221–230 of 230 posts
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There's a 100% chance this very website you're arguing on is hosted in one if not more data centers.
Oh please, running this site does not require any of these data centers. Nor new power plants.
The AI companies are spending close to a trillion dollars building data centers. On top of that, they’re now promising they’ll handle all environmental and power needs. I believe them, they probably will do that, thats not even too expensive. They need to however recoup this investment somehow, which is the fundamental problem with a technology like AI. The only plausible way to recoup 1T is to automate large swaths…
Every single investment aimed at deploying labor-saving innovation has the impact of reducing the number of workers you need per unit of output. That does not mean fewer jobs, it means that jobs graduate to higher order ones that produce more, and it means more goods/services chasing the fixed supply of workers, translating to deflation (higher real wages / more purchasing power).
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Isn't EA an offshoot of utilitarianism? Honest question. I always thought it was.
Consequentialism and to an extent Utilitarianism (since one is a subset of the other, it sometimes feels like philosophy is more concerned with naming things than explaining them but from the bit I've read those are the two biggest precursors). AKA It's fine if I do locally horrible things if in aggregate I do more good than bad* * by whatever metric of good I self select for - terms & conditions apply, much CO2 may…
Of course, anything taken to extremes tends to get distorted.
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I think your anger would be better placed with the institutional barriers to building clean energy in America that prevent these infrastructure companies from doing the right thing transmission via HVDC is extremely difficult to build due to land permitting and right of way laws grid interconnections take 5+ years just to get approved, let alone built only 2 nuclear power plants have been built since 1978, each takin…
People like Zuckerberg, Brin, Page and Musk have majority voting control of these companies. They have amassed incredible power and vast fortunes in a time and era when doing so could only be done with great damage to the environment. Despite years of talk and superficial motions towards climate efforts these people have completely pivoted that signalling and have doubled down on endeavours that cause even more ecolo…
they want to build more power of any kind, ideally renewables. but the past decade has shown time and again that they can't build enough by any means
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I can tell you from second hand direct experience that the regulations are absolutely over the top, and then doubled for good measure. It almost makes aviation look like running a lemonade stand.
> It almost makes aviation look like running a lemonade stand. I'm about as pro-nuclear as you can be, but that's probably a good thing. Modern reactor designs are amazingly safe, and the industry itself has a really amazing track record, but there should be no room for the usual corner cutting shenanigans when it comes to nuclear. I do genuinely believe that the West at large has lost the capability of getting any k…
Can you just go to the auto parts store and buy a new lead acid standard issue battery? Definitely not. Well then ok, lets buy the most top shelf high-performance 2026 grade one. Also no.
The only battery you can use is the original one that came with the car in 1979. That's it. So now you have to pay a factory to produce a battery with a design from 1974. This battery easily costs $750k for all the custom engineering and low volume needed. And it is objectively worse by every measure to what is available at Walmart today for $50. So why do we have to use the original one? Because that is the battery that was certified, and certifying a new battery would take 10 years and tens of millions.
Again, I have pretty direct experience with this (a division of my company), and the situation above is a "translated" example of what goes down.
Maybe you call it "corner cutting" to use a new battery, but frankly I think you might be just speaking from the hip.
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I think your anger would be better placed with the institutional barriers to building clean energy in America that prevent these infrastructure companies from doing the right thing transmission via HVDC is extremely difficult to build due to land permitting and right of way laws grid interconnections take 5+ years just to get approved, let alone built only 2 nuclear power plants have been built since 1978, each takin…
Are these companies expending any of their lobbying efforts or funds on this problem? Or are they just going to the easiest option? I'm not shedding any tears for the AI companies and their infra challenges. They're the ones driving a huge delta increase in energy use and emissions this coming decade, so their actions merit scrutiny and they are responsible for their actions and the resulting emissions that we will a…
the biggest limiting factors for AI labs scaling are silicon, then electricity. they are acutely aware of this
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Consequentialism and to an extent Utilitarianism (since one is a subset of the other, it sometimes feels like philosophy is more concerned with naming things than explaining them but from the bit I've read those are the two biggest precursors). AKA It's fine if I do locally horrible things if in aggregate I do more good than bad* * by whatever metric of good I self select for - terms & conditions apply, much CO2 may…
It's funny, because as far as consequentialism, I feel like single-issue voters on all sides could use a bit more of that. Of course, anything taken to extremes tends to get distorted.
It's frustrating to vote for the person you disagree with least (by a little or a lot).
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As much as I wish it were different I think this would be the outcome under any administration. Natural gas in the USA is just stupidly cheap inflation adjusted, is energy dense, power plants require few land resources, pipeline infrastructure exists, robust and deep supply chain, etc. I don't hold much hope of the USA kicking the habit as it is such a competitive advantage. If we don't burn it locally it will be exp…
Biden was not paying companies to NOT build windplants. No, the result would not be the same. Provably so. Also, in fact, companies turned to Trump because democrats started to be serious about anti trust actions.
How many billions of dollars will we allow this clown and his cronies to steal from us?
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It's funny, because as far as consequentialism, I feel like single-issue voters on all sides could use a bit more of that. Of course, anything taken to extremes tends to get distorted.
FPTP results in a two party system where the sane response is often holding your nose and voting for the least worst candidate. It's frustrating to vote for the person you disagree with least (by a little or a lot).
I would not usually even say that out loud, as I don't want to be accusatory. However, I think that's just the facts at this point. Hence, my statement about a bit of consequentialism being good.
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I am making the fairly obvious point that Americans don't care about the Cubans like they did the Palestinians, despite the fact that the Cubans are directly suffering under the Americans, and in the case of the Palestinians it was indirect.
It is not really indirect, USA supports that genocide openly, polically and with arms. But even more importantly, the care is result of years and years of leftist activism. Nothing to do with china, judt that awarness dont happen overnight. Yours "if you are not active in absolutely everything, any action is invalid" is just a bad faith nonsense.
You have a nice day.