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Sue and Henry Johnson couldn't believe the "disk error" message which
was flashing on the monitor of their Pentium workstation. Sue had scanned
for all known viruses, deleted the OAG database she had recently
downloaded, and run "chkdsk" several times. But each time she tried to
reload the database, she received the same annoying message. And now, even
the RESET button was behaving strangely.
Speeding along the information superhighway in their fancy new
computer, the Johnsons had just plowed into a muddy bank of data waste.
Of course, the current crisis did not arrive without warning. As
early as 1965, for example, in a series of televised talk-show interviews,
J. Ripkin and R. Nader discussed possible dangers from data-waste
pollution. But even these visionaries failed to foresee the global
environmental impact which would ultimately result from the indiscriminate
erasure and trashing of the millions of megabytes of files and data which
occurs every day in this country. And, as a result of a largely successful
effort to protect their own self interests, the major software
manufacturers and database vendors have discouraged any sort of free or
open discussion of the D.W. problem. Now, like Sue and Henry Johnson, we
all must battle with the troublesome consequences of a quarter-century of
unregulated development of the information and communications industries.
Most people never think to ask, "where does all that data go when I
hit the DELETE button?" Yet it is becoming impossible to ignore the most
visible effects from the accumulation of trashed data and junked files.
Maybe you have learned to live with a fragmented disk drive, the occasional
"file corrupted" message, or a sudden and unexpected reboot or "System
Error". But a festering buildup of data waste inside your computer makes
an ideal breeding ground for viruses, bugs, and worms. Moreover,
unattended data-waste will slowly dry out, eventually forming a layer of
data sludge which can leave grimy smears on your monitor, or slow down your
disk drives and your computer's clock.
The most insidious effects of data-waste, however, occur when the back
pressure of rapidly deleted material builds up inside the tightly packed
C.P.U., until it actually blows used data back into the power lines.
Although the person at fault may be completely unaware that this has
happened, these unexpected puffs of stale data can be conducted hundreds
(sometimes thousands) of miles, before arriving in some other computer or
piece of electronic equipment.
Conducted clouds of data-waste are responsible for those blacked-out
or snowy pictures on Cable TV, those mysterious but outrageous errors in
our monthly telephone bills, and the ubiquitous "temporarily out of order"
sign on the ATM. Not even NASA is immune to the effects of data waste,
which was recently implicated in the progressively foggy images scientists
have received from the Hobble Space Telescope. It is no longer possible to
escape the conclusion that if we persist in these wasteful and unthinking
ways, we will eventually suffocate in our own D.W.
How often have you carelessly erased this email message, trashed that
old business letter, or deleted a piece of software you don't use any more?
Maybe you are thinking, "I'll just do it this once, when nobody's
watching." Some try to rationalize their actions by saying, "the real
problem is the big industrial computer and software corporations: Lotus,
IBM, Microsoft, Apple ... And of course, the US government." But don't
forget that since 1991, major corporate users are required by the E.P.A. to
contract with federally licensed data-waste management teams for the
efficient packaging, removal, and disposal of data-waste.
Although there is still plenty of room for improvement in the
corporate arena, the truth is that 67% of America's improperly disposed
data-waste is generated by non-professional individuals working at their
own personal computers. A recent study by the Institute for Data Ecology,
for example, found that by the year 2008, electronic junk mail alone will
have generated enough data waste to completely bury the island of Tasmania
and the entire state of New Jersey put together! These problems are only
exacerbated by multinational data vendors like "Compuserve" and "America
OnLine" who sell data trash by the hour; and by the emergence of cheap, low
quality, electronically produced and distributed magazines such as "Wired".
According to IDE, the data-waste problem has been growing steadily
since the early 1960's. However accumulated levels increased suddenly in
1992, following the introduction of fast, inexpensive CD-ROM drives and the
resulting proliferation of CD-ROM's capable of holding over 650 megabytes
each. "These harmless looking shiny little disks have opened the
floodgates of data-rubbish, and precious little is being done to stem the
growing tide of dirty bits and bytes which are littering our environment",
says Peter Ashley, a research scientist at IDE. The CD-ROM has made it
possible for unscrupulous software manufacturers to sell enormous
quantities of code which is bloated and inefficient; or to bundle
applications into packages (often described euphemistically as "suites")
containing useless utilities, esoteric and undocumented features, lurid
digitized photographs, and silly "clip art."
Unfortunately, data recycling programs must compete for public
awareness with other current techno-ecological issues such as global
warming, global cooling, and the recent scare following the widely
publicized discovery that free electrons were dribbling out of empty light
bulb sockets in virtually every household in the country. However, these
programs simply will not work without a greater public understanding of the
difficulties involved. "Many people mistakenly think they should compress
their data before sending it to us", says Tim Elliott of Data Recycling
Technologies in Rochester N.Y. "But this makes it much harder for us to
separate the 1's from the 0's."
Even though some disk manufacturers are willing to use recycled 0's
to initialize the surfaces of their new disks, science has not yet found a
good use for the heavier recycled 1's. The Swedish government has
experimented with initializing hard disks with recycled 1's, but this
apparently results in various compatibility problems. "So far, we've been
able to sell most of our 1's to the Pentagon," says Elliott. "But who knows
what they're doing with them?"
Some scientists accuse Russia and other countries in the Former Soviet
Union of having buried large quantities of data waste deep beneath the
earth's mantle, during the cold war. Perhaps even Japan should be
suspected of this practice. In any case, there seems to be no other way to
account for the fact that, following the devastating volcanic eruption of
Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, a measurable proportion of the resulting
fine gray ash and dust was found to consist of used and badly worn pixels.
W. Hopkins, of the U.S. Geological Research Center in Richmond VA is
worried. "We can pretty accurately date this stuff by the pixel size and
almost complete lack of color," says Hopkins, "but we can't say for sure
where it came from".
As things turned out, Sue and Henry Johnson were lucky. A helpful
neighbor recognized their problem as the dreaded sick computer syndrome,
and lent them her copy of "Irma's Guide to Data Hygiene", (Sunset Books,
1991). They learned how to avoid the vicious cycle of binge and purge
which they had fallen into. After cleaning out their computer, properly
disposing of and replacing their disk drive, and reducing the baud rate on
their modem, they were able to pick up the pieces of their lives without
having to seek out professional aid.
What can we, as individuals, do to help? Here are a few tips on how
to minimize data-waste in your environment. Cut them out and paste them on
the wall beside your computer.
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1. Good citizenship starts at home. Get out your old lisp garbage collector and make sure it's working properly. Invest in a good debugger and use it often. Don't delete files: move them to a high density floppy disk and properly dispose of it when it becomes full. Make sure everyone in your household understands the correct way to purge a directory.
2. Avoid purchasing CD-ROMs of bundled software, or other inflated feature-laden packages which you are unlikely to need. Disable the block delete command on your word processor, and get rid of all those extra fonts except for Courier 10. Replace your color graphics monitor with a text- only monochrome version.
3. Consider the purchase of an Intel Underdrive chip, which will force your CPU to operate in its 4.77 MHz 8086 emulation mode.
4. Write to your congressperson in support of the Clean Bits Bill, which would designate the Internet as a superfund site, and would provide pilot funding for the construction of the National Information Sewage System.
5. If you happen to observe someone trashing a file, or a letter, or innocently "just cleaning up the hard disk", sit down with him and have a frank discussion about the perils facing our civilization and how we all have a responsibility to protect the world in which we live.
(Dr. Goresky is a Professor of Data Ecology.)