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> We are also in a time when most people would prefer to use that water for drinking, washing, cleaning… basically anything except data centres. That is not wh
by westurner 11d ago
> We are also in a time when most people would prefer to use that water for drinking, washing, cleaning… basically anything except data centres.
That is not what is indicated by consumer behavior.
Though it isn't healthiest, people prefer sugar water and so the sugar water companies have been able to afford to acquire water rights and they have driven up the cost of water.
Drilling holes through aquifers and not capping them, over-grazing and over-tilling, and wasteful industry production processes have driven up the cost of water.
Given a low-enough energy cost and basically unlimited salt water from the oceans, we shouldn't be out of water. There should not be coastal water scarcity.
Golf course, chip factory, almonds, fracking, lawns, swimming pools, or purple pipe golf course water?
- westurner 11d ago> We need to use AI to redevelop AI datacenters in order to cancel the harms. This is worth money. It is worth a lot of money to solve the AI data center sustainability problem. And, solving the AI datacenter sustainability would preserve the AI value multiplier in other sustainable process redesign efforts. > We need to use AI to solve for global warming. It's actually imperative; "Global warming will exceed 1.5-degree limit, UN says" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49576124#49578556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49576124#49578556
- agentultra 11d agoWe already know how to solve for climate change. All that is lacking is political will. Not AI.
- westurner 9d agoWell, perhaps a thought experiment about this then: - One person lives in a world where people have applied AI (the smartest tech we have) to solving for datacenter impact and broader climate change objectives. - The other lives in a world where they use AI to expensively generate infotainment videos (and for example statements about lack of political will) but not solutions that solve for cost and sustainability.