3 ms·

On a different eon that might be true but nowadays compute power - electricity - global warming. Given that, “frivolous” work that just burns energy could be po

On a different eon that might be true but nowadays compute power - electricity - global warming. Given that, “frivolous” work that just burns energy could be potentially postponed until we go fully renewable in our energy stack.

medo-bear 5y ago
lol ... bless you
f-jin 5y ago
You're in for a tough one once you find out that reality TV and video-games exist.
- mrpopo 5y ago
  Or calculating SHA-256 hashes (ok this one already gets bashed out appropriately). Or running AC until you need a jacket.
eesmith 5y ago
There seem to be many frivolous uses of power to complain about when you get to this level of power use. GIMPS' ~1PetaFLOPS[1] uses no more than a megawatt [2]. That's about 10 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) over a year [3]. The average US house uses about 10 MWh in a year [4] so GIMPS = the electrical power use of ~1,000 households. Portland reduced their power consumption by 20 GWh by switching their street lights to LEDs[5]. The electrical consumption for Superbowl parties is an estimated 75 GWh [6]. (I think Superbowl parties are far more frivolous.) [1] - https://www.mersenne.org/primenet/ https://www.mersenne.org/primenet/ [2] from 2012, "HP plans to deliver a full peak petaflop with just a single megawatt" - https://www.hpcwire.com/2012/09/05/hp_intel_score_petaflop_supercomputer_at_doe_lab/ https://www.hpcwire.com/2012/09/05/hp_intel_score_petaflop_s... [3] 365.25days * 24hours/day * 1MW / 1000 = 8.8 GWh [4] "In 2020, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,715 kilowatthours (kWh)" https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 [5] https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/678781 https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/678781 [6] https://www.americasgenerators.com/blog/post/2017/02/15/What-it-Takes-to-Power-Up-the-Super-Bowl.aspx https://www.americasgenerators.com/blog/post/2017/02/15/What...

medo-bear 5y ago

lol ... bless you

f-jin 5y ago

You're in for a tough one once you find out that reality TV and video-games exist.

mrpopo 5y ago
Or calculating SHA-256 hashes (ok this one already gets bashed out appropriately). Or running AC until you need a jacket.

eesmith 5y ago

There seem to be many frivolous uses of power to complain about when you get to this level of power use. GIMPS' ~1PetaFLOPS[1] uses no more than a megawatt [2]. That's about 10 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) over a year [3]. The average US house uses about 10 MWh in a year [4] so GIMPS = the electrical power use of ~1,000 households. Portland reduced their power consumption by 20 GWh by switching their street lights to LEDs[5]. The electrical consumption for Superbowl parties is an estimated 75 GWh [6]. (I think Superbowl parties are far more frivolous.) [1] - https://www.mersenne.org/primenet/ https://www.mersenne.org/primenet/ [2] from 2012, "HP plans to deliver a full peak petaflop with just a single megawatt" - https://www.hpcwire.com/2012/09/05/hp_intel_score_petaflop_supercomputer_at_doe_lab/ https://www.hpcwire.com/2012/09/05/hp_intel_score_petaflop_s... [3] 365.25days * 24hours/day * 1MW / 1000 = 8.8 GWh [4] "In 2020, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,715 kilowatthours (kWh)" https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3 [5] https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/678781 https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/678781 [6] https://www.americasgenerators.com/blog/post/2017/02/15/What-it-Takes-to-Power-Up-the-Super-Bowl.aspx https://www.americasgenerators.com/blog/post/2017/02/15/What...