cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1191080/the-earthly-limits-of-data-centre-resistance-what-started-out-as-a-laughable-idea-deploy
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are both pursuing the development of technology for orbital data centres through their companies SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively, funneling considerable resources into what many consider to be a speculative endeavor akin to science fiction. Google, too, has launched its Project Suncatcher with similar goals. These ventures seek to capitalise on the perceived limitlessness of the heavens to drive increasingly zealous AI ambitions.
Where the fuck does the heat go? Radiators aren’t going to cool a fucken AI data center enough in space where the heat has nowhere to go.
Hypothetically a stable orbital structure with a consistent dark side could use heat pumps in conjunction with Curie point radiators that could potentially radiate fast enough in a hard vacuum. They’re impractical on a vessel that’s intended to do a lot of accelerating, decelerating, and changing direction but something with a relatively stable position they’d have some potential.
This is why they tried to sell it before. They knew there would be outrage and they spun it as “we won’t, but what if” and now they’re moving to the next step of normalizing it with articles like this.
These fucks won’t pay a little extra for water or properly compensate for the electrical infrastructure they need. They are not building data centers in space until that’s where the robot miners, refiners, and manufacturers live.
