You know that whole "techno-optimism" thing that was going around a year or so ago? I want to revisit that, because there's something absolutely bonkers that is worth drawing out and paying attention to.

So. Take this bit from the "Techno-Optimist Manifesto:"

> We believe that there is no material problem – whether created by nature or by technology – that cannot be solved with more technology.

There's a lot wrong with that, some of it aptly summarized by "seriously, read one book already." But one of the wrong things there is that sometimes the real world puts limits on shit!

It doesn't matter how creative you are, how 10x you are, or how much you "think outside the box," the speed of light is what it is, conservation of energy is what it is, and so forth.

Techno-optimism is completely inconsistent with that understanding.

One of those limits is that "empty" space still has a lot of stuff in it, cosmic rays, that Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from. When you put shit out in space, you cannot ignore cosmic rays.

But no, techno-optimism can't fucking allow that, and so now the rest of the world has to explain that, no, you can't put a fucking data center into space.

When these assclowns tell you how wonderful AI is, remember what they also tell you about cosmic rays.

@xgranade i think you can probably put a data center in space (fsvo "space"). it's stupid but cosmic rays aren't gonna stop you

people have been launching COTS, non-hardened, literally from nearest radioshack, electronics to space for decades now and it is mostly just... fine? you might have to reboot it sometimes. but i think it is counterfactual to imagine that if you put a blade server in space cosmic rays will prevent it from doing the serving