I’m sorry! I’m a technology writer, which means I’m supposed to be encouraging you to throw hundreds of billions of dollars at the money-losingest technology in human history, AI. No one has ever lost as much money as the AI companies.
There is no way to operate one of Nvidia’s big AI-optimized GPUs without losing money. The owners of these GPUs who have lost the least money are the ones who rushed into buying GPUs without ensuring they’d have electricity to power them, and have been forced to leave their GPUs to age in warehouses. The minute they plug in those GPUs, they’ll start losing money, and the more they use them, the more money they’ll lose.
. . .
I don’t have any advice for how to do that. I’m sorry!
As Canada contemplates our response to the collapse of the American empire and its alliances with the world, the cornerstone of our current strategy is sacrificing our dollars, water and energy in order to become more dependent on America, in a weird and improbable bet that we will figure out how to make millions of Canadians unemployed. I’m sorry, that just doesn’t sound like a great idea to me.
If I can beg your indulgence, I’d like to propose an alternative.
I’m sorry. I know that when we talk about “digital sovereignty,” we’re obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.
The paragraph before the “I don’t have any advice” line gives a lot of very necessary context.
Excellent write up, had no idea Corey Doctorow was Canadian. Including the first paragraph might have been a good idea too.
Like all the best Americans, I’m Canadian, and while I have lived abroad for most of this century, I still hew faithfully to our folkways, which is why I’d like to start this essay by apologizing.
100% worth a read
TL;DR: repeal Bill C-11 from 2011 (Canada’s DMCA) to fight back against American tech companies.
I agree, seems like a good idea.
I love cory doctorow, but why is he still living in america???
It’s not as easy as everyone thinks. Some border crossings have ICE/CBP preventing Americans from leaving.
Then there’s the whole issue with visas and such. There’s plenty of countries to go to as a tourist but to get permission to work or to stay beyond a tourist visa is a whole different thing.
I’m working on it myself but it takes time and careful planning.
Some border crossings have ICE/CBP preventing Americans from leaving.
ICE isn’t just a problem at the border, and he clearly travels quite freely around the country on his book tours…
Then there’s the whole issue with visas and such.
he’s canadian… he wouldn’t have any visa issues coming back here to live/work
It’s a great post, but “repeal C 11” is just the tiniest part of needed Canadian action. It’s also an American person problem.
