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I think overall this seems good, we knew this is where the gains from TPUs would lie and there is a nice agreement here between the need for profit and more pressing planetary (anthroposcenic?) concerns. With things like this, one might ask how much do we consume binge watching something on a streaming service, or loading a page full of js and ads and canvas elements, or even just scrolling a feed for an hour on an app.

Still, there are a lot unswered questions here, and its up in the air precisely how this stuff will continue to integrate into services we already use, or habits we have yet to form at large. What does that scaling look like?

But by far the most troubling thing is the continued combination of flippancy, defensiveness, or silence we get from the AI peiple about even attempting to talk about this. If you are a True Believer, don't you want this to be something that is tackled head on, rather than tucked away? When this has come up before, I always end up seeing a bunch of guys who essentially leave the vibe of "well I am plenty above sea level, my AC is pumping just fine, and I just simply don't care because my productivity has doubled!"

Like isn't this community supposed to be excited about a future, eager to tackle problems? Or is there maybe some intrinsic solipsism to the impressive chatbots that ultimately renders this kind of attitude to its users? It feels like right when we were culturally about to age out of this particular form of obstinacy, we set ourselves up to create a whole new generation of "global warming is fake news" people. Which is a shame. If you're going to be like this, just go all in on accelerationism in all its pseudo-facist darkness, don't just borrow a script from baby boomers!



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