This might belong in some circlejerk sub, but I think it’s somewhat clever. Basically, if AI datacenters get shut down, the power that would’ve been used to generate AI slop could be used for magnificent things. I mean, it’s purely clean energy because instead of using gas or oil, you take energy that COULD be used for something useless and put it to better use. Think of all the applications.
- We could power countless electric cars, trains, and bikes.
- We could power countless medical devices like pacemakers and defibrillators.
- We could power countless lights in people’s homes.
All this could be accomplished by not building massive datacenters. What’s more is that there could be countless gallons of clean drinking water used for surgical cleaning and chemistry that would otherwise serve to cool the amount of datacenter power. Think of all the possibilities!
If only Sam Altman could understand this…!
I’m talking about the idealised “free market” presented in economics textbooks. That is something which does not exist in reality, and cannot exist in reality. But we can create something which is a close enough approximation and maintain it using regulation to prevent unwanted behaviours that result in an undesirable distribution of resources. Fundamentally, the “free market” is more like a game mechanic which allows us to use the laws of game theory to manage the distribution of resources (electricity) against another resource (money). It’s just a tool that can be manipulated to cause economic actors to behave in a certain way. It’s similar to how cap-and-trade systems seem to function somewhat well in terms of distributing a scarce resource to the most economically-productive uses. Not perfect, but shocking good for the low amount of infrastructure it requires.
This is not about capitalism, and I’m not really interested in debating the merits of that at this hour on this old of a comment.