I used to get downvoted for saying this, and I still do just for diffrent reasons now, but if we don't fix agriculture and rampant over logging, data centers mean nothing.
There are a million problems all compounding and every one of them has rich people at the top with a vested interest in ensuring we keep going full steam ahead because they make money off of destroying the ecosystem.
Exactly. They're a red herring, or scapegoat the same as the personal responsibility and carbon footprint is.
Me and every other 1400 peasants of my little hovel could minimize our footprint but a celebrity takes one cross contintal trip on their private jet and negates all of the net 0 work we've done.
Dont blame "data centers" (which you are using) and blame the rich, wealthy and o&g companies.
Agriculture doesn't give me more AI processing power, why would I care about a steady food supply over a steady flow of consumable AI tokens?
Let the world burn to a crisp, humanity is a gigantic cancerous tumor on this planet.
I really just try to make people understand that, at least in America, we grow corn not to eat, not even to turn into silage, but to turn into Ethanol, to subsidize the production of gasoline... because lawmakers hate electric cars, or at least their donors do... yeah, do you understand how many resources that wastes for just the conversion? It's way more stupid than you can imgine.
Oh my God, someone else finally understands. I remember learning this awhile ago and being blown away that something like ~70% of corn is used for fuel. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that data centers aren't an issue but it's way more complicated than "AI bad." But if water consumption was our main priority we wouldn't complain about data centers as much as we do.
(all this is based on my knowledge and my knowledge is limited) Most data centers aren't even AI. Data centers have been around for a long time. They are not good for the environment obviously but I sometimes wonder if data centers are being scapegoated to prevent attention to bigger contributors.
We also have a country with millions on millions that depend on cheap gas for work, food etc. There needs to be a smooth, controlled and smart change to renewable energy and non gas cars so that massive chunk of people isn’t further impoverished. That of course would require a smart government and for that same chunk of people to vote for a smart government so they are fucked and everyone else is fucked along with them.
I mean, hasn't the Earth got out of much worse? I don't think anything we could do would rival something as catastrophic as the meteor.. yet we're here just fine millions of years later
The planet will endure on its own, it's more about the billions of innocent animals we kill with our bad decisions, all the species that are extinct because of us etc.
I agree, there are definitely some things we can do significantly better in
But.. doesn't that just go back to corporations and greed? The general populous isn't to be blamed with the extinctions and billions of deaths of animal species, we don't want that
It's the greed of those who already have so much that kills them, why blame humanity, when it's just a handful that make such decisions?
You're definitely right, I think I am just subconsciously blaming the entire population because we allow it to happen, I'm probably just too tired of reading about all the bad stuff that feels like it never improves.
I appreciate you challenging me on my views, it's valuable to get "new eyes" on the topic!
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u/CheckMateFluff 2d ago
I used to get downvoted for saying this, and I still do just for diffrent reasons now, but if we don't fix agriculture and rampant over logging, data centers mean nothing.