[FRIAM] death by ubiquity

[Steve Smith]

/Heat Death by Computation/

Geoffrey Hinton (who left Google in May 2023 so he could speak more 
freely/agenda-less-ish?) gives good lecture on the topic of the 
differences between wetware/analog (i.e. Human Cortex) computation (for 
intelligence/consciousness) and silicon/digital and why human brains can 
do what they do with ~20-30W compared to digital computer's attempting 
to do even a fraction of the same tasks require thousands of Watts (or 
much more since none have uniquivocally achieved AGI).   He attributes 
it (roughly) to the differences  in "style" of computation and how 
analog computing without overly strict concerns about reproduceability 
and zero error rates can outperform on the tasks they do (and conversely 
why a simple calculator, even a mechanical one, can often outperform all 
but the most savant-like humans easily on a tiny amount of power (think 
70's solar-cell handhelds).

While I think that our voracious computational/informational 
appliances/infrastructure/habits (see my own fascination with 
GPT/DALL-E) are like (maybe?) everything we do, unbounded by anything 
but pushback from the environment.   The evolutionary push/pull that 
made us into the versatile creatures we are set us up to take/use until 
there is nothing left.   We have millenia of history trying to build 
self-regulating systems/principles (sacred rites to nature, 
personification of nature as-gods with rewards/wrath for not respecting 
them, rules about "commons", the EPA, etc. adn.) and yet the more 
aggressive or clever (sometimes both-ish... Musk...) always stay ahead 
of the rules... sometimes by being scoff-laws, but always (at least) 
ignoring the spirit while following or gaming the letter of it.

To the extent that our extant attempts to rein in our (un)enlightened 
(overly tightly scoped) self-interest) in is something of an Artificial 
Intelligence (I claim all bureaucracies are AI's, oft very inefficient, 
cumbersome, narrowly focused and/or mal-formed) then we might expect 
that is the *best* our incipient massive AI systems will be?

Or perhaps this is our greatest challenge/opportunity to recognize the 
leverage they will be giving "us" over "ourselves" (one-another) and 
seek to transcend or previous (and current and foreseeable) worst 
habits/instincts/practices?

This might be the inflection point in the Drake Equation 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation>: //N = R/ x fp x ne x fl 
x fi x fc x L /(Sagan and others have suggested additional factors to 
describe humanity's propensity for self-destruction).

As a hard SF enthusiast, I'm always a little fascinated by the idea of 
every star (single or binary) system hosting technological 
civilization(s) hitting a singularity where they essentially become a 
Dyson Sphere very quickly once a certain level of technical capability 
is achieved. A nanotech (or better) sphere of "computronium) collecting 
the power-flux from the star/system and transforming it into 
computation/information and low-grade heat.... I'm sure someone (Niven, 
Vinge, Clarke, Asimov, Dyson, Sagan/SETI ???) has done the calculations 
to guess what spectrum to be looking in for such signatures?

Mumble,

- Steve

On 3/28/24 11:17 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> It's not really my thing, but I noticed there were several very large exhibits at Supercomputing 23 for cooling technology.   Even immersive cooling solutions.  I think that could be improved a lot.   Without superconducting processors, I don't see how energy use can be dramatically reduced though.  For that there will just need to be new generation.    Could put these near large off short windfarms..
>
> https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/china-deploys-1400-ton-commercial-underwater-data-center/
>
> I suppose there are some that would say gentrification is genocide -- a slow coerced displacement.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam<friam-bounces at redfish.com>  On Behalf Of glen
> Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2024 9:49 AM
> To:friam at redfish.com
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] death by ubiquity
>
> Maybe. But way before that happens, it will(has) force(d) the disaffected (people, animals, plants) of any such region to die, move, or adapt.
>
> In the Gaza kerfuffle, I've heard some describe coerced displacement as "genocide". I guess the more reasonble term is ethnic cleansing. The settlers seem mostly fine with their ethnic cleansing agenda. But, by analogy, how would we describe the coercive adaptation put upon a region by a massive water-sucking data center? Biology cleansing? If there really were an AI, would they worry about the forced displacement caused by their silicon incubators? ... or maybe "incubator" isn't a good word. How about "galls":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall  Yeah, that might be a good analogy. The machines are parasitic. They hijack the iDNA (information generators) of the local biology to form galls within which they grow and thrive.
>
> On 3/28/24 07:51, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> It will force innovation on energy-efficient microarchitecture (e.g. Groq) and on renewable power generation near data centers.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Friam<friam-bounces at redfish.com>  On Behalf Of glen
>> Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2024 7:09 AM
>> To:friam at redfish.com
>> Subject: [FRIAM] death by ubiquity
>>
>>
>> As we frivolously replace meatspace conversation with obsequious chatbots, the world burns.
>>
>> The industry more damaging to the environment than airlineshttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/30/silicon-valley-data-giants-net-zero-sustainability-risk/
>>
>> https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/civil-engineering-magazine/issues/magazine-issue/article/2024/03/engineers-often-need-a-lot-of-water-to-keep-data-centers-cool
>
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