this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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[–] ClimateStalin@hexbear.net 58 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Okay not just AI but in general most business uses should be lowest on the electricity priority list

Before telling people to raise their AC to relieve pressure on the power grid, AI data centers should be shut down, most offices should be closed and powered down, etc.

The very last electric appliances to be turned off should be residential AC units. Basically everything else should go before those.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

The very last electric appliances to be turned off should be residential AC units

I don't think a mostly for-comfort utility should be the last to shut down. There is a lot of significantly more important shit, like hospitals, water treatment plants and pumping stations, coolers and freezers which are storing food, public transit, etc.

After all, our species has survived without AC for hundreds of thousands of years, but surviving without running water or safe food is much more difficult.

Even some datacenters can be more important, e.g. those predicting the weather or handling communications.

And if AC is necessary for survival in a place, then maybe we shouldn't fuckin' settle there (or at least shouldn't cover the entire place with asphalt and concrete). What happens during a real blackout? Does everyone just die?

[–] john_brown@hexbear.net 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I don't think a mostly for-comfort utility should be the last to shut down.

at-risk people die without A/C when it's 100F and 95% humidity.

And if AC is necessary for survival in a place, then maybe we shouldn't fuckin' settle there (or at least shouldn't cover the entire place with asphalt and concrete).

People settled there because A/C became available. You can't just shut off the A/C and cackle while the elderly and infirm die of heat stroke.

What happens during a real blackout? Does everyone just die?

people do pretty much every time it happens due to hurricanes in Texas, yes.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People settled there because A/C became available

Yeah, but like, don't. Or at least cover your house with solar. If you need a literal life support system and are dependent on a centralized power grid for that with no backup, you will die.

You can’t just shut off the A/C and cackle while the elderly and infirm die of heat stroke.

I agree that in places like that AC should be among the critical systems which are the last to shut down, but it's also important to note that the vast majority of inhabited places on earth are not like that (yet).

[–] john_brown@hexbear.net 25 points 1 month ago (11 children)

Yeah, but like, don't. Or at least cover your house with solar. If you need a literal life support system and are dependent on a centralized power grid for that with no backup, you will die.

Sorry gramma, a lemmitor said you shouldn't have been born in the armpit of america, so you're going to have to either die when power shuts down or drop everything and move.

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[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

After all, our species has survived without AC for hundreds of thousands of years,

What's climate change

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The human species has lived through an era when the average temperature on Earth was about the same as it is now. It's true that (very) soon it won't be the case (it looks like the climate is truly fucked and we'll get the hottest year since humans evolved in a decade or so, and then shoot right past that and into real hell on earth territory).

[–] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, I also wanted to mention that AC in critical workplaces, schools and kindergartens should also be given priority over residential AC, but the comment was already too long.

[–] ClimateStalin@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago

Obviously I’m oversimplifying to an extent. There are obviously essential services that should be prioritized over residential areas, but my point is that most business uses should be lower priority than residential.

Also AC saves lives. Every time there’s a big blackout during a heatwave people die. Especially the elderly.

I agree that we shouldn’t have people living in those places, Texas and Florida should be permanently evacuated. But currently people do live there and I’d rather they not die.

[–] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 39 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

One of the more underreported topics regarding 'AI' is the massive amount of power they consume.

I work for an electric utility that a few years ago was in talks of having another merger, just a couple years after the last, to give an idea of how thin things were.

Now? Said company will be adding gigawatts of additional generation over the next 5-10 years, multiple new large plants, almost solely because of this phenomena. Population growth has been static in this region, and no major plants have been shuttered, the growth is almost solely due to this crap.

[–] Lyudmila@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago

But see, that's just the market forces building the infrastructure like they're supposed to. anakin-padme-1

And in a couple years when someone drives a truck full of ANFO into the datacenter and turns it into a crater the size of Rhode Island, that'll just be the market forces correcting themselves and then we just won't need to have rolling brownouts, right? anakin-padme-2

[–] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago

uh actually i do want quintuple-breasted uncanny valley waifus and ecological devastation tyvm

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

why can't I have no tits and 5 environment?

[–] SuperZutsuki@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

I'll settle for 2 (two) small tits and many environment. Actually, I already have the tits so I really just need the environment.

[–] segfault11@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago

Nobody wants 5 tits

I-was-saying

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] FnordPrefect@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago

frothingfash "I assumed this meant more racist deportations! Now I can't power my gooncave with 18 monitors showing an endless stream of AI hallucinations of five-breasted women!"

[–] Formerlyfarman@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago
[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] miz@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago
[–] mrfugu@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago

So is this still going off the vague estimate given my a google exec regarding AI power usage compared to a search engine that was reported on and then cited over and over again? I’m no fan of AI slop but the power usage of industrial shit is massive compared to a bank of GPUs roleplaying as waifus.

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Gonna stick my neck out here (in response to some of the replies I'm seeing) but there's nothing wrong with having your air conditioning at 27Β°C (unless you have some very particular health condition I guess?) and if we were to do things right as a society, that would probably mean rationing resources like AC so that everyone could have access to them

[–] Saymaz@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 month ago
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