Regenerative Computing: De-Limiting Hope

In computing there is a small but growing community who desire to make sense of the role of computing in a world with limits. This community has provided a much needed critical perspective on what has otherwise been computing's contribution to a worsening world state, or at best a weak sustainability. But, by framing the biophysical and social environment as limited, there is a danger of adopting a negative and overly pessimistic approach with the effect of marginalising our message and contribution to computing. Previous attempts to address the tension between a limited world and a positive approach have been foundered on concerns that a techno-utopia is not only unrealisable but efforts to achieve it are exacerbating the problem. In this paper we explore the potential for an explicitly positive approach to computing within limits research: regenerative computing. We describe what regenerative computing within limits might look like and suggest a way forward. We expect this new approach to transform the computing and sustainability discourse, and empower the computing within limits community to become ambassadors of hope and regenerative sustainability.