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I think that's the datacenter with the gas turbine generators that operate without permits because they're "portable." Data centers have tremendous externalitie
by gaze 4mo ago
I think that's the datacenter with the gas turbine generators that operate without permits because they're "portable." Data centers have tremendous externalities but colossus is a particularly nasty offender, and not just due its size.
Edit: They did it with Colossus and now they're doing the exact same thing with Colossus2. https://www.selc.org/news/xai-built-an-illegal-power-plant-to-power-its-data-center/ https://www.selc.org/news/xai-built-an-illegal-power-plant-t...
- georgemcbay 4mo agoYup, and now Anthropic is complicit in the environmental damage and health problems for local residents that these data centers are causing. But hey, number must go up, right?
- jquery 4mo agoGiven how much our EPA has been gutted by the current administration, I don’t think relief is very likely.
- idle_zealot 4mo agoHave you considered that the march of progress requires human blood to grease the gears and mulched skulls to pave the (highly efficient) road? Really, when you take into account all of the future lives this will improve and save it's difficult to claim any cost now is too high. Would you stand in their way and delay the day that Mythos cures cancer? This is a joke. Read it in a mocking tone.
- Johnny_Bonk 4mo agoI loled
- LogicFailsMe 4mo agoI'm not saying human blood and mulched skulls are a renewable source of power, I'm just saying. Or maybe they can partner with SoulCycle to power computation with 24/7 spin classes?
- kennywinker 4mo agoAnd people called the matrix’s human batteries far-fetched.
- ericd 4mo agoAlways felt like it would've made more sense if it was using part of the peoples' brains to do their computation, as super energy efficient computers.
- tadfisher 4mo agoI believe that was in the original script, and rewritten after some exec didn't understand how brains could be computers.
- GuB-42 4mo agoIf it was indeed the original script, the reason they changed to batteries is maybe not because "some exec" is an idiot, but because it worked better from a storytelling perspective. Even if treating people as batteries doesn't make much sense as we are pretty terrible power plants, the message is clear and impactful. It is common for movies to oversimplify things, because they want to avoid having the viewer from being distracted from the main plot. It is tricky, as being too obviously wrong can breaks the immersion. I think the people = batteries analogy is a good compromise. Brains = computers, while technically more plausible would add a layer of complexity that could be a bit too much for a 2h action movie.
- flir 4mo agoMatrix franchise is well known for not trying to pack in too much complexity /s
- ericd 4mo agoI don't think it'd have much of an effect on the story, outside of background stuff like the Animatrix, it's just an interesting little fact about why the world is the way it is. Shooting and hitting things in slo mo is still the core either way.
- projektfu 4mo agohttps://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995 https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995
- morkalork 4mo agoWhen do we start building pyramids and doing the Sardaukar blood letting ritual?
- hugh-avherald 4mo agoWhen the 10-year yield hits 6%. Basic macroeconomics.
- thelastgallon 4mo agoNot Anthropic, but Sam Altman - AI will solve climate change and cure all diseases.
- coliveira 4mo agoAI is the new religion, and one needs to be stupid to believe it.
- ChicknNuggt 4mo agoAlready so many people are treating it as a higher being, believing whatever that comes out of it
- fragmede 4mo agoThat implies you don't need to be stupid to believe the other ones.
- _heimdall 4mo agoMy favorite claims are that it will solve both aging and death, whatever that means.
- louiereederson 4mo agoPer sanguinem ad astra
- BobbyTables2 4mo agoI wonder what percentage of GDP expenditure will give us SkyNet. Undoubtedly, it will find cures to all cancers… The ARR and stock appreciation will be amazing. Except the cures will be found long after it has wiped out all humans.
- tadfisher 4mo agoWiping out all humans _is_ the cure.
- broknbottle 4mo agoSome of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice that I am willing to make.
- Nition 4mo agoA superintelligent AI will be safe though, because it learnt its morality from us.
- ChicknNuggt 4mo agoDoesnt AI learning its morality from humans makes it unsafe, I mean just look at some cases, humans dont exactly always have good morals
- Nition 4mo agoYeah, look at the parent comment I was sarcastically responding to. Of course top of all that, even if human morals were perfect, it's still a dubious claim.
- shimman 4mo agoDo you think Boris cares about people getting cancer and dying from these data centers? No, he cares about becoming rich as fuck.
- coliveira 4mo agoThis is simply called disruption. They really don't care.
- chinathrow 4mo agoIsn't he rich already by now?
- shimman 4mo agoSam Altman and Dario Amodei are already billionaires. That doesn't stop those greedy fucks from stealing everything in their path in the pursuit of money. Greed is a societal illness.
- redox99 4mo agoWhat's the tremendous externality of gas generators? People heat their own homes with natural gas and it's no big deal. How can a datacenter that is miles away be worse than that?
- jLaForest 4mo agoThe gas furnace in my basement don't have a massive jet turbine emiting high frequency noise
- redox99 4mo agoI wouldn't call noise pollution a "tremendous externality". The gas turbines should just be placed far enough from where people live.
- alex_duf 4mo agoIt's the low frequencies that's more of an issue apparently. Benn Jordan has a great series of videos about it, including one on Colossus
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- coliveira 4mo agoHow can something that is a million times bigger than your home be any different, right?
- hemul3n 4mo agoI dug into this topic in some detail on my blog and it's both enraging and depressing. https://poiesic.com/posts/pattern-recognition https://poiesic.com/posts/pattern-recognition
- Torn 4mo agoThis is a really great watch from Benn Jordan on the topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo Some wild things happening with those, and infrasound. Colossus is shown 4 mins in
- usef- 4mo agoThis was debunked: https://blog.andymasley.com/p/contra-benn-jordan-data-center-and https://blog.andymasley.com/p/contra-benn-jordan-data-center...
- krige 4mo agoThe debunk is extremely sketchy on many points. https://www.bearlythinking.com/p/andy-masley-doesnt-understand-how https://www.bearlythinking.com/p/andy-masley-doesnt-understa...
- usef- 4mo agoThat post is mentioned at the bottom of what I linked. He has a full post response here: https://blog.andymasley.com/p/to-be-clear-i-do-understand-how-sound https://blog.andymasley.com/p/to-be-clear-i-do-understand-ho...
- zenapollo 4mo agoHow i know Masley is trash: > Jordan is suspiciously lurching to the extremely high energy end of the light spectrum when we know that the low energy end (comparable to infrasound) doesn’t have negative impacts on us if we can’t detect its presence. Masley spouts the falsifiable propaganda that any photon (light/emf) below ionizing radiation energy can only cause “heat” and can have no other possible harm effects. Many science-minded people (though more accurately in this case, billiard-world materialists) have become quite militant defenders of this idea (ostensibly fighting off the hoardes of tinfoil hatters and quantum aquarians sensitive to 5g). This point is very plausible military industrial propaganda. There were numerous studies with evidence (starting from the 60s) such as - non ionizing radiation (eg hv powerlines) might cause lots of cancer, and it’s weaponized (sub-thermal) usage can microwave the brains of enemy spies. THOSE studies have come out in declassified and leaked docs. Now we have several plausible and serious theories of mechanism for low-f light disrupting biology that lean into quantum biology. While the iceberg of quantum biology understanding is still in its early decades, the mounting downstream evidence of health and medical issues are established public knowledge.
- stronglikedan 4mo agoSeems like selc's time would be better spent trying to close the loophole that allows for unpermitted turbine generators instead of going after one company for doing what they were allowed to do when they did it.
- robwwilliams 4mo agoThe newer location is about 3 miles southwest of the Memphis Airport (MEM), one of the world’s largest cargo airports and the center of FedEx operations (500 take-off and landings per day most concentrated in a 6 h FedEx window with lots of engines running on ramps and that produces about 2000 tons of NOx per year). I live about 18 miles downwind of the new Colossus sites, the airport, and lots of truck logistics sites, and a large refinery. I definitely will be getting 2x exposure to ozone and particulates from both Colossi when they are running full bore. Plus an extra dose of ultrafine particulate with my morning fresh air. Yes, wouldn’t it be nice to be in Nashville instead with HCA, Oracle, many insurance and financial institutions, and the joy of country music. As an avid Opus user I am in an ethical Nimby bind. We do need almost any investments we can get in Shelby County TN. I’ll take Anthropic in preference to Grok NOx. And it will be my NOx.
- monster_truck 4mo agoYour math is way wrong. The airport is and will be far, far worse. You didn't even mention all of the lead
- robwwilliams 4mo agoWhat was the specific mathematical or factual error? It is not theoretical for me.
- schmookeeg 4mo agothere is no lead in jet fuel. i would expect close to no 100LL burning planes use MEM.
- bob1029 4mo agoThe biggest issue with the interim onsite generation is the lack of meaningful stack height on the generating units. Airplanes by virtue of their mode of operation stay out of the unhappy regime most of the time. Also, engines at/near idle produde orders of magnitude less emissions. Those aeroderivative generators are running at full capacity 24/7. Dumping exhaust at ground level continuously is probably much worse than the airport. Even if it's a FedEx world hub.
- nelox 4mo agoxAI’s turbines produce meaningful local/regional pollution (especially NOx in a vulnerable area) but represent a rounding error nationally and globally.
- palmotea 4mo ago> xAI’s turbines produce meaningful local/regional pollution (especially NOx in a vulnerable area) but represent a rounding error nationally and globally. If you shoot someone in the face, it will produce a meaningful increase in local/regional murder, but represent a rounding error nationally and globally.
- techpression 4mo agoGave me a chuckle on my commute, thanks!
- renticulous 4mo agoNo one should drive any kind of vehicle because they cause accidents.
- palmotea 4mo ago> No one should drive any kind of vehicle because they cause accidents. Come on, stop with the desperate false equivalencies.
- glaslong 4mo agofarting in a crowded elevator because the people outside the elevator won't even notice
- cududa 4mo agoIt doesn’t matter if people have to suddenly live by gas turbines that run 24/7 because why again? Can you repeat that last part back to me but say it a little dumber for me?
- throwaw12 4mo ago
- SilverElfin 4mo agoSo much for Dario’s ethics. He happily partners with Elon. He seems like just another power hungry monopoly seeking liar.
- chrisldgk 4mo agoThat’s because he is. None of these people are your friends and all of them will fuck you over if it means getting richer and more powerful.
- znpy 4mo ago> So much for Dario’s ethics. He happily partners with Elon. He seems like just another power hungry monopoly seeking liar. Dario has been glorified unnecessarily. He's just like all the other people in the space: not good, not bad. And keep in mind that when Dario was opposing AI usage by the US State he wasn't really opposing, he was just saying "not yet".
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- Kelteseth 4mo agoSo for a guy that literally has a company that produces batteries and solar panels, choose to use gas turbines. So much for saving the planet.
- renticulous 4mo agoHe is building the skill tree in such a way that he is prioritising speed rather than environment.
- _heimdall 4mo agoSolar and batteries are a bad choice for a constant 24/7 load. That's the exact reason we will never go fully solar (or wind) unless an insanely impressive battery breakthrough makes storage effectively free while using only common, renewable components rather than rare earths. Solar, wind, etc are excellent parts of an energy system, but its nearly impossible to cover base load at scale with generation that may only run for 0-5 hours a day. edit: typo
- jtr1 4mo agoYou may want to update your priors [1][2][3] 1. https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-solar-panels-and-batteries-can-now-run-close-to-24-365-in-some-cities/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-solar-panels-and-... 2. https://www.fastcompany.com/91500104/google-minnesota-data-center-electric-bills https://www.fastcompany.com/91500104/google-minnesota-data-c... 3. https://www.rootsanalysis.com/sodium-ion-battery-market https://www.rootsanalysis.com/sodium-ion-battery-market
- _heimdall 4mo agoSodium is an interesting chemistry, though it has different voltage curves than lithium ion once hardware is built to match it they may scale well for industrial use. That still doesn't avoid the more fundamental math of having to store such massive amounts of energy though, even if you skip batteries and pump water to retention ponds uphill. Even for small scale residential, the recommendation is to store 3 days worth of average usage to handle stretches of cloudy days and to have a generator for the times when that still doesn't cut it. You also need enough solar that 4-6 hours of generation can fill those batteries back up after a stretch of cloudy days. You also have to contend with frequency issues. This is what took down Spain's grid, they had turned on a ton of solar at the time - with many gas plants offline a seemingly small dip below 60Hz really wrecks much of the system when it wasn't designed to handle those swings and triggers multiple safety mechanisms.
- bvcp 4mo agothis is why ai in space will win
- _heimdall 4mo agoThe physics of data centers in space will be extremely difficult and expensive to pull off in any meaningful timeline. I fully expect "space AI" to be about as realistic as the flying cars and hover boards we've been promised since televisions were black and white.
- bvcp 4mo agoits only a expensive to viable alternatives, is there a viable alternative for 1 terrawatt of compute on earth? how could you get approvals for such a project
- _heimdall 4mo agoThe alternative would be just not building it. I'm not sold that a data center in space is even possible unless and until we develop a drastically different solution for heat management.
- tootie 4mo agoAnd Anthropic can pay money to Musk to absorb all that liability while they keep training models.