Mastodawn

Anyone else remember that thing where 2020 taught us that a bufferless, deeply interconnected world of just-in-time production was incredibly fragile, and an otherwise completely manageable temporary disruption would cascade quickly into economic catastrophe, but instead of learning any lessons or building resilient, humane infrastructure we told everyone that the crisis was past and normal was back and go sacrifice your lives and health to grease the machine?

I do.

https://www.techspot.com/news/111683-critical-semiconductor-gas-lost-third-global-supply-drone.html

Drone strikes halt a third of the world's helium supply, threatening chip production

At the center of the issue is the precision gas vital to chip manufacturing and cryogenics. Helium cools silicon wafers during fabrication, maintaining the extremely low temperatures...

TechSpot

Vysogota Mar 15

@mhoye look, there's a silver lining... *We* weren't going to get to use any of these chips anyway cosidering faceless AI corps had bought the full supply for years ahead. With some luck these will have gone bankrupt by the time He is available again.

MegatronicThronBanks Mar 15

I like how they're telling us wide scale Fission for Power production is magically safe again, having everything including your vacuum cleaner permanently reliant on Tha Clowd is completely performant and safe, and a third thing to make this a paragraph of three!

(hic/haec/hoc)Mar 15

@mhoye I remember reading that a bestseller book of the 1910s argued that there would never be a major war in Europe because France and Germany were each other's largest trading partner and their economies were too interconnected, making a war too expensive for no appreciable benefit. It was true, as what you said is true, but it didn't and doesn't matter because the idea of starting a war is never rational in itself in the best of cases, and we're far away from the best case these days

Fluffy Kitty Cat Mar 15

@mhoye this isn't good for the AI datacenters. I wonder how much natural gas prices are impacting them?

Poligofsky 🇨🇦 .. 🚫🤖Mar 15

@mhoye Because sytemic fragility does not hurt the people who run the system. Not as much as the psychic pain of giving up even a cent of possible competitive advantage aka speculative (imaginary future) profit.

@mhoye Raises hand.

craignicol Mar 15

@mhoye it's not like we've had supply chain problems before.

Like in cars https://www.spglobal.com/automotive-insights/en/blogs/2023/7/the-semiconductor-shortage-is-mostly-over-for-the-auto-industry

Or after the Japanese earthquake https://www.reuters.com/article/world/japan-quake-tests-supply-chain-from-chips-to-ships-idUSTRE72D1FQ/

Or the Ever Given getting stuck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Suez_Canal_obstruction

Or when KFC ran out of chicken https://www.fcsi.org/foodservice-consultant/eame/kfc-supply-chain-fail/

If only we had some experience of supply chain failures so we could create some resilience 🤔

Cameron MacLeod Mar 15

@mhoye It feels like the lesson being learned each time is “oh good we still have some slack in the system, it turns out, so no worries then. [turns dial another notch]”

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦Mar 16

@c_9 @mhoye where "slack" = people still too afraid to say no. Put 'em thru the grinder! 😭

Elon Muksis 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 🇪🇺Mar 16

@c_9 @mhoye I wonder how long can the industrial production peak be pushed into the future and what will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. https://medium.com/@alysion42/recalibration-of-limits-to-growth-a-2023-update-of-the-world3-model-055b677a6cd5

Recalibration of Limits to Growth: A 2023 Update of the WORLD3 Model

Old news from 1972, in case you missed it

Medium

Guillaume Téchené Mar 15

@mhoye I read the title "Drone strikes halt a third of the world's helium supply" and thought "wait, are drones going on strike now ?" It took me a few seconds to realize my mistake but damn that dream was good.

Andrew Abdalian Mar 15

@mhoye @aburka remember when the government flooded the market with cheap helium because running a helium reserve costs money? Not saying this is the answer, but stewarding a finite resource might have come in handy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve

National Helium Reserve - Wikipedia

Nicola Elle 🏳️‍⚧️Mar 15

@mhoye And I still teach it. 🤷‍♀️

Efficiency and resilience are in opposition. Choose your blend wisely.

Ken Milmore Mar 16

@mhoye Tragedy of the commons. Nobody wants to be the one to pay for that buffer of redundancy.

@kbm0 Consider this your periodic reminder that Gareth Hardin was a hardcore eugenicist and his famous essay was propaganda to that cause.

I remember when the shift happened and resilience and capacity became rebranded as waste; the 80s and 90s were all about ‘externalizing’ costs in the name of efficiency.

@mhoye I've been ranting about autarky (digital and not) for several years now.

@mhoye Lived thru those Just In Time times with a presentation/speech by a Boeing bean counter/admin type that said that getting parts early was WORSE than late.