Las Vegas' dystopia-sphere, powered by 150 Nvidia GPUs and drawing up to 28,000,000 watts, is both a testament to the hubris of humanity and an admittedly impressive technical feat | PC Gamer
Las Vegas' dystopia-sphere, powered by 150 Nvidia GPUs and drawing up to 28,000,000 watts, is both a testament to the hubris of humanity and an admittedly impressive technical feat | PC Gamer
The Las Vegas Sphere might have an impressive spec sheet, but its energy demands are almost as staggering.
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The power of 21000 homes for advertising.
What's most impressive is that it is even legal.
Or profitable
Is it? Last I‘ve heard it was bleeding money.
Makes sense. Gimmicks are gimmicks.
Probably because they're not doing much with it. It's $100/person to see the basic "Planet Earth" showing and almost $200 to see The Grateful Dead show. Previously they showed a Phish show. That's it for options, and none of it sounds really appealing to me.
U2 played in it, too.
I'm sure these bands are all appealing to some, but it seems like they're really squandering the potential with them playing the same two shows over and over for months.
U2 is the best band ever, Bono told me that.
This way some faulty internet lore. The money losses were from a fluke of timing the opening date of operations versus when quarterly finances were reported. Big startup costs meant the first numbers looked silly until they had enough events to get steady profits. They’re doing fine now.
Internet should’ve known better too. It’s hard to lose in Vegas and the investors obviously knew what they were doing. The power costs are shocking for sure though. Yikes!
I love this kind of shit. Building things for the sake of it is worth it. Not only as just expression, which may be hubris but it's still expression. Also entertainment, inspiration, pushing the art of engineering, and just giving people something to do, and all the good that comes with that like personal and trade growth.
A purely utilitarian life is a life only spent on survival. Not a life I want to live.
We can do that, but first let’s make sure everyone on the planet has clean water first.
The money spent on this would not have been spent on giving clean water to people thousands of miles away
Does this really make it any less worthy of criticism, though...?
Yes?
We would rather have the children starve to death than being called a communist.
It was privately funded, this money would not have gone to school lunches
Is that where guillotines come in?
Maybe it would’ve if governments taxed them properly and spent that money to save the planet
Doesn’t flint still not have clean water?
Those are two different states, plus flint does have clean water now (although the effects of contamination and lead exposure still remain in people who grew up drinking it)
So we might a well build some shit.
Hey, it's just $2,300,000,000
Can't even feed a packed homeless shelter for that much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is the equivalent of saying “Eat all your dinner cause there’s starving children in Africa”.
Sure, this sounds nice, but this logic falls apart the instant you start thinking about it.
You sound like the people criticising NASA for spending money on science. "Who do X when Y is still an issue?"
I doubt you make that kind of prioritization with your own money.
NASA also consistently provides new innovation and new science.
What will the dome keep contributing to society for the absurd electricity cost it takes to keep running? Advertisements?
Yeah, there not really the same argument.
A purely utilitarian life is a life only spent on survival. Not a life I want to live.
Well, that hubris won't afford you a livable world for much longer.
We could have respected the planet that birthed us, and taken only what we needed. Instead we extracted every natural resource we could find, and left behind countless shattered ecosystems. Even as the walls close in, we accelerate our pettiness and perform acts of wastefulness that alone do measurable ecological damage, and we celebrate it because it is "cool".
If this is something you feel strongly about, then please stop eating factory farmed meat and animal products if you havent already. It is something you personally can actually do. It helps, and it will genuinely make you feel better. You may not have much power, but using the power you do have to help the team you claim to be on instead of the other team is a massive step forward.
Look, you're not really wrong, but you get that this shit is why people get irritated with vegans right? We were talking about being wasteful with energy resources for the sake of capitalism and you came in with a lazy segue to animal rights and nutritional health.
It's a conversation that we should be having, but it's also insufferable to constantly be shoehorning it into every conversation.
I don't agree. The comment points out the single most effektive move an individal without political nor financial power can make to cut personal co2-emissions with just a change of habit. It's not about veganism, animal rights or your health, it's just about sanity. Us still eating meat even though we know better is an incredibly dumb waste of energy for the sake of pleasure, exactly like this shitty powereating globe.
As long as >95% of the global population still consumes meat I understand the urge to bring this topic everywhere.Oh, you're one of those "you can save the planet with your personal habits" people...
You enjoy your salad. I'm wondering what it takes to firebomb an oil refinery.
And you are one of those "every problem on the planet is the fault of someone else other than me so I can do whatever I want with no regard for it's affect on anyone else" people. Stay away from us if you can't be bothered to carry your own weight, you just drag down people who actually give a shit about something other than their own immediate selfish gratification.
you are one of those "every problem on the planet is the fault of someone else other than me..."
Yes.
There are things in your power to change and things out of your power to change. What you are doing is sadly trying to excuse yourself from doing what you can do because of the existence of things you can't. It's absolutely because you are lazy. If everyone were like you, we would be screwed. As it is, the good things come from people who are not like you. You're welcome. As someone who tries to help, you are a burden we have to deal with, we would appreciate it if you picked up some rope and helped us pull instead of just laying on the sled complaining.
The Top 1% have the power to cause so much damage. You most likely belong to the Top 10% and your reasoning is exactly the same: "Not my fault. Why would I change, as long as everyone else doesn't." But Prioners dilemma makes it worse for everyone involved. So be a better person than them, be the change you want to see in them and stop pointing fingers like a spoiled kid.
Take a train instead of a flight. Cycle to work or take public transport instead of driving. Install a heat pump or solar in your house. There are a million things people can do to cut down their emissions that can be as effective as becoming herbivores, depending on each one's personal situation.
Plus, I don't have the numbers in my head but I'm pretty sure a locally grown fillet of chicken is more environmentally friendly than an avocado that has travelled across the Atlantic, so "buy local" would be probably better advice.
Yeah, so many things one should do. Yet nothing is as simple as paying for a different product next time you're shopping your groceries.
Avocados are way less harmfull to our planet than local meat. People keep bringing this up so often it's #20 on the Vegan Bullshit Bingo.
The comment points out the single most effektive move an individal without political nor financial power can make to cut personal co2-emissions with just a change of habit.
eating meat doesn't emit co2
Producing that meat does.
Note that the commenter didn’t say to quit all eating meat. They just said to quit eating “factory farmed” meat.
It’s not about eating meat, it’s about factory farming the meat and the damage to the environment caused by it.
... right. but your personal consumption doesn't change industrial output.
If you are spending money on factory farmed meat, you are financing the industry.
If you are spending money on factory farmed meat, you are financing the industry.
regardless of what i (or you) spend my (or your) money on, the industry continues to grow. if i get hit by a bus today on my way home from work and die, the meat industry, i guarantee you, will not notice. they will continue to grow, producing more meat this year than last, and more next year than this.
You came in here with your absolutist utilitarian life above all else or we all die post just to respond with this because someone suggested you to stop eating meat. Beautiful.
That's not veganism, that's environmentalism. Veganism is recognizing that animals have the right not to be treated as property and have atrocities visited upon them. That the experiences of animals are real and matter. That their suffering is identical in nature to your own.
Avoiding animal products for the good of the environment has nothing to do with veganism. At least understand what your childish knee-jerk reactions are actually reacting to.
It helps,
no, it doesnt. despite the existence of vegans, meat production increases every year, year over year.
And there's crime so you might as well rape. What a pathetic cop out. You're lucky there are so many people taking care of you.
And there’s crime so you might as well rape
the claim is that by not consuming factory farmed meat, you make an impact on the amount of emissions from its production. this is not true. it is also not analogous to raping anyone.
You honestly think that factory farm emissions font change if people don't give them money for their product? If your head was any further down in the sand, the magma would melt it.
Analogies don't indicate a similar level of morality. They are used to explain points to people who, for some reason, are unwilling or unable to otherwise understand.
Analogies don’t indicate a similar level of morality.
i didnt suggest they did. i'm saying that buying food is disanalagous to rape.
edit
to be clear, rape is wrong. buying food is not. you don't not-rape in order to reduce rape. you don't-rape because rape is wrong. by contrast, the goal of not-buying meat is to reduce the environmental impact of the meat industry. if that doesn't work, then not-buying meat is not a moral duty (at least, not for that reason. it's possible there is some other reason, but that's not the topic being discussed).
What if you buy food from someone you know murdered children to get it? It's so obviously wrong that buying food is never an immoral act. If you are interested in having philosophical conversations, then you really need to go back to the basics. At this point, you're trying to join an archery competition with a nurf toy. There are undeniably immoral ways to get food. Destroying the planet and torturing animals for slightly cheaper food that you do not absolutely need to survive is absolutely immoral. The reason it is so hard for you to see this is because you are an addict making excuses. Not because you are starving and need the cheapest, most despicable food.
You honestly think that factory farm emissions font change if people don’t give them money for their product?
have you tried that?
Yes, I have. The millions of us who choose not to help those assholes cause them to make less emissions. Unfortunately, there are still people like you who live without caring about anyone but their own immediate gratification.
If your head was any further down in the sand, the magma would melt it.
this is a thought terminating cliche
No it doesn't, Commie
you're cherrypicking.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/meat-production-tonnes?tab=chart&country=~OWID_WRL
I understand that perspective, but does it really have to be advertising?
I'd prefer if it weren't. Though that's not the only use for this thing.
This isn't pushing any boundaries, though. This is off the shelf technology. Anybody can do something big by throwing a shit ton of money at it. It would be pushing boundaries of tech or art if it was for instance super power efficient, or mind bending in any way. This is a fucking sphere, it's the simplest shape and a rip off of the pyramids but less original and not even comparable in terms of durability.
It is absolutely pushing boundaries to be driving this many pixels at a frame rate that doesn't take minutes to refresh. I build a lot of projects with addressable LEDs and the typical hobbyist stuff chokes out when you start trying to control more than a thousand or so. This thing has 256 million pixels inside and 1.2 million outside.
Could it not be argued that building this thing now gives people a chance at looking at the power draw and attempting to make it super efficient? Like now people have a tool to test things on.
They did mention that they are working on making 70% of this powered by solar panels. Maybe this will push forward solar technology in some way.
Sure but we’re burning tons of coal to have this thing advertise minion movies, not anything artistic or worthwhile.
Worthwhile for who
Advertising? This thing is essentially a theater. Yeah, it can run advertisement but anything with a screen can do that. It’s like saying a movie theatre is for advertising.
It's a 400 foot tall screen that's constantly on and in view, even at night, which plays ads like 90% of the time. Calling it "essentially a theatre" is a huge understatement.
Horrible and should be illegal.
But the energy usage is quoted as peak for the entire venue - which is literally a theater / concert hall. It opened with a live U2 performance. The energy usage isn't just for the displays, it includes all the power for the entire building, the concert speakers, heating/cooling, indoor lighting, any kitchen equipment, etc.