

It’s complicated.
Computers can scale, you can make a computer much larger than a human brain.
Computers really just do binary math. For those who don’t know, it’s basically determining whether or not 1 or 0 should change, or stay the same, based on an algorithm. We don’t know (or at least, I haven’t read that we know) how brains actually store and process information.
Computers are very fast at doing “simple” calculations with definite answers. A pocket calculator can do math faster than you can with 100% accuracy. On the flip side, analyzing and reacting to incomplete information is the forte of the human brain. We still haven’t made a computer than can fit in a car and drive better than some of the dumbest people on the planet manage to do, while fucking around on their phones at the same time.




Yeah. People don’t understand why I’m not anti-datacenter (let me finish before you dog-pile me). Datacenters are very efficient ways to house lots of compute. Power, HVAC, and staffing all benefit from economies of scale. Most of our modern life is highly depent on datacenters, including application specific AI tools (not LLMs, but like medical imaging analysis tools) that will have positive effects on humanity. I do have problems with datacenters that are going up quickly and cheaply, with lax standards for air, water, sound and light pollution, and power subsidized by the surrounding homes, in order to ride the front of this very unstable AI bubble.
Before you ask, I did sign the petition to limit datacenters in my state. I’d sign one to limit new datacenter construction nation-wide. Datacenters are essential to modern life, which is exactly why we should have a higher standard for how they are constructed. I’m not anti-data center, but I am anti-whatever-the-fuck-this-is.