2 ms·

far too often people care about things for purpose, not because they care. There are things of equal sorrow that don't get cared for because it serves no purpos

far too often people care about things for purpose, not because they care. There are things of equal sorrow that don't get cared for because it serves no purpose. If your cause isn't ammunition for something that people already want to do then it will struggle to gain traction. For example, nobody cared about data centre water or electricity use when it was serving us up cat pictures. Collectively the past 20 years of doing that is still significantly more use than AI data centres so far. We suddenly care about it because its anti-AI ammunition, not because we care.

tzs 2mo ago
People suddenly care about data center water and electricity use because a lot more data centers are being built now (there are more under construction now in the US than the total we had in 2020). Things being done as part of a massive boom are usually harder to accommodate then things done as part of longer term growth and data centers are no exception.
- Quarrelsome 2mo ago
  I don't think the average person is poring over data centre plans and requesting blueprints from local governments using FOI requests. The average person is understandably apprehensive about AI and water and electricity use serve as a convenient attack vector. I don't think I've ever seen people query with such fervour; the energy usage of our existing internet structure. or supply chains to provide us all with electronic devices, despite them being inherently problematic in similar ways. I was in a British supermarket today and there were apples on the shelves that were transported there from New Zealand. Again, no protests. Do we really care about energy usage or do we simply find convenient ammunition to attack ideas that we are already apprehensive about? We live in a world that is overheating as a consequence of the energy bounty of fossil fuels and yet people are still driving cars, SUVs are more popular than ever. There is no global carbon tax in sight while every nation on the planet slinks from their responsibility for all the co2 in the atmosphere, blaming each other and charging towards our scientist's worst case outcomes. So who really cares about energy consumption on its own?

tzs 2mo ago

People suddenly care about data center water and electricity use because a lot more data centers are being built now (there are more under construction now in the US than the total we had in 2020). Things being done as part of a massive boom are usually harder to accommodate then things done as part of longer term growth and data centers are no exception.

Quarrelsome 2mo ago
I don't think the average person is poring over data centre plans and requesting blueprints from local governments using FOI requests. The average person is understandably apprehensive about AI and water and electricity use serve as a convenient attack vector. I don't think I've ever seen people query with such fervour; the energy usage of our existing internet structure. or supply chains to provide us all with electronic devices, despite them being inherently problematic in similar ways. I was in a British supermarket today and there were apples on the shelves that were transported there from New Zealand. Again, no protests. Do we really care about energy usage or do we simply find convenient ammunition to attack ideas that we are already apprehensive about? We live in a world that is overheating as a consequence of the energy bounty of fossil fuels and yet people are still driving cars, SUVs are more popular than ever. There is no global carbon tax in sight while every nation on the planet slinks from their responsibility for all the co2 in the atmosphere, blaming each other and charging towards our scientist's worst case outcomes. So who really cares about energy consumption on its own?