Slop Will Not End Humanity, The Pushers of It Do (Artificial Scarcities and Global Warming)
Causing hunger and poverty in the name of "computation"
Having already checked national records, in some senses and in some places records are likely to be broken tomorrow. This is Manchester in May, technically still springtime:
Our latest daily batch of news (Daily Links) contains some picks regarding climate and we've discussed this lately in IRC as well. In and around datacentres the temperatures are measured 2-4 degrees higher than places further away, so measuring a human role in global warming is possible, not limited to the effects of emissions, exhaustion of water, and so on.
Put bluntly, the new 'crypto'-like 'Ponzi scheme' in 'hey hi' clothing (fake productivity, synthesis of no real, actual value, just hype) is destroying the planet and we must talk about it. There's no "datacentre" boom, it's just a boom. We're bombing our planet and not only do energy prices rise; we're creating many artificial scarcities, which impact cycles including agricultural activities.
They used to say and some people still say that "hey hi" will end humanity or something to that effect; let's reframe this debate as, synthesis of plagiarised crap poses a threat to human civilisation because it encourages waste (in "hey hi" clothing) for the sake of waste or "proof" (in 'crypto'-like 'Ponzi schemes'; they make excuses for their deliberate waste of energy, spun as "mining"). It offers no actual benefit, but it helps fake economic activity in a fast-dying economy that cannot sustain 8 billion people, not even the world's richest country. █
Image source: Baker selling loaves