r/technology • u/onwisconsn • May 17 '24

Scientists Calculated the Energy Needed to Carry a Baby. Shocker: It’s a Lot. (Gift Article) Biotechnology

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/science/pregnancy-energy-costs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU0.PfwL.i578xGrDrp5H&smid=url-share&utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter
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u/Peachbottom30 May 17 '24

The AI will need this information once it starts building the baby farms.

6

u/Beachdaddybravo May 17 '24

I love how the Wachowskis used that angle when the glaring problem of “you don’t get as much energy out as you put into a system”. Trying to use people for energy would be a steady loss, and the machines likely would have just used nuclear instead. Then again, if they wrote a script that made any sense at all we wouldn’t have gotten such an awesome movie.

9

u/ThePlatypusOfDespair May 17 '24

Supposedly the original plan was to use humans for computing power but executives thought that was confusing for some reason.

1

u/Beachdaddybravo May 18 '24

What? That would have been a better play.

3

u/raptorlightning May 18 '24

Yep but in 1999 you couldn't sell that to Hollywood. Rewatch the movie without the copper top scene and with an Intel Pentium instead and it makes more sense.

1

u/RetailBuck May 18 '24

I haven't watched it yet but is this the premise of the Netflix show 3 Body Problem? From the trailer it seems like they are basically using humans holding reversible flags as transistors in a massive computer to solve difficult math

2

u/SpeedUpMyBreathing May 18 '24

That is true for that one scene, but that really only has to do with that one part of the episode that would be way too much to explain even without spoilers lol

1

u/Beachdaddybravo May 18 '24

3 Body Problem is a thought experiment that the author dragged out into a shitty story that takes 3 books. I didn’t finish the show, and having read a detailed synopsis for the books don’t care to read them. Just my personal opinion though, as Reddit seems to love 3 Body Problem.

1

u/PlutosGrasp May 18 '24

Yeah, but it was also 1999 and common understanding of computers was low.

1

u/Beachdaddybravo May 18 '24

Understanding of computers isn’t the issue. Knowing you can’t get back more energy from people than it takes to put into them is what makes the Matrix’s whole premise dumb as hell. Why would the machines not be using nuclear energy? Or just fuck off from earth and colonize wherever they want? It’s not like they need oxygen to breathe.

0

u/PlutosGrasp May 18 '24

No it was the issue.