Re: moral panics

Some people are sensitive to things like unnecessary waste. They might be kind of bothered by the trajectory of certain things more than you are excited about it.

April 07, 2026 - 01:28 UTC

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everything is a tradeoff

convenience is... convenient, but it's important to remember the cost.

and who/what is causing the most waste round these parts, and where it goes.
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Convenience is expensive. It doesn't have to be, but it is ...for absurd and wholly unnecessary, socially constructed reasons.

Also, a lot of ppl despise complexity. Understanding complex issues requires energy, curiosity, and empathy, which doesn't tend to make money for ppl lacking those things.
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Well this bodes not well for some discourse huh
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If I can introduce more people to the concept of trade-offs and that other people view them differently that'd be cool.

An impossible task, I know, but we flew to the Moon so...
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I regularly dont buy things I want but dont need. I wanna buy a certsin warhammer model, but I dont need it, in the end its plastic trash. I have other things for hobbies I can use, I dont need to add to it.
I do allow myself occasional luxuries. but I try to buy things I need in better quality.
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I like to explain it as, repair means human labor hours and human labour requires raising a human for 18+ years. Kida waste a heck of a lot of resources so maybe its a good tradeoff to have more disposable stuff that ultimately requires fewer people in the chain.
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If a disposable product does not have a path to recycling that's an incredibly short sighted approach.
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I think for AI in particular there is a deeply existential unease that some people have about it which they often do not state as their reason for opposing it. They wrap it up in concerns about plagiarism or energy, but mostly it makes them feel bad and they want it to go away.
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I am a heavy user of it and i still have times where I do something with and I just wonder what the purpose of my job or anybody’s job even is any more. It can be quite anxiety inducing even though I am generally excited about the possibilities.
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I would like to have someone come out and take my old batteries and electronics to recycle them.
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I don't know. There have been worse moral panics and so many data centers might actually have some bad consequences. So, I won't panic until scientists tell me I need to. Besides, I'm too busy worrying about the concentration camp opening up in my town to worry about a data center.
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Just going to slowly try to get other perspectives to gel for the people who need help with that.

Possibly a terrible idea, but I'll try anyway.
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@techconnectify.bsky.social I suggest you go find whoever supposedly represents you in your government and get them to stop this madness.
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Might be impossible, but good luck! :)
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It may seem like pushing water uphill. But there are solutions to that problem, too.

It certainly isn’t terrible.

My shoulder, your grindstone.
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This is awfully timely after this weekend when I went to use headphones and BOTH sets batteries died in a couple hours and of course are sealed non serviceable so if I give up they go to the landfill. Why did we need wireless battery headphones and non replacable batteries in everything?
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I have yet to have a set have the sealed batteries fail before the set itself is worn to a nub.

Then again, I have had four Shokz (two replaced at the end if their 2-year warranty) over 15 years and had a Sony pair for ten years before that... As they get smaller, lighter they've got limits.
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Amd can't recycle the ones in anything that is body worn or health/grooming because the battery recycling places declare them biohazard. So good luck recycling the battery in your shaver/headphones/whatever if you can't figure out how to open the sonic welded security screw sealed case.
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😭 suffering from this exact same issue
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Right to Repair forever
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Yeah I've seen people on other sites quite angry that people are excited for what's happening. If that's what you mean.
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When it comes to things that are happening, I am excited about the Artemis mission and that's about it
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this sort of snarky, content-free, winky framing i find very disappointing. don't weasel out with "some people", "things like", "they might", "certain things". say what you mean or don't say anything. the snark adds nothing but meanness and bile. if the direct approach isn't working, this sure won't
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Not every person you disagree with or have issues with deserves to have their entire online presence put under a microscope because a content creator publicly disparaged them
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The context is in moral panics. People are talking about data centers as if there is a moral panic.

So there you go, that's what I'm talking about.
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Being more mindful and efficient with what we have is too often characterised as trying to drive us into neolithic austerity. The TCO of ephemeral, minor, conveniences manufactured, shipped, and disposed of by the daily tonne may not justify their "benefit"...
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AI is like Windows 11. It's forced on you without asking. You're told over and over that it's a good thing but you don't see it. Somehow it just ends up making everything worse.
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Is what counts as waste a bit of a personal pet peeve? At least some of the time? I live in the desert southwest. I obsessively empty leftover water from containers or dump my ice in plants. I found a half empty water bottle in a parking lot and dumped the water on a plant before throwing it away.
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Lol, well, there are at least 2 of us out here doing this, then. I will dump unfinished cups of water onto the plants in the parking lot.

Also because it sucks to have to take out a trash bag that is full of sloshing liquid. If it breaks, that's crash out fuel for the day.
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I do believe that is the crux of the issue here, as well as disagreements on the definition of what is and is not necessary.
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Reducing "garbage juice" for sanitation workers is reason enough to dump out random containers.
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If this is about GenAI then I really want to redirect people to the workers in Venezuela, Kenya, and India being paid outrageously low wages labeling CSAM and gore to create filters for GenAI. As someone with PTSD I don't want anyone else to develop it but that's exactly what's happening to them 💔
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There are also certain moral panics where the facts become decoupled from reality and it becomes next to impossible to describe reality without being painted as holding a recklessly anti-anti- position.
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The way media and politicians have been talking lately about nuclear power makes it very hard to have a honest conversation. Not that it has ever been an easy topic, but it's getting even worse
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The justification for AI data centers is AI. The justifications for AI boil down to “if we don’t China will” or “$$$.” There’s no real plan (other than AGI but that’s a No No Topic) so we’re doing a bunch of environmental damage for no real reason in a possible bubble with possible imminent collapse
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And some people have ideas about "waste" that have absolutely no bearing on reality. It isn't an honest difference of opinion, it's that they believe things which are factually untrue and will shoot at you for disagreeing:
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Data centers are useless and are only accelerating us killing the planet so maybe you should be quiet
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It's not just about waste. People see the same reality and think different things about it. We don't need these data centers. They use resources that could be helping people to make things that are pointless at best. They're bad for humanity over all, so they shouldn't exist.
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Unfortunately, every data center is going to be different; and most aren't going to be sucking up drinking water and some aren't going to be outputting heat and even others aren't going to be allowed to buy energy without paying for more peak generation.

And not all are AI.
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My parents decided to go with a propane generator instead of a solar system because “they can’t recycle the panels”. They don’t want to throw them in the dump.

Right. Because the fuel you burn is recyclable? Make it make sense.
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Not to mention we know how to recycle panels today… and in 25 years when those panels drop below rated output, we’ll be 25 years better at it.
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And we all know that when solar panels lose efficiency, they instantly go from 100% to 0%.
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It's hard to do anything about this tradeoff, since excitement and bothering is impossible to compare/measure.

I'm excited!

I'm really bothered!

I'm really really excited!
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Just spent entirely too long reading all the replies here. As someone who's worked in or with dozens of actual DC's the discourse is wild. It's like watching Trekkies vs Star Wars arguments where neither side has watched either series.

You have so much patience.
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