David Llewellyn-Jones
'Can AI solve the ecological crusis?' Evangeline Corcoran: We need to democratize access to computing resources, HPC, for applying methods and collaborating more widely. #aiuk #turinginst
Mar 22, 2023 at 3:08pmTooter
Show thread...hukkaMar 22, 2023

@flypig - The problem isn't finding the solutions. The problem is how to make people accept them and act accordingly.

Mitigation is currently the best solution to the fossil problem.

Show threadpoetasterMar 22, 2023
@vattuvarg @flypig
I'd suggest that even with the right 'incentives' , mitigation is a solution only in entirely planned societies. Which no longer exist. While bit by bit decarbonising over the last 2 decades I have watched in awe as the regulatory apparatus, in Germany, undermined every effort that actually began to approach critical mass. Now it's all reaction. To war. Not climate change or the deficits of public access to compute in education, eg.
Show thread...hukkaMar 22, 2023

@poetaster - It is a sad state of things when you need the right incentives to choose survival.

Remember that politics allows the perception of reality to be negotiated. ...especially in response to lobbyists with deep pockets. Nature itself drives a much harder bargain.

+ @flypig

Show threadDavid Llewellyn-JonesMar 22, 2023
@vattuvarg @poetaster I agree, it's not nature that's going to blink. But the "profit vs. survival" argument has been made for decades now, and only seems to have started to be taken seriously in the mainstream quite recently. Probably because it can seem all a bit abstract. So I'd agree that less abstract incentives are likely an essential part of solving the problem. Is that something AI could help with?
Show thread...hukkaMar 22, 2023

@flypig - AI will make a mighty splash in the area of generating increasingly complex fossil-driven smokescreens. A bit like "net zero" and "carbon capture" but on a whole new level. Those smokescreens are necessary mainly because mitigation never has been an alternative in politics or big business.

+ @poetaster

Show threadDavid Llewellyn-JonesMar 22, 2023
@vattuvarg @poetaster well I have to say, I don't disagree with you, but the optimist in me hopes that can change.
Show thread...hukkaMar 23, 2023
@flypig @poetaster - I've been a pessimist all my life and it has served me well BUT when it comes to the survival of our home planet then hope is the only viable option.
Show threadpoetasterMar 23, 2023
@vattuvarg @flypig
Ordered another inverter yesterday. 320 nominal additional watts coming. Hot water will be 100% solar May to Nov. Something, I guess.
Show threadDavid Llewellyn-JonesMar 23, 2023
@poetaster Superb! This is how change happens.
Show thread...hukkaMar 23, 2023

@poetaster - I would like to know how you heat water with that small amount of electricity. Just curious.

+ @flypig

Show threadpoetasterMar 23, 2023
@vattuvarg total on the roof is now 2 kw. That was an addition.
Show thread...hukkaMar 23, 2023
@poetaster - Thank you for making that clear.
Show threadpoetasterMar 22, 2023
@flypig @vattuvarg
I suppose what I'm most agahst about is that the 'obvious' opportunism doesn't seem to bother the 'higher ups'. Many of my neighbors, as am I, are all busy trying to reduce our Water and Power consumption. But everyone that's an autonomous agent has a half dozen neighbors who are just watching the mercenary political / economic class and saying, nah, gonna sit this one out.
Show thread...hukkaMar 22, 2023

@poetaster - The people at the top find it easier if the rest of the world would carry the weight of this problem that they have created. I fully understand that all others have problems with their motivation.

+ @flypig