3 ms·
It's funny, I had a similar experience taking a nap in the office. I listen to the home of the spinny hard drives all around me, and suddenly my mind zoomed out
by andai 3mo ago
It's funny, I had a similar experience taking a nap in the office. I listen to the home of the spinny hard drives all around me, and suddenly my mind zoomed out, and I became aware of how many computers there were around me, and try to imagine how many there were in a 10-mile radius.
That radius kept expanding and I became painfully aware that most of them were just sitting there, not doing anything useful at all.
Not a very original idea — I was familiar with SETI@Home — but it was weird to me how little it had caught on.
Most computers are just spinning their wheels most of the time. That's a lot of power just sitting there.
- dmd 3mo agoMost of them these days are smart enough to NOT spin their wheels when idle.
- schiffern 3mo agoIt's still a big waste of compute power. Most of the lifecycle emissions come from manufacturing, not electricity.
- andai 3mo agoWell I was thinking mostly of the CPUs. They're just sitting there. It's a waste of power sure, but more importantly it's a waste of a massive amount of useful computation that could have been happening.
- dmd 3mo agoThat's what the AIs are going to say when they harvest the whole world to make more AIs.