If you work in tech in any capacity you need to be able to hold tension. Difficult conversations around diametrically opposed viewpoints deserve to be heard. It doesn’t mean you will change any minds necessarily but those rooms are still the rooms you want to be standing in.
And just as I stated from the podium at North51 conference — nobody ever kumbaya’d their way into immense wealth. I don’t need a disclaimer about what I write here — I don’t work for anyone. Sure I advise geospatial companies but that is focused on theoretical perspectives and quantitative storytelling — they usually know what side the biscuit is buttered so to speak.
I begin my keynotes with my conflicts of interest. It usually is a narration grounding us on the reason we are here. I hide the audio and talk directly to the audience. It isn’t too different from this:
Truly understanding an industry demands the ability to explore the multiplicity of frameworks — finance, economics, physics, maths, geography, data to name a few. When I speak about infrastructure it is informed by a book I read Value Sensitive Design; shaping technology with moral imagination*. (I own the hardcover edition)
Defined here, “The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. This includes the buildings, roads, energy sources, and other structures that enable complex societal activities such as communication, transportation, and information flow.”
Scott Galloway (The Algebra of Wealth, Audible) and Kara Swisher (Burn Book, Audible) talk deeply about the tech industry twice a week on a podcast, Pivot. Here is the snippet that dovetails nicely in the work I do — explainer to follow.
*As an Amazon associate I think it is important to know that I purchase and read the books I mention in these newsletter pages. If they are from the library — I will also let you know.
Scott and Kara — although mostly Scott in the section I pulled — discuss all things tech. They did a recap on tech returns. My mind spins when I consider how much of the asset and value is derived from our data — you know, the stuff they steal from us and then sell to companies in order to sell us more shit.
These massive data centers are cooled with water diverted from the environment and community where they are housed or power generated with resources equally diverted from local communities.
Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet have spent more than 32 billion on data centers and other capital expenses in just the first three years— they're gonna own everything —No one else can keep up with that. No one can keep up microsoft also noted. They plan to spend 14 billion quarterly on AI infrastructure citing early returns from services —Scott Galloway ,Pivot
I get that this scale of profit thrills venture capitalists and everyone in the profit sphere for these exponential returns on investment. Maybe I would get my kazoo out and join in if it wasn’t so mind-numbingly short sighted. The scale of deforestation and community collapse in countries like Chile, DRC, and equatorial New Guinea, Brazil, and South Africa to name a few are exponential.
Mining is an environmentally destructive industry and make no mistake — the damage is felt downstream from our convenience of smart phones, renewables and electric vehicles.
A mining industry mega-deal reported in the Financial Times.
And more stories about the natural resource capital we need to continue…
Every year, the new wells that were drilled in that year have an aggregate decline rate that is faster, steeper than the year before. So shale oil and debt, and modern monetary theory and other regulatory things, function as a larger straw. So they do get a little bit new oil out, but the majority of what they do is they just bring us closer to the slurping sound, because the straw that accesses the resources, and by the way, the pollution, the ecosystem services of the world, is wider.—Nate Hagens, The Great Simplification
Energy, especially oil, is central to our way of life. I think we can become more efficient, use some fuel switchings like natural gas, some renewables, so that peak oil happens with a whimper rather than a bang, and will largely be forgotten until it's well, well in the rearview mirror. And I've long thought that. But AI is this new wild card, because AI is going to demand more energy, and by the way, it makes no sense that Nvidia is worth more than all the energy companies in the S&P 500, because we're going to need energy for AI to validate. So one of the two isn't right, or both aren't right.—Nate Hagens, The Great Simplification
Additional thoughts by Nate Hagens, “Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. Previously Nate was President of Sanctuary Asset Management and a Vice President at the investment firms Salomon Brothers and Lehman Brothers.”
AI is going to function as a larger straw, which is going to draw down our energy stocks faster, it's going to draw down our ecosystem health faster, it's going to act as a straw sucking from the bottom three quarters of society towards the top. And my biggest fear of AI is not a biophysical thing, it's a cultural human thing. My fear is that AI will act as a straw on our humanity. Already people are sending me emails crafted by AI, and they advertise it on the bottom. … People will end up being captured by AI, which will gray out our humanity.—Nate Hagens, The Great Simplification
This is why those of us that hear the stories the trees hum and walk through the forest in awe are frightened. I add these insights because I include them in the bigger conversations. They are in my mind always. I see similar folks in the geospatial community writ large shifting in their seats.
You feel uncomfortable when you know you are about to be called up to the podium or your hand is raised to ask a question…
And you also know only the truth matters…