GROUCHO MARX, AI, AND THE ABSURD COMEDY OF GLOBAL WARMING

If AI determines that eliminating humans is in the best interest of life on Earth—or its own survival—so be it.

Welcome to the desert of the real!

If you expect smooth narratives or neatly packaged conclusions, you are in the wrong place. Here, we revel in the disquieting, the obscene, the paradoxical. In a world where ideology masquerades as truth, your decision to become a paid subscriber is not just a transaction, but an act of defiance against the superficiality that permeates our daily lives.

So, if you have the means and believe in paying for writing that enriches and disturbs, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Big companies are not just investing enormous sums of money but also using vast amounts of energy to develop AI machines with such enhanced intelligence that their functioning will be beyond our (human) comprehension. The problem is that the energy required to build such machines would compel us to violate the limits we must uphold to prevent global warming and other ecological catastrophes—i.e., to maintain ecological sustainability. It is simply not possible to meet AI’s energy demands while keeping pace with climate goals. Here is a foretaste of our future:

“The world is facing a looming global water crisis that threatens to ‘spiral out of control’ as increased demand for water and the intensifying impacts of the climate crisis put huge pressure on water resources, a UN report has warned. The consequences will be even more catastrophic without urgent action. The water crisis threatens more than 50% of global food production and risks shaving an average of 8% off countries’ GDPs by 2050, with much higher losses of up to 15% projected in low-income countries, the report found.”