I noticed last week on LinkedIn a guy I spent a considerable amount of time with during the first part of my life. I haven't talked to him directly in over 10 years.
A few years back, I remember he was campaigning strongly against Bitcoin from an ecological point of view: it uses too much electricity. Now comes his post on LinkedIn where he was touting the magic of ClawBot, AI agents, and vibecoding in general (he's a dev).
Not sure what this seemingly contradictory behavior proved, but it made me smile.
My question to you: have you met big AI users who used to campaign against Bitcoin on the grounds of using too much electricity? I guess there are quite a few seeing the large number of clawbot-nerds and Buttcoiners that roam free on HN...
Did you turn his arguments back around? You're boiling the ocean! One query makes 3 ton of carbon emissions.
I thought "boiling the ocean" is an idiom for taking some futile action that has insignificant effect?
not in greenpeacespeak
My wife works in the ESG/sustainability space and she was at a conference earlier this year: they were all hyperventilating about AI power and water use. So it seems there are at least some of them who are consistent.
Unlike Bitcoin miners, you don't want to turn your GPUs off because it offers a direct human interfaced service rather than a selfish thing, so you'll suffer reputation loss if you do so.
I'd really like to pose that Bitcoin Miners > AI GPUs, but I need to work that out into a 500 page essay first.
Yes. And it triggers me too. haha. So when I confront, the "argument" quickly becomes that "Bitcoin has no value" but AI is the savior of humanity. ~lol
I won't win that argument, because the people that haven't been open to arguments like Daniel's will not be open to arguments why sending all your data to Sam Altman isn't a really good idea. People need their echo chambers, and if you're not in there, tough luck.
It is interesting how positions on technology can shift over time. Often the public stance is less about the absolute energy consumption and more about whether the perceived benefits outweigh the costs. Bitcoin has a direct and visible electricity footprint tied to proof of work which is easy to criticise especially if you do not see the value in its decentralised model. AI on the other hand has a much less transparent footprint and is wrapped in narratives about innovation productivity and capability so it feels easier to justify. We tend to forgive energy use when we believe in the outcomes and our beliefs evolve as new tools align with our current interests. This is less contradiction than it is a reminder that our convictions are often situational.