Quinn NortonFeb 11
I'm so confused, I am a bear of little brain, can someone explain to me, in simply words... HOW THE FUCK DO YOU COOL A DATA CENTER IN SPACE
Show threadMaxi 12x 馃拤Feb 11
@quinn Space is cold, no? I guess the cooling part would be the lesser issue.
Show threadMicha艂 "rysiek" Wo藕niak 路 馃嚭馃嚘Feb 11

@frumble you need a medium for heat transfer and a *huge* area for radiating it away (since there is no heat transfer medium in space).

@quinn

Show threadMaxi 12x 馃拤Feb 11

@rysiek @quinn
So, even naked GPUs in outer space, unencapsulated, would just cook themselves, the heat won鈥檛 be engulfed by space at all?

https://social.circl.lu/@quinn/116054651911884306

Show threadQuinn NortonFeb 11
@frumble @rysiek not necessarily cook itself, there is *some* heat transfer in space, especially a busy place like and inner solar system. But modern computer components absolutely would toast themselves long before you really got much up and working. A whole datacenter? That's just absurd.
Show threadMicha艂 "rysiek" Wo藕niak 路 馃嚭馃嚘Feb 12

@quinn @frumble yeah. There is simply nothing out there to "engulf" anything. Space is empty.

Think of it this way:

Air is a pretty bad heat transfer medium. Water is a much better heat transfer medium. If you could put a GPU directly in water it would cool faster. That's pretty intuitive.

Space is (basically) empty, it is not even comparable as a heat transfer medium to air, because well there is no medium.

Show threadQuinn NortonFeb 12
@rysiek @frumble I mean, there is some. We're not talk interstellar medium empty, where Voyager 2 is now. but it says something that V2 went though a 50,000 C temperature zone, and matter was so dispersed that it was fine
Show threadMicha艂 "rysiek" Wo藕niak 路 馃嚭馃嚘

@quinn @frumble I said "basically". Compared to air or a body of water on Earth's surface, it is negligible.

And if we're nit picking, there is also thermal radiation. That's *technically* a method of cooling, and one that is used by the Hubble telescope (among others)!

Feb 12 at 12:29amWeb
Show threadEllipsis... 馃嚚馃嚘Feb 12

@rysiek @quinn @frumble The author of this article did an estimation of the size of the radiator needed to cool a 1GW data center in space: 1.1 million m^2

https://www.chaotropy.com/why-jeff-bezos-is-probably-wrong-predicting-ai-data-centers-in-space/

Why Putting AI Data Centers in Space Doesn鈥檛 Make Much Sense

Jeff Bezos said gigawatt AI data centers will orbit Earth in 10 to 20 years. Thermodynamics makes this idea unfeasible. Without convection, waste heat must radiate through panels spanning millions of square metres. Add latency, radiation risks and costs.

Chaotropy
Show threadMistake not ...Feb 12
@tobiaspatton @rysiek @quinn @frumble people need to play more Terra Invicta ... Terra invicta players know that even fancy scifi tech radiators come in at 10s of tons per GW.
Show threadMicha艂 "rysiek" Wo藕niak 路 馃嚭馃嚘Feb 12

@tobiaspatton @quinn @frumble yeah. These are not serious people. Nobody should be spending all this time taking their bullshit investor-targeting hype seriously.

Musk promised people on Mars "in a decade" over a decade ago. He promised robotaxis "within a decade" over a decade ago.

The guy promises people on Mars but can't get a drunken dude driven home.

Show threadAnne DelongFeb 12

@rysiek @tobiaspatton @quinn @frumble

Maybe the giant radiators would shade the earth...

Show threadMicha艂 "rysiek" Wo藕niak 路 馃嚭馃嚘Feb 12

@Anne_Delong obligatory Simpsons reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjdMYyjnmks

@tobiaspatton @quinn @frumble

Have You Ever Seen The Sun Set At 3pm? (The Simpsons)

YouTube
Show threadEllipsis... 馃嚚馃嚘Feb 12
@rysiek @quinn @frumble and yet the media continues to credulously repeat outlandish predictions from known liars. We have the institutional memory of a fruit fly.
Show threadQuinn NortonFeb 12
@tobiaspatton @rysiek @frumble LOL, at least that will put a dent in global warming 馃槀