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Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  High per-capita energy consumption is necessary for an economy to escape poverty.

  energy

  Their words

  It’s a simple truth that if you want your economy to escape poverty, you need lots of energy consumption

  Why you won’t get a flying carnoahpinion.blog

Climate scientist and energy systems analyst; writes The Climate Brink with Andrew Dessler and leads climate research at Stripe.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Making AI compute cheaper per token drives enough extra usage that total AI energy consumption rises rather than falls (a Jevons paradox effect).

  energy

  Their words

  This is the Jevons paradox in action: making compute cheaper per token in turn tends to lead to greater levels of AI use.

  The real energy use of agentic AItheclimatebrink.com

Fellow at the Manhattan Institute writing on crime, drugs and policing; writes The Causal Fallacy.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Prohibition reduces how much of a product is consumed rather than merely moving the same consumption underground.

  Their words

  Quantity consumed under prohibition is almost always smaller than quantity consumed under legalization.

  The Black Markets Fallacythecausalfallacy.substack.com

Freelance climate and energy analyst in Oslo, writing on Europe, the US and Australia; worked in the Australian renewables industry before that.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Efficiency gains in a growth-driven industry tend to be absorbed into even greater expansion rather than reducing net resource use.

  Googleenergy

  Their words

  It is actually pretty likely that it was Google's efficiency actions that enabled their total energy consumption to increase.

  ketanjoshi.co

Economist at Oxford's Global Priorities Institute; works on what advanced AI would do to growth, saving and the long-run economy.

From one piece The better AI gets, the smaller its share of the economy might get – Alex Imas and Phil Trammell 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Most macroeconomic models cannot describe the AI transition, because they assume a single output that converts one-for-one into capital or consumption.

  Their words

  here prices are adjusting in this interesting way that too many macro models don't allow for, right? So, that what what a what's happening is what would be called investment specific technical change where yeah, the price of capital is like falling relative to the price of consumption instead of like the standard doing the standard macro thing of saying there's just output.

  youtube.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The capital stock can grow quickly while the capital share falls, because the price of capital goods relative to consumption goods can drop faster still.

  Their words

  the capital stock could grow quickly, but the price of capital goods relative to consumption goods could be falling faster than the capital stock is growing.

  youtube.com

Founder of Terraform Industries and formerly a physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; writes about energy, space and manufacturing.

• Our reading nowkorrents.com

  Batteries will replace transmission as the cheapest way to keep the lights on, and the grid will shrink rather than grow.

  energy

  Their words, before

  we will see batteries aggressively displace transmission as the most cost-effective way to ensure continuity of electricity supply, leading to an eventual pruning of the grid and drastic reduction in the average distance that power travels between production and consumption, even as the average time that power is stored increases.

  Their words now

  Do we need to drastically expand the grid in order to metabolize renewables? No.

Structural engineer and senior infrastructure fellow at the Institute for Progress; writes Construction Physics on why physical things cost what they cost.

• Our reading nowkorrents.com

  American data centres consume about 66 million gallons of water a day, a small fraction of what they withdraw.

  data centersAmerica

  Their words, before

  Taking this into account, actual water consumed by data centers is around 66 million gallons per day.

  Their words now

  So to wrap up, I misread the Berkeley Report and significantly underestimated US data center water consumption.

Structural engineer and senior infrastructure fellow at the Institute for Progress; writes Construction Physics on why physical things cost what they cost.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The published estimates of data-centre water consumption rest on accounting choices that push the number as high as it will go.

  data centers

  Their words

  However, the methods used to produce these estimates are debatable, and seem to have been chosen to give the maximum possible value for data center water consumption.

  I Was Wrong About Data Center Water Consumptionconstruction-physics.com

Co-founder of the AI agent company Sierra, and previously an eighteen-year Google executive who ran product for Workspace, virtual and augmented reality, and Google Labs.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Neither seats nor tokens can price an agent, because neither of them measures whether the job got done.

  Their words

  Seat based. Well, what is a seat? That doesn't make any sense. Consumption where it's like is it per message? Is it per token? Is it per conversation? And none of these things actually mapped very well to getting a job done and getting a job done well.

  youtube.com

Founder of Terraform Industries and formerly a physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; writes about energy, space and manufacturing.

From one piece China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The average distance an electron travels between where it is generated and where it is consumed is going to fall radically.

  Their words

  So it's just very clear that like the average distance the electron is going to travel between generation and consumption is going to decrease in the future pretty radically.

  youtube.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A solar-powered data centre can cut its power draw a great deal while giving up very little compute, which is how it survives a run of bad weather.

  solardata centers

  Their words

  actually it turns out that you can significantly decrease power consumption with a very small reduction in overall compute. So if you if you've got like three really bad days in a row or something, you can actually just like you can dial back your power usage quite a lot without compromising your inference or or um or training.

  youtube.com

Economist specialising in China's economy, international macroeconomics and global trade, and author of The New China Playbook.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  China's biggest economic challenge is consumption, not production: it cannot become a rich country until it becomes a consuming one.

  China

  Their words

  I say now that China’s biggest challenge is consumption, it’s not production. We know that China’s very, very competitive in production and supply. China needs to be a consuming country to be a rich country.

  youtube.com

Journalist; wrote We Are Eating the Earth on food and climate, and writes the newsletter Emissions.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The two individual changes that matter most for the climate are eating less beef and wasting less food, and both are proving extremely hard to make.

  Their words

  Unfortunately, making those simple changes is infuriatingly difficult. Global meat consumption keeps rising every year. The world still wastes at least one fourth of its food.

  It's Hard to Change Our Behaviorsmichaelgrunwald.substack.com