Enjoyed reading this. I think you're right to point out the premature imitation problem but may be misapplying it to concerns about the environmental costs of AI, which seem far more salient to a nation that regularly faces shortages of water and energy than they are to Virginia. Instead, isn't there premature imitation in the rush to find uses for the shiny new tool before attempting to grapple with the mundane challenges of execution you identify? Won't those same problems of execution plague the adoption of AI as well and undermine any attempts to leapfrog?
This is profoundly stupid. I'm sorry for being so blunt, but this fake narrative haks me at my wits end. The myth that Data centers consume water has been debunked 100s of times by now, and it will not die. You want to save water, then curtail agriculture. Two outlets of McDonald's in US use more water than a data centre. Even the energy use, is not a global problem, but a local problem. At a national level, data centres consume a measly 4% of USA's electricity supply.
Data centres can raise local electricity bills, and it will not be a good thing if that energy comes from fossil fuels. You don't fix that by stopping data centres, which are soon going to be a national security asset, but by increasing clean energy supply.
And if we always want fix "execution" before adopting a new technology, you would never adopt anything. It's a degrowth mindset, which is idiotic, given we are a piss poor country with only $3k GDP per capita. We adopted Digital India before we fixed supply of piped water to villages. What followed was UPI, a global achievement which works on a scale most countries can't fathom.
When the ground is shifting beneath everyone's feet is exactly when you have to take a gamble. If the US populace is losing their minds over imagined concerns like water use of Data centers, it is precisely a moment where young country which is in desperate need of growth, capitalises on.
These arguments assume that we have time. We don't. We have 20 years before we lose our demographic advantage and have to contend with an aging population and low fertility, a problem which no country on the planet has figured out a solution to. We must get to the equivalent of 20-25 trillion USD GDP in today's terms before then.
I've read Masley. Your comment seems to itself be a form of premature imitation. Nothing Masley cites should dismiss concerns about energy and water usage by data centers at a local level. Comparing water usage by data centers to that of U.S. golf courses has limited applicability in a context where energy and water infrastructure is already strained beyond its limits, and cannot adequately serve the needs of the local population. If any of the announced $200B investment was aimed at upgrading this basic infrastructure to better serve Indians in addition to enabling the operation of new data centers, this might be a different conversation. But India's VIP culture and the execution problems Vedica highlights portend an inequitable distribution of any such investments.
I'm also still waiting on evidence for how constructing data centers will help India make use of and better serve the largely underemployed demographic dividend you speak of. Unlike smartphone factories, data centers don't need to employ large numbers of people to operate. By contrast, in the short term, AI capabilities seem well-equipped to undercut the kind of BPO work that has employed many young people in the country.
Enjoyed reading this. I think you're right to point out the premature imitation problem but may be misapplying it to concerns about the environmental costs of AI, which seem far more salient to a nation that regularly faces shortages of water and energy than they are to Virginia. Instead, isn't there premature imitation in the rush to find uses for the shiny new tool before attempting to grapple with the mundane challenges of execution you identify? Won't those same problems of execution plague the adoption of AI as well and undermine any attempts to leapfrog?
This is profoundly stupid. I'm sorry for being so blunt, but this fake narrative haks me at my wits end. The myth that Data centers consume water has been debunked 100s of times by now, and it will not die. You want to save water, then curtail agriculture. Two outlets of McDonald's in US use more water than a data centre. Even the energy use, is not a global problem, but a local problem. At a national level, data centres consume a measly 4% of USA's electricity supply.
Data centres can raise local electricity bills, and it will not be a good thing if that energy comes from fossil fuels. You don't fix that by stopping data centres, which are soon going to be a national security asset, but by increasing clean energy supply.
And if we always want fix "execution" before adopting a new technology, you would never adopt anything. It's a degrowth mindset, which is idiotic, given we are a piss poor country with only $3k GDP per capita. We adopted Digital India before we fixed supply of piped water to villages. What followed was UPI, a global achievement which works on a scale most countries can't fathom.
When the ground is shifting beneath everyone's feet is exactly when you have to take a gamble. If the US populace is losing their minds over imagined concerns like water use of Data centers, it is precisely a moment where young country which is in desperate need of growth, capitalises on.
These arguments assume that we have time. We don't. We have 20 years before we lose our demographic advantage and have to contend with an aging population and low fertility, a problem which no country on the planet has figured out a solution to. We must get to the equivalent of 20-25 trillion USD GDP in today's terms before then.
A short essay debunking environmental costs of data centres (Has links to longer posts with detailed arguments) - https://andymasley.substack.com/p/a-short-summary-of-my-argument-that
I've read Masley. Your comment seems to itself be a form of premature imitation. Nothing Masley cites should dismiss concerns about energy and water usage by data centers at a local level. Comparing water usage by data centers to that of U.S. golf courses has limited applicability in a context where energy and water infrastructure is already strained beyond its limits, and cannot adequately serve the needs of the local population. If any of the announced $200B investment was aimed at upgrading this basic infrastructure to better serve Indians in addition to enabling the operation of new data centers, this might be a different conversation. But India's VIP culture and the execution problems Vedica highlights portend an inequitable distribution of any such investments.
I'm also still waiting on evidence for how constructing data centers will help India make use of and better serve the largely underemployed demographic dividend you speak of. Unlike smartphone factories, data centers don't need to employ large numbers of people to operate. By contrast, in the short term, AI capabilities seem well-equipped to undercut the kind of BPO work that has employed many young people in the country.
Very insightful.