• phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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    19 hours ago

    Jevons Paradox

    It’s odd (paradoxical, even?) to call it a paradox when that’s what has happened in the medium to long term with nearly every previous period of major technology change.

    I think the problem is that technology isn’t the main driver of how society’s wealth is distributed in a population: that’s a political choice. If technology creates more wealth in an unequal society, those at the top will be the beneficiaries. If it creates a wider awareness of the need for redistribution, then it’ll become a tide that raises all boats.

    The bigger question is whether the LLM bubble is going to have any lasting impact.

    • Wander@sh.itjust.works
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      19 hours ago

      I don’t think so.

      Everything else in thr economy will run and cheap data centres will be used eventually. We use more and more every year the bubble won’t stop thr growth

      • Photonic@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        Not in the long run, but we can expect a period of substantial economic downturn, even more than we are experiencing today. And the economy is highly vulnerable due to concentration of wealth, multiple wars across the globe with serious ramifications for the countries who are not at war and an ever increasing dependency on AI.

        • Wander@sh.itjust.works
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          3 minutes ago

          Economic downturn from oil yes.

          But if chatgpt stopped existing now do you think that was cause a recession? I don’t see it. Its hype but the rest of the economy moves forward.

          The oil through, that’s another factor all together. We are fucked!

        • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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          13 hours ago

          Yes!

          And I always add that the financial issue with dependency on AI is that there’s no way to know today what the final capacity will be after the excitement settles down.

          I see plenty of fear of missing out, but less fear of becoming dependant on a suddenly scarce resource. I think the second risk is higher (based on past technology experiences).