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I disagree. Datacenters save a lot more energy than they make. Alone how much co2 is saved when i can do my banking online instead of having to drive to a bank

I disagree. Datacenters save a lot more energy than they make. Alone how much co2 is saved when i can do my banking online instead of having to drive to a bank is significant. The same with a ton of ohter daily things i do. Is video producing co2? yes. But you know what creates a lot more co2? Driving around for entertainment. And the companies running those GPUs actually have an incentive to be co2 neutral while bitcoin miners don't: They 1. already said they are doing / going co2 neutral due to 2. marketing and they will achieve it becauseh 3. they have the money to do so. When someone like Bill Gates or Suckerberg say 'lets build a nuclear power plant for AGI' than they will actually just do that.

quassy 2y ago
Point 1, 2 and 3 all apply to miners as well and yet they never delivered on their promise.
- k8sagic 2y ago
  The normal miners never said that. They just say this at conferences for simple greenwashing. The normal miner doesn't go to those bitcoin conferences, they buy asics, put them in some warehouses around the world and make money.
croes 2y ago
>Is video producing co2? yes. But you know what creates a lot more co2? Driving around for entertainment What's more likely, watching a movie online, drive to watch a movie in a cinema? You know what creates a lot less CO2? Staying at home reading a book vor playing a board game. >Datacenters save a lot more energy than they make I think you mean CO2. And I doubt that they actually save anything because datacenters are convenient so we use them more as alternatives with less convenience. Like the movie example, we watch more and even bad movies if it's just a click on Netflix than we do if we have to drive somewhere to watch. MS recently announced they fail der CO2 target but instead produce 40% more because of cloud services like AI
- k8sagic 2y ago
  Have you checked how much co2 a normal car drive creates vs. watching a movie online? We need to be realistic here. We know what modern entertainment looks like and its not realistic at all to just 'read books' and play board games.
  - commodoreboxer 2y ago
    It is 100% realistic to read books and play board games. Both markets are massive, and board games in particular are having what I would consider a renaissance. Maybe it depends on your crowd, but everybody I know plays tabletop games and reads books.
    - mrtranscendence 2y ago
      You're missing the point. What's not realistic is to tell everyone that they should abstain from any type of entertainment that requires power (TV shows, movies, video games, etc) and should only read books and play board games instead. I don't care what kind of renaissance board games are undergoing, most people still only play the mass market classics, and then only rarely. I don't know how much energy Netflix uses serving a movie, but playing a video game on my PC for two hours where I'm located might generate a kg of CO2. That's about as much as I'll breathe in a day. Relative to other sources of atmospheric CO2 I'm not that concerned.
      - commodoreboxer 2y ago
        My issue was with "we know what modern entertainment looks like" as if humans are now incapable of enjoying themselves without a screen. And you should care about a massive market increase when it's directly relevant to the point at hand. If the initial point was "we know what modern entertainment looks like, nobody plays board games or reads books", pointing out that the board game market has more than doubled in the past decade is far from irrelevant. It actually directly counters the point. I agree with your second paragraph, and selling the "make better choices to save the world" argument is an industry playbook favorite. Environmental damage needs to be put on the shoulders of those who cause it, which is overwhelmingly industrial actors. AI is not useful enough to continue the slide into burning more fossil fuels than ever. If it spurs more green energy, good. If it's the old "well this is the way things are now", that's really not good enough.
fattegourmet 2y ago
> how much co2 is saved when i can do my banking online instead of having to drive to a bank is significant. And if the online bank wasn't sending a bunch of requests to a bunch of third party ad networks on every click, it would save even more.
- k8sagic 2y ago
  Yes. But what are you implying? Entertainment + ad garbage still is a lot more co2 efficient than printing flyers and sending those out.
austinjp 2y ago
I think it's more nuanced than that. I used to walk to my bank, I can't do that any more because many branches closed. The bank now directs all interactions to happen via their app. In terms of emissions (and social interaction, particularly for vulnerable and isolated members of society) I think this is bad news. But this is a complex calculus and - frankly - feels like a distraction from the issue. I don't want to get into the weeds of calculating micro-emissions of daily activities, I want climate responsibility and reduction in energy consumption across the board.
- k8sagic 2y ago
  I did made the point that AI/ml is helping us and the type of energy location and load is much easier to get green than lets say concrete. We need AI/ML for getting there faster and helping more people around us. Alone for weather simulations but also for medicine, material research for batteries etc.
yard2010 2y ago
Don't even get me started with the rant about taking planes.
happyraul 2y ago
This is a very limited perspective. There are many parts of the world not beholden to automobiles for transportation. Where I live, I can walk to the bank, and walk or ride a bike to entertainment. The alternative to data centers does not have to be driving an automobile somewhere.
- k8sagic 2y ago
  Your bank building has to be maintained and heated. Heating which is added to your use of the local bank. My perspective is not limited. Just because people live in a city center, doesn't mean that most people do. Open Google Maps and take a look.

quassy 2y ago

Point 1, 2 and 3 all apply to miners as well and yet they never delivered on their promise.

k8sagic 2y ago
The normal miners never said that. They just say this at conferences for simple greenwashing. The normal miner doesn't go to those bitcoin conferences, they buy asics, put them in some warehouses around the world and make money.

croes 2y ago

>Is video producing co2? yes. But you know what creates a lot more co2? Driving around for entertainment What's more likely, watching a movie online, drive to watch a movie in a cinema? You know what creates a lot less CO2? Staying at home reading a book vor playing a board game. >Datacenters save a lot more energy than they make I think you mean CO2. And I doubt that they actually save anything because datacenters are convenient so we use them more as alternatives with less convenience. Like the movie example, we watch more and even bad movies if it's just a click on Netflix than we do if we have to drive somewhere to watch. MS recently announced they fail der CO2 target but instead produce 40% more because of cloud services like AI

k8sagic 2y ago
Have you checked how much co2 a normal car drive creates vs. watching a movie online? We need to be realistic here. We know what modern entertainment looks like and its not realistic at all to just 'read books' and play board games.
- commodoreboxer 2y ago
  It is 100% realistic to read books and play board games. Both markets are massive, and board games in particular are having what I would consider a renaissance. Maybe it depends on your crowd, but everybody I know plays tabletop games and reads books.
  - mrtranscendence 2y ago
    You're missing the point. What's not realistic is to tell everyone that they should abstain from any type of entertainment that requires power (TV shows, movies, video games, etc) and should only read books and play board games instead. I don't care what kind of renaissance board games are undergoing, most people still only play the mass market classics, and then only rarely. I don't know how much energy Netflix uses serving a movie, but playing a video game on my PC for two hours where I'm located might generate a kg of CO2. That's about as much as I'll breathe in a day. Relative to other sources of atmospheric CO2 I'm not that concerned.
    - commodoreboxer 2y ago
      My issue was with "we know what modern entertainment looks like" as if humans are now incapable of enjoying themselves without a screen. And you should care about a massive market increase when it's directly relevant to the point at hand. If the initial point was "we know what modern entertainment looks like, nobody plays board games or reads books", pointing out that the board game market has more than doubled in the past decade is far from irrelevant. It actually directly counters the point. I agree with your second paragraph, and selling the "make better choices to save the world" argument is an industry playbook favorite. Environmental damage needs to be put on the shoulders of those who cause it, which is overwhelmingly industrial actors. AI is not useful enough to continue the slide into burning more fossil fuels than ever. If it spurs more green energy, good. If it's the old "well this is the way things are now", that's really not good enough.

fattegourmet 2y ago

> how much co2 is saved when i can do my banking online instead of having to drive to a bank is significant. And if the online bank wasn't sending a bunch of requests to a bunch of third party ad networks on every click, it would save even more.

k8sagic 2y ago
Yes. But what are you implying? Entertainment + ad garbage still is a lot more co2 efficient than printing flyers and sending those out.

austinjp 2y ago

I think it's more nuanced than that. I used to walk to my bank, I can't do that any more because many branches closed. The bank now directs all interactions to happen via their app. In terms of emissions (and social interaction, particularly for vulnerable and isolated members of society) I think this is bad news. But this is a complex calculus and - frankly - feels like a distraction from the issue. I don't want to get into the weeds of calculating micro-emissions of daily activities, I want climate responsibility and reduction in energy consumption across the board.

k8sagic 2y ago
I did made the point that AI/ml is helping us and the type of energy location and load is much easier to get green than lets say concrete. We need AI/ML for getting there faster and helping more people around us. Alone for weather simulations but also for medicine, material research for batteries etc.

yard2010 2y ago

Don't even get me started with the rant about taking planes.

happyraul 2y ago

This is a very limited perspective. There are many parts of the world not beholden to automobiles for transportation. Where I live, I can walk to the bank, and walk or ride a bike to entertainment. The alternative to data centers does not have to be driving an automobile somewhere.

k8sagic 2y ago
Your bank building has to be maintained and heated. Heating which is added to your use of the local bank. My perspective is not limited. Just because people live in a city center, doesn't mean that most people do. Open Google Maps and take a look.