"It really seems like anyone with some renders and a white paper written by someone being gassed up by an overly agreeable AI can get VC funding these days."
At least their water consumption would do down. Let’s do it, shoot the tech bros up there with them. Let’s even overshoot the orbit and make them disappear in the darkness.
Water consumption has been way overblown. Sure if you’re in the Colorado River basin, water is absolutely an issue. But if your concerned with wasted water usage, all data centers combined would be a rounding error compared to what we throw away on turf grass.
Kyle Hill and Hank Green have both made videos about this I’m not crazy.
I’ll watch these after work, but surely the problem is not availability of water, but drinking water, which is another story? Data centers aim for clean water sources which can be used for drinking. Turf grass don’t need that which makes the comparison seem unfair
Some areas have water shortages where resources are already strained and other areas have abundant water so that no amount of usage will make a dent.
It not that it isn’t a problem at all, it’s just it is only a problem in specific places and not an inherent issue with datacenters everywhere. Building datacenters in a desert would cause water issues, building them near the great lakes wouldn’t impact water availability in the slightest.
They do prefer drinking water, because it’s already treated and so the equipment/maintenance to use it is lower and they can just evaporate it away. In other areas, or if required by legislation, they could run coolant to the machines and then cool the coolant using dirtier sources (including seawater).
No let’s not do that. Building these slopstations will only contribute to the build up of space debris. Making it harder for future generations to have access to the stars. Just shoot them into a mountain side, or the ocean floor instead. Far more economical too.
At least their water consumption would do down. Let’s do it, shoot the tech bros up there with them. Let’s even overshoot the orbit and make them disappear in the darkness.
Water consumption has been way overblown. Sure if you’re in the Colorado River basin, water is absolutely an issue. But if your concerned with wasted water usage, all data centers combined would be a rounding error compared to what we throw away on turf grass.
Kyle Hill and Hank Green have both made videos about this I’m not crazy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx7ToT0G0qo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_c6MWk7PQc
I’ll watch these after work, but surely the problem is not availability of water, but drinking water, which is another story? Data centers aim for clean water sources which can be used for drinking. Turf grass don’t need that which makes the comparison seem unfair
It just depends on the location.
Some areas have water shortages where resources are already strained and other areas have abundant water so that no amount of usage will make a dent.
It not that it isn’t a problem at all, it’s just it is only a problem in specific places and not an inherent issue with datacenters everywhere. Building datacenters in a desert would cause water issues, building them near the great lakes wouldn’t impact water availability in the slightest.
They do prefer drinking water, because it’s already treated and so the equipment/maintenance to use it is lower and they can just evaporate it away. In other areas, or if required by legislation, they could run coolant to the machines and then cool the coolant using dirtier sources (including seawater).
No let’s not do that. Building these slopstations will only contribute to the build up of space debris. Making it harder for future generations to have access to the stars. Just shoot them into a mountain side, or the ocean floor instead. Far more economical too.
We can “accidentally” explode them on the launch pad as well. I don’t really care.
Could even make it easier, cheaper and avoid the ecological disaster as well