[ExI] bill gates commentary on climate change: wasRE: China and solar power

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sat, Nov 8, 2025 at 7:11 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> …> On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
> Subject: Re: [ExI] bill gates commentary on climate change: wasRE: China and solar power
> >…To take just one example (and limiting the focus of effect to the topic at hand): a hurricane through a data center, or through the power plant or other infrastructure keeping that data center running, has a chance of delaying the Singularity…
>
> Adrian, keeping a data center or power station open thru a hurricane is easy.  A hurricane is nothing more than a really windy day most of the time.  Those are overestimated in severity, and even then, their cost has been declining for a century (depending on the price tag one hangs on a human life.)

When the wind blows the roof off the data center, then uses the
opening to pick up the servers and scatter them hither and yon in
broken disconnected pieces, that will hinder the data center's
operations for a while.

> We tend to think about the future a lot.  Stuff we debated here twenty and thirty years ago is now mainstream thought and is being translated into mainstream actions.

"Plant fast-growing acorns, such that you may live to sit in the shade
of their trees."  Prior generations had a hard time imagining such,
and praised those who built primarily for future generations.

Even in just my own life, I can point to the biocybernetics work I did
in the early '90s being a contributor to modern prosthetics literally
restoring sight to the blind.  (A small contributor - a proverbial
drop in the bucket - but still.)  There are further examples, and I
intend for there to be more, but that's the simplest and clearest so
far.

> We can anticipate that in the coming decades, political thought leaders will recognize that climate change is irrelevant: that the Singularity will be here long before we notice anything amiss with the climate.

There are many political leaders making such noises about climate
change today, without referencing the Singularity.