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Isn't agriculture objectively more important and more beneficial to humanity than Big data centers?
by alxmdev 11mo ago
Isn't agriculture objectively more important and more beneficial to humanity than Big data centers?
- lclarkmichalek 11mo agoIn absolute terms, yep. In marginal terms, not so much. See also: paradox of value
- cm2012 11mo agoyes and no. Most agriculture is not necessary for pure survival, especially water-needing crops in the desert. It's more luxury food products. In addition, increasing human productivity through technological innovation is the only thing that ever let us escape the malthusian trap.
- mossTechnician 11mo ago> increasing human productivity through technological innovation is the only thing that ever let us escape the malthusian trap. How so? https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
- cm2012 11mo agoMany such charts as this: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/World-economic-history-and-the-escape-from-Malthusian-Trap-because-of-Industrial_fig6_323512822 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/World-economic-history-a...
- gruez 11mo agoYou might have a point if it was wheat for human consumption vs datcenter, but those aren't the water hogging plants, which are stuff like almonds, alfalfa (for export)[1]. Comparing those instead, it's unclear whether those are "more important and more beneficial to humanity" than AI, which also genuinely provides utility to people (as evidenced by its popularity). [1] https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1192996975/amid-a-water-crisis-arizona-is-using-lots-of-it-to-grow-alfalfa-to-export-overse https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1192996975/amid-a-water-crisi...
- JuniperMesos 11mo agoHonestly, it's hard to tell. Humanity benefits a lot from the massively complex set of technologies that require the existence of big data centers. Including agricultural production itself.