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by probablypower 31 days ago
every solution engineers a greater problem. Solving horse poop with cars -> Climate change
3 comments

No, the solution usually creates a caste of citizens unaware that they would not even exist without it,vehemently protesting against the solutions because of sideeffects.

Take the imperialism of old: people did not do this because beeing evil is fun. They did this because beeing exponential in a linear world produces conflict anyway and to dim the lights elsewhere allowed you to keep the civilizations lights on in the heartland longer.

People fought wars for fertilizer. Now you have hippies protesting against fertilizer made with harber bosch, who would kill each other as some north korean stunted growth dwarfs in imperial wars if they would get their wish.

It is a bit like saying that by reducing child mortality to almost zero, we created a huge problem with Alzheimer's.

Not exactly wrong, but an extremely pessimistic perspective which ignores all the positives of the process.

"AI will solve climate change" -> Datacenters that cause more climate change
I’ve heard this idea but don’t believe it was actually a serious claim? Surely it’s only ever been more of a post-hoc PR kind of justification for the massive energy use that nobody genuinely believes?