this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025

170 points (100.0% liked)

technology

23862 readers

106 users here now

On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.

Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020

Rules:

1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

170

Nobody wants 5 tits. If Total Recall taught us anything it's that 3 tits is where it's at 👍 (hexbear.net)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 55 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Okay not just AI but in general most business uses should be lowest on the electricity priority list

Before telling people to raise their AC to relieve pressure on the power grid, AI data centers should be shut down, most offices should be closed and powered down, etc.

The very last electric appliances to be turned off should be residential AC units. Basically everything else should go before those.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

The very last electric appliances to be turned off should be residential AC units

I don't think a mostly for-comfort utility should be the last to shut down. There is a lot of significantly more important shit, like hospitals, water treatment plants and pumping stations, coolers and freezers which are storing food, public transit, etc.

After all, our species has survived without AC for hundreds of thousands of years, but surviving without running water or safe food is much more difficult.

Even some datacenters can be more important, e.g. those predicting the weather or handling communications.

And if AC is necessary for survival in a place, then maybe we shouldn't fuckin' settle there (or at least shouldn't cover the entire place with asphalt and concrete). What happens during a real blackout? Does everyone just die?

[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

After all, our species has survived without AC for hundreds of thousands of years

survivorship

Other things our species survived without for hundreds of thousands of years include water purification, cancer treatment, obstetrics, antibiotics, sterile medical instruments, and agriculture.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

No, actually this one is okay. The main reason we need so much AC is our buildings are poorly insulated and not designed for heat management. They have old Arabic buildings from before writing that have complicated design features for heat abatement and people didn't even stay in side as much as we do now.

Capitlaism won't let us have nice insulation. Like, good insulation is my number one pet peeve in home design. Everything else you can work around but there really is no replacing quality insulation.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Sorry if it's unrelated, I understand the meme but what's the background of it?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's an image from a study of Allied bombers during World War 2. The red dots are places where the plane was shot, yet still managed to return home. A knee-jerk reaction would be to add armor to these places, but the real solution was to add armor to the places where the suvivors hadn't been shot (cockpit, engines, tail), resulting in more planes surviving their bombing runs.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Oooh thank you. I thought the background was about a plane crash and where survivors would need to be to survive

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago

Survivorship bias

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

My point is that way more humans can survive a couple weeks without AC than a couple weeks without water or food.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah ok but most households probably don't absolutely need an AC, there's definitely people that would be put at risk if they didn't have one but on average in the west I don't think it's the case.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

In large parts of the US it’s absolutely the case, and even in Europe every time they have a heatwave (which is every summer now) a ton of old people die

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I don't think a mostly for-comfort utility should be the last to shut down.

at-risk people die without A/C when it's 100F and 95% humidity.

And if AC is necessary for survival in a place, then maybe we shouldn't fuckin' settle there (or at least shouldn't cover the entire place with asphalt and concrete).

People settled there because A/C became available. You can't just shut off the A/C and cackle while the elderly and infirm die of heat stroke.

What happens during a real blackout? Does everyone just die?

people do pretty much every time it happens due to hurricanes in Texas, yes.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

People settled there because A/C became available.

I don't disagree with your broader point, but even hellish places like Phoenix predate A/C.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Humidity is the difference.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Honolulu, Singapore all predate A/C.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And people still die when they lose A/C in Texas. I don't know what to tell you, that is the reality of what happens.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Again, I don't disagree with your broader point, I'm just pointing out that "People settled there because A/C became available" is factually inaccurate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Houston would not exist in its current form without A/C, same with most of Louisiana and some of Florida. A/C is part of what caused the population boom in these regions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

the american southwest would be much less settled without it. it's not that nobody went it's that way more people did after.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

People settled there because A/C became available

Yeah, but like, don't. Or at least cover your house with solar. If you need a literal life support system and are dependent on a centralized power grid for that with no backup, you will die.

You can’t just shut off the A/C and cackle while the elderly and infirm die of heat stroke.

I agree that in places like that AC should be among the critical systems which are the last to shut down, but it's also important to note that the vast majority of inhabited places on earth are not like that (yet).

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (11 children)

Yeah, but like, don't. Or at least cover your house with solar. If you need a literal life support system and are dependent on a centralized power grid for that with no backup, you will die.

Sorry gramma, a lemmitor said you shouldn't have been born in the armpit of america, so you're going to have to either die when power shuts down or drop everything and move.

load more comments (11 replies)

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

After all, our species has survived without AC for hundreds of thousands of years,

What's climate change

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The human species has lived through an era when the average temperature on Earth was about the same as it is now. It's true that (very) soon it won't be the case (it looks like the climate is truly fucked and we'll get the hottest year since humans evolved in a decade or so, and then shoot right past that and into real hell on earth territory).

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

a mostly for-comfort utility

that mostly is doing a lot of heavy lifting

https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/how-school-hvac-systems-affect-learning

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/as-the-temperature-climbs-test-scores-drop-in-schools-without-air-conditioning/2018/05

https://www.nber.org/digest/aug18/hotter-school-days-less-learning-unless-theres-ac

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah, I also wanted to mention that AC in critical workplaces, schools and kindergartens should also be given priority over residential AC, but the comment was already too long.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

Obviously I’m oversimplifying to an extent. There are obviously essential services that should be prioritized over residential areas, but my point is that most business uses should be lower priority than residential.

Also AC saves lives. Every time there’s a big blackout during a heatwave people die. Especially the elderly.

I agree that we shouldn’t have people living in those places, Texas and Florida should be permanently evacuated. But currently people do live there and I’d rather they not die.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

One of the more underreported topics regarding 'AI' is the massive amount of power they consume.

I work for an electric utility that a few years ago was in talks of having another merger, just a couple years after the last, to give an idea of how thin things were.

Now? Said company will be adding gigawatts of additional generation over the next 5-10 years, multiple new large plants, almost solely because of this phenomena. Population growth has been static in this region, and no major plants have been shuttered, the growth is almost solely due to this crap.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

But see, that's just the market forces building the infrastructure like they're supposed to. anakin-padme-1

And in a couple years when someone drives a truck full of ANFO into the datacenter and turns it into a crater the size of Rhode Island, that'll just be the market forces correcting themselves and then we just won't need to have rolling brownouts, right? anakin-padme-2

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago

Nobody wants 5 tits

I-was-saying

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

why can't I have no tits and 5 environment?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

I'll settle for 2 (two) small tits and many environment. Actually, I already have the tits so I really just need the environment.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago

uh actually i do want quintuple-breasted uncanny valley waifus and ecological devastation tyvm

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

#BrownOutsForAll

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago

frothingfash "I assumed this meant more racist deportations! Now I can't power my gooncave with 18 monitors showing an endless stream of AI hallucinations of five-breasted women!"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

volcel-judge

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

So is this still going off the vague estimate given my a google exec regarding AI power usage compared to a search engine that was reported on and then cited over and over again? I’m no fan of AI slop but the power usage of industrial shit is massive compared to a bank of GPUs roleplaying as waifus.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I-was-saying

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What about ONE boob?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

MONOBOOB

load more comments