Not gonna lie. I tried out Threads for a couple of months to get my own grasp of what it's about. The FOMO can be strong in me.
My personal conclusion is that it can't hold a candle to the Fediverse. It was a novelty for a week or two but once again the algorithm just messes everything up, wanting to "predict" and control what I should be paying attention to.
I've also (again) realised that this right here is where my peeps are, and that is likely the most important aspect of all.
So very happy and thankful for everyone who chooses the fediverse.
I truly doubt that Threads federating with ActivityPub is a good thing – the underlying raison d'être is just very different.
If you haven't seen it yet, Jon Stewart on the false promises of AI was quite funny:
(the AI part starts 3 minutes in)
https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=20TAkcy3aBY
@PerryM
I'm not using Mastodon, but thank you for adding your reflection and perspective on how irony is related to the character count of plain text used for communication.
I'll consider the impact of adding a timeframe for auto-deletion of plain-text messages.
@KirstenAnne Thanks 🙏 Good one.
@kikebenlloch
It sometimes blows my mind to think back on how the first Desktop Publishing Software I used, powerful enough for producing print magazines, came on two 360KB floppy disks.
That's less than your average jpg image... 🤯
@peteriskrisjanis Very good point.
@cartocalypse
Yeah, it’s not obvious how to relate all the figures to one another. The article you shared says ”Around 2.4% of global CO2 emissions come from aviation” which is consistent with the data in the article I linked to as well.
I’ve not seen a ”percentage of global warming” figure for the IT industry but when it comes to data centers, CO2 is also just one aspect of it. Mineral mining, transportation (including flights), deliveries to and from facilities, massive water consumption, etceteras. It’s certainly up there.
@gerrymcgovern It’s absolutely terrifying. Admiring your persistent efforts on shedding a light on this every day.
@ethicalrevolution Inspiring. I need to get a better hold of how my VPS is powered.
There is a broad understanding for the need to fly less, as the aviation industry accounts for more than 2% of global CO2 emissions. Yet the data centres we depend on for computing already account for more than that, by some estimates up to 4% of global CO2 emissions.
But there are few calls or campaigns to compute less. If anything, it would appear that humankind has decided the best way forward is to compute more.
We are quicky becoming a generation of… generation.
Generate more images and video, stream your television shows, record your meetings, surveil your employees and customers, snap 10 photos of every scene to make sure you get the perfect one. Run it through an AI filter. Save everything in the cloud indefinitely. Keep feeding the generative tools with all that content. Rinse and repeat.
Except don't rinse.
All the while, oblivious governments are subsidising the establishment of more data centres to the detriment of local communities.
The data centres are the factories of our time. But we can not see them or their carbon footprint, so they are very easy to ignore. So we do. If we can stick with calling them clouds they even feel fluffy.
"A 2018 paper by researchers Lofti Belkhir and Ahmed Elmeligi forecast that computing would exceed 14pc of global emissions (based on 2016 levels) by 2040."
That was before generative AI.
« Data processing and storage has such a large carbon footprint for three reasons.
First, servers require electricity to run. Second, they need to be kept cool, which uses more power and also water. Third, the equipment itself is made from expensive resources and needs to be repaired and replaced.
“Computer hardware contains rare earth minerals and all sorts of stuff shipped from all over the world,” says Craven. »
« “One of the reasons why networking emissions are so high is because there is so little desire and capability to switch machines off because it will increase what we call the latency,” says Hussain.
Society demands that everything happens immediately, which means cloud services run constantly. “Everybody keeps everything humming at peak mode, just in case,” adds Hussain. »
A generation of generation. I mean, at least it's catchy, right?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/30/silicon-valley-data-giants-net-zero-sustainability-risk/
Imagine being a time metereologist and part of a task force that has to decide if and when we need a negative leap second to align our timekeeping with the Earth's rotation. A decision that could cause many critical computer systems to malfunction.
And then, because of the magnitude of that decision, being semi-relieved that the decision can be delayed by approximately 3 years because… wait for it.… the melting polar ice is slowing down the planet's rotation as it is moving mass towards the equator.
@wrenderlust
Exactly! It's like the human race keeps parodying itself.
Imagine being a time metereologist and part of a task force that has to decide if and when we need a negative leap second to align our timekeeping with the Earth's rotation. A decision that could cause many critical computer systems to malfunction.
And then, because of the magnitude of that decision, being semi-relieved that the decision can be delayed by approximately 3 years because… wait for it.… the melting polar ice is slowing down the planet's rotation as it is moving mass towards the equator.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00932-w
« “Today we see the consequences (of the mining) since there’s no more water. It has changed a lot in the last five years. Lithium production pollutes our land and water. The world must know that we don’t agree with this.”
[…]
The irony that the production of environmentally friendly cars is at the root of all this is not lost on her.
"Electromobility is promising so much change but this is not the truth. We won’t have electric cars here." »
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/16/surviving-the-white-gold-rush-life-in-south-americas-lithium-triangle-2
@wir @linuxtage
Ah, good to know. I wasn't aware the PDF file suggested anything 😅
The organizer of a Linux event in Austria (not Germany as I first wrote) shared a photo of the stack of printouts they've done of my Fediverse graphic. 🥰
Gotta love the early internet vibe this is bringing. Social media made with compassion and zero profit motives.
The graphic: https://axbom.com/fediverse/
The shared post (in German): https://graz.social/@wir/112167482767572418
@wir @linuxtage Very cool to see! Thanks for pinging me and letting me know ❤️
@Cloud68 @wir @linuxtage
Thanks, there is a PDF linked on that web page that should work I think?