OK, sometimes you have to fight the odds, push technology to the limit to make the unimaginable possible to achieve something great.
But I still do net see the benefit of putting data centers into space. Even after solving all those problems that are mentioned by the article, what is the upside compared to just building a data center with solar panels and a big battery down on earth? Even powering them with gas turbines seems to be more environment friendly and cost efficient than shooting thousands of rockets into space and have the data centers burn up in the atmosphere after 6 years.
data “center”
- very far away, not central at all
- tiny, so it can’t “center” much
- radio contact only, so other places are probably faster to reach
Ok then.
It keeps our AI overlords out of reach of mobs with torches and pitchforks.
Seriously, we’ve already got Flock, Palantir, Boston Dynamics, and fascism – we’re like one step away from killbots mowing dissidents down in the street.
But I still do net see the benefit of putting data centers into space.
I imagine that it’s less of an administrative process; less people to answer to
It’s to control space weapons. Much harder to jam and bomb an automated grim Reaper AI when it’s in orbit and has access to the space lasers.
The rich are not going to give up the Internet when Elysium becomes their new home. And you can’t trust the ground people to keep it running.
