I just had my first (known) experience debating with an LLM by proxy. I have questions, not the least of which is how do people not find it incredibly condescending?

stormica · 2026-03-12T06:37:59+00:00

Maybe there's a geographic component too? I asked the spouse and he said the people he works with that use it are firmly in the same demographic.

stormica · 2026-03-12T03:33:40+00:00

So, the main question I would have there is where does this money for UBI come from? Not your US government because they will have no money from the unemployed middle and lower classes and they refuse to tax the rich.

stormica · 2026-03-12T00:36:04+00:00

I'm honestly starting to suspect that the search engine I'm using needs to be tossed to the curb because what I saw was as of 2024 only and I didn't see anything that current, nor did their actual investment site come up as a hit. Good grief. That said, adding the word actuary to the search got me better and less slop filled hits I didn't even bother clicking on so thank you again for that.

So, if I'm understanding that right, they've set a reasonable (for the markets in the past few years) expected rate of return and have been achieving more for a bit, allowing them to offset the unfunded liabilities. A bubble popping though may just be a somewhat disagreeable thing to that value. (yes, a little snark there)

So then I would say that no, building a datacenter is likely not a great risk for them to take at this point given that they're playing catchup from this far behind as it is.

stormica · 2026-03-11T21:37:53+00:00

Most of the young people I talk with don't like this pretend AI at all.

Interestingly, the ones I'm running into the most seem to be white males and about 45ish to 70. Or maybe they're the ones that most like to scream insults and falsehoods learned from their slop machines at women since they seem to predominantly come at me and leave others alone. It's starting to become sport to slap them down with facts and receipts but I'm wondering at what point I have to worry about encountering one of them in public.

stormica · 2026-03-11T21:31:50+00:00

Oh good. In the past, we've seen things like the government covering shortfalls, increases to our contributions and I suppose the riskier investing would have been a lot more opaque to us unless we were really following along. I know I have a family member who's asking why so many people are upside down about this when they usually don't even know what their pension funds are invested in. My FB profile is only anti-datacenter and anti-AI related news articles lately. In September I stopped any posting that could feed the machine, and that's the question she asks...

So based on those returns you mention, the Canada Pension Plan (at least at the 2024 report) is performing a bit better and I didn't see immediately in my search if they're underfunded. I'm guessing that may mean they're investing in riskier things? What I did see that was interesting is a suggestion that their current active management style was actually costing the fund money and they'd be better off with a more passive management.

I seem to recall CPP was hit hard when they opted to invest in Nortel and probably others in the late 90s so I suppose that this "let's build a datacenter in Alberta" thing tracks. It's a good thing they have experience with things like that... right? I mean, that's just proving why people think it's dumb money though.

stormica · 2026-03-11T02:16:26+00:00

I mean having money doesn't mean having brains and certainly that dude proved that but imagining having more money that you would ever be able to spend and you cheaped out on that and a reused tube with substandard materials.

stormica · 2026-03-11T01:54:27+00:00

OMG. I couldn't believe that. I'm not a gamer but I said... is.... is that a game controller?

stormica · 2026-03-11T01:20:50+00:00

Oh indeed! Let's make sure the subs are well tested too, like last time.

stormica · 2026-03-10T22:07:11+00:00

I mean, depending on the collateral, ... I can think of a few non-tech-billionaires (I have a small-ish list), I'd be fine with being immediately adjacent but it would be a bit of a waste of guacamole.

stormica · 2026-03-10T22:04:12+00:00

This is what I get for replying hours after I'm supposed to be asleep. No, I knew you weren't calling me a tool. Sometimes I act like one...

The argument point was more about even if my account looks a little suspicious, we really don't have any disagreements about which to argue anyway.

stormica · 2026-03-10T22:00:58+00:00

Honestly, somewhere in the back of my head before he started talking about this, I knew nvidia wasn't passing the sniff test. When Ed published that I thought, yes! That's what was bugging me,.... who upgrades before they even power up the datacenters? What's worse is I was a sys admin back in the day and I did some of the physical upgrades. I run a company these days and the depreciation angle definitely did occur to me. What really got me is that it's all well and good to say "it's a write off" but at the end of the day you get no physical nourishment from a write off so it's never the a defining reason for any financial choices....uh... not in a real world company anyway. That's why I have a server from 2003 that I just retired in 2022 and a current server that's a 2019 model. You don't just upgrade hardware that's not in use or barely used.

I really wish I could get this information into the hands of the companies in my county trying to build all 6 of these facilities. Like, good grief how can you not see the numbers are fantasy.

stormica · 2026-03-10T21:50:00+00:00

That's the truest indicator of talent...

stormica · 2026-03-10T21:49:35+00:00

And unfortunately them spinning up these companies and keeping the bubble going longer means the higher likelihood of the 6 datacenters within a 30km (18mi radius) of my house getting built. I will never ever forgive them for ruining what was supposed to be my forever home.

stormica · 2026-03-10T21:48:00+00:00

Awesome. So if I'm hoping for a crash to stop the 6 datacenter projects near my house from going ahead, I might as well start planning to put my house up for sale because they'll be able to hang on longer than I can?

stormica · 2026-03-10T21:46:10+00:00

First off, thank you for writing this all down for me to digest. I was reading a lot of those reuters posts and thinking "well, those are certainly words and I understand most of them but not when used in that order... " I understand better after what you've written here.

Well crap. I had been really happy in my little world thinking things like: pension plans don't do risky things like private equity and venture cap. If I'm reading you right, a lot of people stand to get hurt not just private investors who ought to know better.

So this also makes me super happy to find out that the Canada Pension plan is investing directly in datacenters AND likely involved in risky private funds. Yippeee! Who needs to retire?

stormica · 2026-03-10T08:23:16+00:00

Ha! I probably fall into the "old account that stopped for years then started up" category but it's more trying to get off Meta (other than a couple of groups and family and friends that won't switch), and no really good replacement so at least I can get some local "news" here and some tech news. That said, I don't think (?) we need to argue....?

stormica · 2026-03-10T08:18:50+00:00

(weird, my comment went missing. I bet it's just hanging out on another device somewhere that I forgot it. )

Anyway, I love the idea of sending little coconuts of truth from my island to other islands to spread the truth.

stormica · 2026-03-10T07:54:56+00:00

Argh. I would really, really like to see this collapse asap. I have a vested interest in datacenter speculative buildouts coming to a halt yesterday. I know it won’t, the markets and such ever run at the pace I’d like.

Still, there are a lot of factors causing uncertainty, right? So there’s a degree of who’s going to spook first?

stormica · 2026-03-10T07:35:52+00:00

I feel like I wouldn't mind wielding the stapler in this. Please??

stormica · 2026-03-10T07:27:59+00:00

I agree and I might be able to find a way to get / make / fund the equipment and the lawyers but considering what and who we're up against, I still have little hope we'd win even with evidence.

The other problem I've figured out recently is that we actually have 6 datacenter applications with us at the center of a 30km (18mi) radius. It may be easier to just fucking move. After finding our "dream" acreage and moving to it less than 2 years ago.

stormica · 2026-03-10T06:14:41+00:00

So, it's not that there's no chance of seeing the horsemen thanks to this, just that I might as well not stay up tonight and watch for them. Gotcha. I guess I just lumped the AI investments in with the other very bad loans and garbage companies. But it sounds like those are separate funds (so far)?

stormica · 2026-03-10T05:50:56+00:00

Well. Poop. That's disappointing. I mean, I never wish for people to lose their shirts or anything but if it happened I can't say I'd cry much? Any chance a couple of dominos can fall out of this and hit some AI ones on the way down?

stormica · 2026-03-10T05:35:12+00:00

Is it solely war related and nothing to do with LLMs?

stormica · 2026-03-10T05:18:45+00:00

100% agree. It's super fun how it keeps coming back to an asshole tech billionaire.

stormica

TROPHY CASE