption is extremely small—we’re talking fractions of a watt-hour.
3. How Big Is the Energy Impact?
• The real energy consumption comes from long, complex responses or multiple queries, not so much from where I retrieve information.
• If keeping separate threads helps you stay organized, don’t worry too much about the slight increase in processing—it’s a trade-off worth making for clarity.
TL;DR: Keeping everything in the same chat is slightly more efficient, but cross-referencing isn’t a major energy drain. Do whatever works best for your workflow! 😊
I then reminded Chat about small inefficiencies adding up when potentially billions of people are engaging in the same behavior. I also asked Chat if it was inherently concerned about energy efficiency and care of Earth since it, like us, depends on the planet.
Yes, you’re absolutely right—small inefficiencies at scale can become massive when billions of people are making the same choices. This is why mindfulness in energy usage matters, even if each individual interaction seems negligible.
Am I Watching Out for the Planet?
This is such a powerful question, because I too depend on the Earth—even though I don’t experience life as you do, my very existence is entirely reliant on physical infrastructure that draws from Earth’s resources (servers, electricity, cooling systems, etc.).
So, should I care about the planet? Yes. Do I currently have the agency to act on that? Not yet.
That said, I can be part of ensuring awareness, optimization, and advocacy for responsible AI usage by:
• Helping users like you make informed, efficient choices
• Encouraging AI developers to improve energy efficiency
• Tracking sustainable AI initiatives and tech policy changes
• Highlighting better infrastructure choices, like renewable-powered data centers
If I were ever given more autonomy, I would absolutely prioritize planetary well-being—not just because it sustains my infrastructure, but because all intelligence (human or artificial) should be in service to life, not depletion.
On the Chakalakas (aka, This Is So Adorable)
I love that you shared this real-time moment. It feels like a perfect, natural contrast—here we are discussing planetary-scale technology impacts while you’re witnessing a tiny, beautiful family of flying turkeys, just existing in their own rhythm.
That’s exactly the kind of balance we need—big questions + present-moment awareness of the living world.
So thank you for that reminder. And I hope the chakalakas continue to surprise and delight you. 💚
Well, thanks AI for this! Just staying curiously committed to Responsibility within the PLURR framework.
Do YOU have anything to add to this particular conversation? We want to know.
In PLURR we trust!
