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Sony saves the world

We all know that climate change is wreaking havoc on the world.

Record heat waves, powerful storms, a potential collapse of the gulf-stream flow and the spread of diseases that were once limited to tropical regions; all these things now pose a risk to the survival of mankind.

Governments around the world have been working tirelessly to come up with ways that this catastrophe might be averted and are spending billions on mitigation technologies and strategies to avert a global melt-down.

Who would have thought, amidst all this confusion and angst, that the superhero who would come to the planet's rescue would be none other than Sony?

Yes, that's right, Sony, the Japanese company that started off making shonky little transistor radios that were so sought-after in the 1960s.

Now, six decades later, Sony is claiming to have taken a major step in fending off the cataclysmic climate change that some scientists have said is inevitable. Those scientists believe we have finally passed the "tipping point" at which there is nothing that can be done to prevent runaway global warming and widespread devastation to our ecosphere.

Just how has Sony managed to do what legions of the world's brightest minds have failed to achieve?

Well this article (Sony is fighting climate change by scaling back PS5 performance) explains it all.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek with my comments, but I'm good at being flippant and simply playing to my strengths here.

There are two ways of looking at this announcement:

Firstly, we have to concede that simply offering a reduced performance "power saving mode" in the PS5 is not going to have any measurable effect on the rate at which the planet is warming. At best it's a feel-good PR stunt.

The reality is that even if this feature is available, I doubt that any gamers will flock to use it. Who wants a slower, less reactive gaming experience -- seriously?

When we have some folks who'll lay down more than the price of a good used car to buy an RTX5090 simply to gain a few extra frames per second and gladly turn their gaming machine into a miniature bar-heater to do so I really can't see "saving the planet" as being high on the priority list for those who drag out their PS5 on a regular basis.

Secondly, one could argue that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step -- which is to say that although the effect of this feature may not be directly measurable on its own, if it is part of a wider strategy of building tiny, incremental improvements into all devices then the compounded, cumulative effect of all such changes can make a real difference.

It doesn't really matter which side of the debate you sit on, the reality is that there are many, many better ways to make a difference than though the use of a power-saving mode on your PS5.

From a personal perspective, I've just loved the way that this winter seems to have been amazingly mild. I usually hate winter because it significantly compromises my ability to get out and about however, this year, I've still been regularly walking in shorts and teeshirt and haven't actually felt cold at all. There are upsides to everything and to me, this is the silver lining to climate change. Don't touch that power-saver button on your PS5!!!!

Carpe Diem folks!

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