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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 7th, 2023

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  • This is a major simplification of a university course I took a decade ago but here we go. SIlicon doesn’t conduct electricity. Silicon can be doped with Phosphorus which means a P atom takes the place of a Si atom in it’s crystal structure. But P has 1 more electron than Si, and this electron becomes free flowing in the crystalline structure, which is now conductive. This is called a N-type (n for negative) semiconductor. You can do the same with Boron except this time we are 1 electron short creating a free flowing “hole” this is called a P-type (P=positive) semiconductor.These days I think they use different elements but the principal is the same.

    When you put an Ntype and Ptype semiconductor together the atoms and holes migrate to each other, forming ions and balancing each other out, this creates a zone called the depleted zone and can no longer conduct electricity and has an electric field that repels more electrons (and preventing the entire thing becoming depleted). The depletion zone can’t expand because the electric field prevent any more electrons reaching the Ptype semiconductor.

    Now when a photon hits the depletion zone it adds enough energy to the ion to kick the electron out again into the Ntype semiconductor, it wants to get back to a hole in the p-type semiconductor, but it can’t because of that electric field. However if there is a wire connecting the two it will take the long way around to get to the PType semiconductor again, generating a current.



  • It should be a.

    Imagine if the cube was actually a long rod and the orange portal start with the column half way inside it. Then the orange portal moves, in this case it would be very odd for the rod to jump in this scenario like in case b, the thing you would expect would be for the rod to stay still (besides tipping sideways a bit) consistent with case a.





  • I think there is some nuance here. Data centers are being put in cities that cannot support them at the expense of their citizens, this is a corruption problem in my opinion. Data centers could also be much more water conservant than they are, and significantly less polluting and I appreciate the public pressure they are on to improve here. The warm water being released can damage the local ecosystem as well.

    I have definitely seen some absurd claims about water usage, but it also isnt totally unconcerning either.

    Imo its a pr strategy, water usage is a much more solvable issue than the immense energy usage, and the ai companies would rather actovists attack them for that than for the significant power consumption.

    I think the power usage is also going to go down, either because they make ai more efficient, or because they can’t make it more efficient and it continues to make no economic sense and mostly goes away. Hopefully that latter scenario leads to a lot of excess green energy to be constructed which would make electrifying the world a little easier. But that is probably wishful thinking.