A naturally intelligent network managed by the sun.
Solar Protocol is a planetary-scale network of solar-powered servers, installed and maintained by volunteers around the world. The servers collectively host the Solar Protocol web platform at http://solarprotocol.net/, serving it from whichever server is in the most sunshine (and producing the most energy) at the time. Decisions about how network traffic is routed and where the computational work is done, are automated according to a solar logic derived from season, time of day and weather conditions across the planet. As an algorithmic system that uses sunlight instead of machine learning to automate decisions, the project provokes new ways of thinking about intelligence and automation.
Project illustration. Photo: Tega Brain
Exhibition view at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. Photo: Tobias Wootton
Solar Protocol also explores what a low carbon internet infrastructure and web design could look like. It provides solar-powered web hosting for the project’s community and functions as a kind of planetary-scale, virtual artist-run space.
Credits
With support from: Eyebeam Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future program, Code for Science & Society’s Digital Infrastructure Incubator, and a Mozilla Creative Media Award.
Presented in the context of the European Digital Deal project. European Digital Deal is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.
