Fuck AI

Ehh, this post just makes me wish they had finished a badass canal network

I live right near a canal that was completed in 1832, and it was essential and a massive success.

Many people know the story of Canada (or Britain and its North American colonists) burning down the White House. It wasn't just the White House though, it was a bunch of public buildings in Washington including the White House, the Capitol and the Washington Navy Yard. What people don't know is that this was in retaliation for the Americans burning and looting York (today's Toronto), which was at that point a small town and the capital of the province of Upper Canada. The Americans broke the laws of war when they did that, so there was a temptation to do the same to them in Washington, but cooler heads prevailed and only the public buildings were burned.

After the war of 1812 ended, the British realized how vulnerable Canada was to the Americans. In particular, the only way to ship things from Montreal to the strategically important towns to the west (Kingston, York, etc.) was down the Saint Lawrence seaway, and the Americans controlled the lower bank of that route. As a result, the British decided to build the Rideau Canal, so goods could be shipped from Montreal to Kingston (and then from there onto the Great Lakes) while avoiding the choke points on the St. Lawrence.

The Canal was finished in 1832 and it was a huge success. Not only did it protect Canadian shipping from a possible US attack, it also avoided all the rapids, etc. on the St. Lawrence. For a few decades it was the main way to move goods and people west, allowing for areas to the west of Montreal to be settled. Canada's capital, Ottawa, wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Rideau Canal. Kingston, at the mouth of the Canal gained a lot of economic significance because of the Canal and was a unified Canada's capital from 1841 to 1844. And Toronto was settled by people moving through the Canal, it nearly doubled in size between 1832 and 1834.

By the late 1850s, a railway was built between Bytowne / Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, and this railway was used instead of the canal. But, the demand might not have existed for the railway if people hadn't been able to move west thanks to the canal.

It may be that people saw the success of that canal, and of other important canals, and that there was an overbuilding as a result of that. And, that when the railways came there was a more effective way of doing some of the same things. But, canals were incredibly important for a few decades and shape the world we live in now. So, how dare you compare them to AI datacentres, you jerk.

My closest city is actually filled with 100+ year old buildings that have old pictures of the building in various points in history. Someone went through a lot of trouble about a decade ago to get everyone on board with displaying historical stuff.

There's a road that follows one of the old canals, and a tunnel still technically accessible beneath the main downtown road where deliveries were hauled in order to keep the road up top for PEOPLE to walk on, and carriages were rare until the 1900s.

Then everything changed in the early-mid 1900s and no hint of canals even exists today in the city, other than one road named "canal" and one named "water". But without knowing the history, they're just names.

So not finishing much-hyped projects is a species thing and not just a personal flaw of mine?

Good to know, I think?

Moving Goods by water is the most economical way to move them, trains are next, trucks are last, I mean after like wagons and shit. We do things the inefficient way because vested interests make money doing it that way. Good luck trying to be more efficient. It's not going to fucking happen. Not with these fucking clowns in charge. Or the previous clowns that are supposed to be our clowns.

I'm thinking data centres might be like landlines. For a while they were the only option, but then mobiles came along.

In today's context, the mobile is analogous to a fast home computer that can run AI locally.

We might end up with more telephone exchanges than we need.

(for the international audience, mobile = cell phone / handy; landline = inland phone, PSTN.)

Similar analogy can apply to trains etc.

Oh, that's great! Because when the DATA centres grind to a halt, you can send all the contruction workers and civil engineers to finish up your canal projects!

I mean, they'll be great places to provide free housing to the homeless.

Err, no. ICE will probably just hollow them out and turn them into concentration camps.

Guess it depends which way the pendulum swings.

Canals and trains are still the two of the most important parts of the goods transport network. It's not a good analogy, cities who finished the canals and trains did better.

When the internet dot com boom happened telecom infrastructure providers were putting more lines into the ground than there was demand for it since they predicted that growth would accelerate. But then the bubble burst and the overcapacity was not used for years aka dark fiber. But then growth picked up again and since there were already lines in the ground the growth on demand wasn’t putting pressure on supply and thus companies could buy bandwidth very cheaply. This will probably happen with all these datacenters when the bubble bursts. The big tech companies will retreat, scale down investments and leave these datacenters underutilized. Either they will sell their assets or rent it out cheaply and thus startups and smaller companies can use the overcapacity at a low cost.

Man has an AI pfp though... Is he anti or pro?

If only tax money were were funding the datacenters.

We should be TAXING THE DATACENTERS

Interesting analogy. I've been pointing out the first synthesizer, built in 1897, which was so big that it took up the entire city block basement of a building. It worked, but it was so enormous that it was essentially useless. After a few decades of progress, the same instrument could be put into a suitcase, and carried around.

That how I see Data Centers. They are like that 1897 synthesizer - Sure, they work, but at what cost? They're huge, resource guzzling, pollution spewing monstrosities. Perhaps in a few decades, all those problems will be solved, and we can have data centers that aren't more destructive than productive.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

I'm just waiting for the cheap GPUs

Can't happen soon enough

I grew up on the Wabash/Erie canal. It was finished and brought a load of commerce to the region. This is not a post about data centers.

Hi I'm from the present and that gives me the unique ability to predict the future.