Jevons’s paradox

Jevon’s paradox was mentioned in a talk about energy efficiency I attended recently. I thought this definition from Open-air Computers in the Economist’s October 27, 2012 edition was rather succint:

In the 19th century the invention of more efficient steam engines boosted rather than cut the consumption of coal, because they made energy cheaper across the board.

Has our intution changed? Is anybody thinking of this as a paradox:

In the 21st century the invention of more efficient computers boosted rather than cut the consumption of electricity, because they made computing cheaper across the board.

By the way, on closer inspection the first quote should read “… made mechanical energy cheaper…” . As always, consulting Wikipedia helps to clarify things:

In economics, the Jevons paradox (sometimes Jevons effect) is the proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.

So coal and electricity are “resources”, produciton of mechanical energy and computing the “uses”.