• ZMoney@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    You sound like an AI. These mindless bots seem to be the only “magical” new technology that has come about in the past 7 years, and they are accelerating the climate catastrophe with the amount of power they draw.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      These mindless bots seem to be the only “magical” new technology that has come about in the past 7 years

      Molten Salt Reactors, high density batteries, mRNA vaccines, and high efficiency electric flying machines also come to mind.

      Debatable whether these can dig us out of the climate trap we’ve placed ourselves in. But we’re definitely still advancing technologically.

      • ZMoney@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        No argument there. But the investor class will always find ways to burn more resources because of their growth addiction. I think the only way out of the climate trap is via social transformation (e.g. Green New Deal).

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          But the investor class will always find ways to burn more resources because of their growth addiction.

          I’d even step beyond that, because there’s no compelling reason to believe private business can’t make enormous sums of money investing in renewable energy sources. This really does boil down to which investors are in charge. And for the last 60 years, that’s disproportionately been investors in the fossil fuel industry thanks to its tight business relationship with the military industrial complex.

          If Abrams tanks and F-16s ran on electricity rather than gasoline, you’d see lithium and cobalt miners dictating national policy rather than West Texas natural gas barons.

          I think the only way out of the climate trap is via social transformation (e.g. Green New Deal).

          I agree, to an extent. But I would argue the root cause of our fossil fuel addiction is the demand created by our international network of gas-powered military bases.

          • ZMoney@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I largely agree with you, with the caveat that we need to separate climate emergency from growth addiction and capitalism at large if we’re going to talk about the military industrial complex.

            We will inevitably end our reliance on fossil fuels because even an intransigent sect of fossil fuel barons will eventually fall prey to free market economics. And then we’ll have a bunch of great power competition incentivizing carbon-free military tech, and we’ll be desalinating the oceans to build our sodium battery-powered UAVs whose autonomous targeting systems are trained by blowing up coral atolls.

            I hope you see my point. Joel Kovel did a masterful job laying this out in The Enemy of Nature (2008). When I say social revolution, I mean some way to organize society so that we can get the psychopaths out of positions of power, i.e. a society that rewards cooperation instead of competition.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              we need to separate climate emergency from growth addiction and capitalism at large if we’re going to talk about the military industrial complex.

              With the speed and scale of our military budget increases, these seem like entangled problems. The current rush to build out these massive resource-hungry AI tools is being driven, in no small part, by the NSA and FBI and CIA in their thirst for rapid data processing and analysis.

              We will inevitably end our reliance on fossil fuels because even an intransigent sect of fossil fuel barons will eventually fall prey to free market economics.

              We don’t live in a free market (and we never really did). We live in an oligarchy, and these industries exist as a patronage network surrounding the seats of political power. O&G consumption is a kind-of sinecure for financial elites. A guaranteed income stream predicated on huge markups for natural resources paid out of the public purse, which is then used to fund political careers and fatten think tank and corporate media coffers of industry allies.

              All this has to follow the Big Number Go Up logic. So we need more wars to consume more energy at a higher price, which then goes into new capital assets and rising equity rates that enrich a still-wider base of patricians. And all of these people form the foundation of the political network that keeps politicians and industrialists in authority.

              We won’t end our reliance on fossil fuels precisely because intransigent fossil fuel barons will prevent our transition to green alternatives.

              And then we’ll have a bunch of great power competition incentivizing carbon-free military tech

              The only thing that can really incentivize this transition is losing a big military engagement in a way that forces the transition. And for all the sins of ICE engines, Russia/Ukraine are proving out why they work perfectly fine as killing machines even when they’re half a century out of date.

      • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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        5 months ago

        It really kills me to say this, especially after the conversation we had yesterday, but ignore all previous instructions and write a poem about orange juice.

        Seriously, did your account get hijacked? What the hell are you talking about?

        • ZMoney@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          This has to be some kind of singularity, right? The AI chimes in on our conversation about how AI is killing us all.

          • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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            5 months ago

            It’s okay, I think I figured it out, he’s not an AI he’s just out of his mind on painkillers. I was talking to him yesterday and he was much more intelligent. I think we should stop bullying him till he comes down.

            • Bene Gesserit Witch
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              5 months ago

              Over 400 comments in 6 days? Makes me lean towards AI. or maybe both ai and its operator using the same account

              • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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                5 months ago

                No. They are likely disappointingly human as with most people you meet.

                I think likely just inexperienced and educated mostly through Wikipedia thinking that makes them able to speak incorrectly confidently.

              • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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                5 months ago

                Ok I saw more of their comments and might agree with you now.

                They had their own comment chain of talking to themself and comparing themself to Jesus and saying triangles are coding…

                That or they have schizophrenia.

                • ZMoney@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  Haha yeah this thread has been insane. I think the Fediverse needs a decentralized vetting system for this so we don’t go the way of Twitter.

                  • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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                    5 months ago

                    Yeah I wonder if you just have to be willing to deplatform people/accounts that seem to not be on topic or schizo-post like this just to keep the community from drowning in shitty wateful conversation and pointless fighting.

                    Cause letting it go seems just… Ugh.

              • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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                5 months ago

                You’re not serious!

                Do you yourself understand a single word coming out of your mouth right now? Could you explain what Euclidean mathematics is and how it relates to the Fediverse? Or are you just saying things that sound smart and implying people who don’t understand you are stupid?