At odds with a worldview

those limits (e.g., the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere, chemical pollution in the form of heavy metals, toxic substances, endocrine disruptors), while the output from our industrial system continues to pollute and alter the atmosphere, the biosphere, and the oceans. We are simultaneously reaching limits to what we can harvest from the Earth in terms of non-renewable resources like minerals and oil [2]. These large-scale developments are capping the possibilities for what can be developed and built in the future, including computational systems and devices. Computing itself will be bounded by the limits and the challenges and changes. Since they will affect all of us, we believe they should be addressed in Interactions This article takes as its starting point the staggering challenges humanity is now facing and will continue to face during the remainder of the 21st century. During the past century, our civilization has experienced an explosion in ingenuity, knowledge, and creativity, but it has also shaped the world in such a way that some researchers suggest we have left the Holocene and are now living in a new geological era called the Anthropocene. Ours is a finite planet, and human-induced (anthropogenic) developments have pushed the earth system beyond safe boundaries when it comes to biochemical flows, climate change, and biosphere integrity [1]. Perhaps even more alarming, we are still in the dark in terms of understanding T AT ODDS WITH A WORLDVIEW— TEACHING LIMITS AT A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY