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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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On the one hand, I get it. I really do. It takes an absurd amount of resources for what it does.
On the other hand, I wonder if people said the same of early generation comptuers. UNIVAC used tubes of mercury for RAM and consumed 125KW of electricity to process a whopping 2k operations per second.
Probably not. Most people weren't aware of it, nor did they have a care for power consumption, water consumption, etc. We were in peak-American Exceptionalism in the post-war era.
But, had they, and computers kinda just...died. Right there, in the 1950s. Would we have gone to the moon? Would we have HDTV? iPhones? Social Media? A treacherous imbecile in charge of the most powerful military the world has ever seen?
Probably not.
So...I do worry about the consumption, and the ecological and environmental impact. But, what if that is a necessary evil for the continued evolution of technology, and with it, society? And, if it is, do we want that?
And, to go a step further, could AI potentially aid in finding realistic ways to undo the harms that it had caused? Or those of anthropogenic climate change? Or uncover new unforseen dangers?
Did the inventors of UNIVAC ponder if its descendants would one day aid in curing terminal illness, or predicting intense weather, or realize how much it would evolve in the coming decades? Moore wouldn't have even coined his iconic law for another 14 years.
What I don't like...what I really don't like...is that this phase of technological evolution is coinciding with rampant pro-capital/anti-social rhetoric and governance. I like that it's forcing conversations around modernizing copyright law, licenses, etc...but I don't like who is involved in those conversations.
(https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/birth-of-the-computer/4/83)
early generation computers fueled a demand that was being supplied by rooms and rooms of human calculators calculating and checking each other's works for scientists, engineers, businesses, and government agencies
(Manhattan Project, Atomic Heritage Foundation picture)
they would not have died out, because they were a necessary part of the evolution of technology at their time. more importantly, they were more accurate than their human calculators. computers don't forget to carry a number to the next digit or flip them around. barring exceptionally rare cosmic radiation events. and their technological progression fueled an ever greater need until now when tech has entered post-scarcity when it comes to calculating power.
generative AI in contrast was an offering looking for a purpose. spare gigaflops no longer needed for tech people are trying to sell by building more and more hype for calculating power. sucks to be the one who invests into it, but that's business. sometimes investment don't work out. if microsoft can't hype up a demand then it is unnecessary technology.