alt Hacker NewsI get that this is technically interesting, for certain, but the sheer amount of energy and associated global warming risk needed to do something with >=99% accuracy that we've been able to do easily for decades with a guaranteed 100% accuracy seems to me to be wasteful to the extreme.
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Because it's fun. Life is meant to be enjoyed.
Those who worry about an imaginary risk and live their lives in constant fear have turned into nothing more than machines enslaved by propaganda.
> the sheer amount of energy and associated global warming risk
I think that's one very good reason to make them more efficient, and that's part of the point of contests like this one.
>Hacker News
not any more, eh?
Wait until you see the quantum computer that it takes to factor the integer 15.
You need to recalibrate your sense of scale if you think that this is a geologically relevant usage of energy.
What would be an acceptable amount of energy to spend on something that someone has done in a different manner before? Would you rather we stick with all of the current known ways to do things.
Does this boil down to a condemnation of all scientific endeavours if they use resources?
Would it change things if the people who did it enjoyed themselves? Would they have spent more energy playing a first person shooter to get the same degree of enjoyment?
How do you make the calculation of the worth of a human endeavour? Perhaps the greater question is why are you making a calculation of the worth of a human endeavour.