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You are making the assumption there won’t be some new technology that gobbles up significant energy. At one point an American’s electrical consumption might hav
by kjkjadksj 3y ago
You are making the assumption there won’t be some new technology that gobbles up significant energy. At one point an American’s electrical consumption might have been home lighting and a radio. Then it jumped by an order of magnitude with the refrigerator and air conditioner.
- pfdietz 3y agoMost of the examples I can think of with that would not be localized. For example, if we need massively more computing for an AI breakthrough, there's nothing requiring that to be localized. Similarly for production of any commodity that can be shipped.
- bobthepanda 3y agoEnergy costs are so high in the modern age relative to how dirt cheap it was pre-OPEC crisis, that any sort of significant energy consumption would be a barrier to significant adoption. Your average Joe cannot afford to mine Bitcoin, for example. If anything we have mostly seen massive improvements in energy efficiency in the last two decades, with appliances, the switch to LED lighting from incandescent, heat pumps vs other heating/air technology, etc. What new technologies have shown up get quickly innovated in the name of energy efficiency.