Top in Scotland:

AI makes everything better. Or much, much, much worse.

Maybe it was just less than half of the Russian casualties in a day given a task before one-way cannon-fodder duty.

"Sergei, call in bomb threat, then stop Ukranian drone with your face!"

Was wondering what was going on today. Drove past 3 schools with all the kids out on the street.

Aww brilliant!! A good age and ideal if you share the same interests!! It will be a lifelong thing that brings you together!!

I'm going to see operation mincemeat this Friday, then after that got Countess Luann in February!!

Empty space isn't actually that much in Scotland. As you need to have access to power, water, and data. Which limits locations to close to people already essentially. Given all the wind being built is at sea, floating data centers probably makes more sense!

6. And he's such a fab age. Loves star wars, lego, and computer games. Just like his dad :)

That's a musical week indeed. Not sure of my next gig, will have to have a look and book something

Last day off was when? Last week off was when?

I'm tired boss.

Been a hard week at work but some nice socialising going on. Went to see Wicker on Monday. Thought it was quite a good wee film!! Weird but good! Thursday was at Noah Kahan which was amazing!! Tonight I went to see the George Michael Faith Concert! Try and have a quiet day tomorrow!!

My husband was at the rugby today too! His first time!!

What age is the wee one now??

Been at the rugby in Murrayfield earlier. And first half wis guid! But nil point second half a bad look. Australia next week, see if we improve!

And was in Glesga last nicht, fer a family birthday party, was a hoot but I must be getting auld: music wis too loud!

The moro is mah wee-ones birthday celebrations, he wants pancakes with maple syrup and strawberries. Nae the hardest tae accommodate! And got a wheen o folk roond

That's fair, I wasn't aiming that at you specifically but at the general atmosphere of All data centres are bad and must be stopped, as is visible in the headline image of the article and the other comments in this thread.

The argument I'm making is not "too much is bad, therefore there must be none". There's even a proposal for a power cap on them in the article

We should not extend them any trust beyond what we have ironclad control over.

I agree, but that shouldn't imply building none. I don't want us to be reliant on using data centres in the USA or China who can then use the prospect of cutting that off as leverage. I have no idea how much is reasonable but I am confident it is more than 0 and less than 9GW.

And how much of the 9GW do you reckon they actually want to build? The guy representing the datacentre companies does not say. Even if it's only a third or a quarter of them, that's a ludicrous drain on a resource that, as the article also points out, is not actually in overabundance

The argument I'm making is not "too much is bad, therefore there must be none". There's even a proposal for a power cap on them in the article. Byt these companies have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to ride roughshod over the rest of society at every opportunity. We should not extend them any trust beyond what we have ironclad control over.

Regulate them into oblivion.

They provide no public good and have a list of down sides.

As the article points out, most of that is companies trying it on with no real intention of following through. the current total data centre capacity in the UK is ~2GW with another 0.8GW under construction. There's no realistic prospect of 9GW of them being built in Scotland.

Also the argument that "too much of them would be bad" applies to almost everything, and isn't a reason to allow none of them, regulation exists and should be used!

Scotland has an abundance of renewable energy

The 9 GW of datacentres that have apparently been applied for in planning would consume well over all of Scotland's total renewable energy output. Literally all of it.

Also consider that we still have substantial things needing decarbonised as soon as possible, like transport. We can reasonably expect more of that "overabundance" to be used in the near future.

I agree that the ideal usage of renewable energy is to decarbonise existing things, however we are already at the point where renewable energy companies are being paid to stop producing energy as it has nowhere to go. Millions of pounds are spent doing this most months.

Now the best use of public money is in making sure that energy goes into decarbonisation projects and grid upgrades, no argument there. But if private industry wants to invest in using renewable energy that would otherwise go to waste and result in the government hading out money to other private investors to not create energy then I think that's a good thing.

The point about empty space is that it is easy to put the data centre's away from where people live, their land usage footprint is tiny. The UK could build data centres for the entire world and the amount of land used would be less than the grouse shooting estates, we should focus on those and grazing land to rewild.

That abundance should be used to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel energy and decarbonise. Instead with every Watt gained it's being assigned to a new, unnecessary, purpose.

We should be seeing our energy bills drastically reduce, and they're not.

This documentary by activist and writer Peter Gelderloos explains why using our additional energy production on new projects instead of current projects is detrimental to society and the climate quite well.

https://kolektiva.media/w/iY2SJKKXcUkBMPPxXngAGT

As for the empty space argument:

We should be increasing biodiversity to tackle the man made desert that is the Highlands, not tarring it over to create wealth for a handful of capitalist billionaires.

https://youtu.be/c0ygPXQ1nNM

Scotland has an abundance of renewable energy and empty space though, we have so much that the grid often is overcapacity to send it south where it is needed. As long as there is sufficient regulation making sure that they use that renewable power and don't start building gas turbines or dump them 20m from where people live it seems like they would be a benefit, especially if they are taxed appropriately.

Mr Melson is a bought and paid for stooge who speaks utter shite.

The STV are clearly bias towards his side with that headline as well considering the rest of the expert testimony. Shameful.

Its an Opinion piece and the author seems Scottish by anyone's definition

Rory Scothorne

"Rory grew up in Edinburgh. He completed an undergraduate degree in History and Politics at the University of Edinburgh, briefly escaping for an academic exchange year in the United States at Washington University in St. Louis. After finishing his masters' degree in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex in 2015, he returned to Edinburgh to work as a researcher for the Electoral Reform Society Scotland before beginning his doctoral studies in 2016. His studies are funded by the AHRC, and supervised by Professor Ewen Cameron and Professor James Mitchell."