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wilsonnb310/01/20241 replyview on HN

> Well if we're going to dive into morality, requiring me to produce additional pollution and e-waste to run your program when I have a perfectly capable turing machine already is unconscionable.

This is not obvious to me - I would be interested in reading more about the ethical considerations here, if you or anyone else has any good links.


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craftkiller10/01/2024

Links for what? The environmental damage of producing electronics?

- Apple has a report for the environmental impact of an iphone, 81% of the carbon emissions is from the production of the device [0]

- In addition to the whole global warming thing, there's the health impact [1].

So here I am, typing this message out on a perfectly capable universal turing machine. But in order to run <nintendo game> I have to incur that 81% carbon emissions again to buy a different universal turing machine from Nintendo. One that will, after a few years, get thrown into the back of a closet where it will accumulate dust until one day I haul it down to electronics recycling where it can continue its journey poisoning the children.

Its a simple matter of 1 device is less bad than 2.

    [0] https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/iphone/iPhone_13_PER_Sept2021.pdf
    [1] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/electronic-waste-(e-waste)
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