Energy, Properly Used

 

On this day:
1972
Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex
2009
During the Iranian election protests, the death of Neda Agha-Soltan is captured on video and spreads virally on the Internet, making it “probably the most widely witnessed death in human history”.

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Are the speeches about the Iran threat new, or do they use the old Iraq WMD speeches to save paper?

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28% of people surveyed recently feel that the Biden White House was open and honest about Biden's decline.

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Energy, Properly Used

Kevin O’Leary commented that the recent meetings at the G7 showed that "the country that has the energy, has the AI, has the economy, has the productivity, and eventually is superior in warfare."

“This is all going to go to drones and robotics one day, and the country with the best AI,” he added.

O'Leary recently warned investors not to conflate AI enthusiasm with real capacity. "You can't just pull that from the local grid without sending electricity bills soaring. Cities won't allow it, and communities push back hard," he said last month, calling power availability the new prime metric for tech valuations.

So AI is the gatekeeper for future security and economic development, despite requiring a tremendous energy supply, a supply that has to be either developed or sacrificed elsewhere and diverted. 

How is this different from the internal combustion engine debate of old? We were told then we simply had to sacrifice energy production and move on to more responsible energy use--i.e. electric car engines--despite the inconvenience and cost, for a greater good. Now we're told we must ramp up our energy production, regardless of its source, with its recently cursed side effects, inconvenience, and cost, for the greater good. The tech race is on, and anyone can win. But anyone without great energy production will fail. AI has got to be fed. 

And what about bitcoin mining? I've seen energy farms for bitcoin mining as big as Section 8 housing projects. Certainly, bitcoin wealth enriches society and is for the greater good.

It should be clear that unexpected sacrifices must be made in our complex, modern world. The only certainty is who has to make those sacrifices.