Lugh

Social media algorithms are designed to make you angry, and the old media is only interested in sensation or 'if it bleeds, it leads.' So you might be surprised to find there's lots of good news in the world.

Here's some - globally, more and more land is being rewilded and going back to nature, and the trend looks like it's permanent. Decades-long productivity trends mean more and more food is being produced per square kilometer. With lab-grown meat and vertical farming in our future, these rewilding trends might even accelerate. Even if the human population finally peaks at 9 billion or so in a few decades, it won't reverse the trend.

The rewilding milestone Earth has already passed

This is a novel approach to geothermal energy. Existing methods, like industry leader Fervo, rely on drilling into hot rock and interacting directly with underground reservoirs. Rodatherm's method is entirely closed loop. It says that its closed-loop, refrigerant-based approach is 50% more efficient than a typical water-based system. However, it may have higher costs with drilling and installation. It just received $38 million in funding to build a pilot project in Utah to begin testing out its tech.

According to Wood Mackenzie, Fervo’s Cape Station project is demonstrating commercial viability at around US $79 per MWh without subsidies. Though it's working toward a target of US$45/MWh by 2035.

Rodatherm Energy wants to make geothermal more efficient, but will it be cheaper?

The video linked below is very interesting. In particular, look at how quickly the robot rights itself at the 6-7 second point after falling over. We're used to humanoid robots being slow and cumbersome, but no human can match that speed and agility.

That's Unitree's G1 robot. The developer version costs $40k, but the retail version is $16K, and they have a simpler R1 model for $6,000. The 2030s are likely to be filled with millions, and then tens of millions of these, many costing less than $10k. They will be far more affordable than cars, and far in advance of what we see in this video.

Video - "Violence tests" Professor He Kong's team from the Active Intelligent Systems SUSTech ACT Lab

The world’s biggest maker of sensors for self-driving cars has poured cold water on the chance of rapid growth for fully autonomous vehicles, saying society and regulators are not ready to accept deaths caused by machines that drive themselves.

“Close to one million people lose their lives every year to car accidents. If a technology company builds a vehicle that kills one person every year, that’s one-millionth of the difference, but it will have trouble to survive,” said Li in an interview."

I suspect the biggest obstacle to fully autonomous vehicles is the backlash against the unemployment they will cause. Safety will be used as an excuse to bolster that narrative. My guess is that by the 2030s, it will be clear to most people that they are far safer. They already are now, and they will be far more advanced then.

Top sensor maker Hesai warns world not ready for driverless cars

There are lots of reasons to think Chinese AI will come to dominate globally, and the Chinese government's latest directives on AI seem to make that more likely.

First, there's no mention of AGI or superintelligence. The only other nation's AI likely to dominate is the US's. China's approach to AI is profoundly different. Where the US AI leaders are focused on reaching AGI first, the Chinese are focused on the widespread integration of today's AI across all levels of society and their economy.

That means China can't help but export its AI standards. They are the world's manufacturing hub. This AI approach will be built into all their exports and thus spread around the world. EVs, robots, electronics, renewable energy infrastructure, etc, etc - all will have Chinese AI.

The Chinese make most of their AI open-source and free. They are more focused on the money they can make on top of that. Google with the Android OS is a good analogy. This will encourage global dispersal, too.

Finally, the Chinese have the advantage of having detailed plans and the ability to stick to them and implement them. Many Westerners favor as close as they can get to complete deregulation and the absence of any plans. The disadvantage of that approach in the 21st century, is that the Chinese and their planned joined-up thinking tend to leave you behind in the dust, while they get ahead and get things done.

The AI Plus initiative – China’s blueprint for AI diffusion

Data centers aren't the sole cause of Ireland's high electricity prices, but they do contribute to them. The biggest cause is Ireland's reliance on imported natural gas.

That said, data centers are heading for 30% of the country's electricity use, and they contribute significantly to high prices. Effectively a subsidy from Irish consumers to Big Tech. There are other externalized costs, too. E.g. Supporting Big Tech data center infrastructure is delaying house building. Ireland is lucky in that most of Big Tech pays its European taxes to the Irish government, so there's a quid pro quo here. But that is less true for other parts of the world.

Some people think AI may need as big a share of other countries' electricity - who should be paying for this?

Government warned of rising household bills as data centres strain grid