The Guile of the Data Center
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The Guile of the Data Center
Don't like it? Get in the back of the line.
The tradeoff is simple, our AI overlords pronounce: procure the<br>collective effort and power once reserved only for world war, and you too<br>shall be out of a job (and electricity). If we fail? Well, you're in<br>luck: you're also out of a job, because our economy has become an<br>elaborate Rube Goldberg machine of fancy financial footwork and self-dealing to fund<br>these efforts.
Don't like the game? Well, you're a Luddite. And you're pro-cancer.<br>Because there's a slim chance that AI manages to pull off a somersault<br>double flip into the keyhole-sized future where AI solves cancer,<br>but does so without killing us all.
In law school, we called these policy decisions "risk-risk<br>tradeoffs," a terrifyingly sterile phrase conjured up by the<br>brains-in-vats who populate think tanks. I think the reason people are so<br>upset is that the public bears all the downside with very little upside.<br>Who can blame them for pushing back? Maybe we should reconsider driving<br>100 miles an hour into this future.
James Baker, august 2026 · j@deskofjim.com