Zone of Potential Insufficiency – saai lecture by Marina Otero Verzier (Columbia University GSAPP)

Through scientific and technological undertakings, as well as the mundane activities of everyday life, both humans and artificial intelligences are amassing data at an unprecedented rate, with significant social and environmental consequences. While data centers are the primary focus of concern regarding the extractive practices of digital storage, archives, libraries, institutional repositories, supercomputing centers, cold storage facilities, and decentralized networks are also contributing to this relentless drive for more data, leading to what has been referred to as the "Zone of Potential Insufficiency"—a point at which the rate of data production will outpace the scalability of existing storage solutions. This looming prospect challenges the illusion of the cloud as an infinite reservoir of unaltered information preserved across time and prompts new questions: Who will decide what information and memories will be preserved? What practices of erasure and mourning will emerge as the unraveling of worlds forces humans to confront the fragility of environments and their stories?