zlacker

>>ajyoon+(OP)
To Steelman the topic, Musk’s whole alleged mission is to make humans a multi-planet species that can survive an earth killing event.

To that end, a small data center space isn’t about unit-economics, it’s a bigger mission. So the question we should consider is what can we put into space the further that mission. Can we put a meaningful sum of human knowledge out there for preservation? It sounds like “yes,” even if we can’t train ChatGPT models out there yet.

>>antony+9v
A data center in space is probably toast after some years of space radiation.

High performance chips are made for the shielded atmosphere. Imagine the cost launching all the extra shielding that you don't need on earth.

It is beyond stupid. Comical levels. I can't believe people are trying to find any justification.

>>grim_i+Ey
I’m not the right type of engineer to know and, hell, software largely isn’t engineering anyway…

Can you not provide any type of shielding at scale to wrap a (small, not Google tier) data center? To be honest my criticism with TFA is its focus on “you can’t do massive scale” rather than the premise entirely.

>>antony+eC
Yes, but the added mass makes it prohibitively expensive. Shielding is heavy and every kilogram of added payload results in a geometric increase in fuel load.

The rocket equation will kick your ass every time.