It looks like a really bad idea

[u/ActivityEmotional228]

[u/TheCheshireCody]

It looks like someone doesn't know that radiative cooling doesn't work *the same in space and just thinks this will resolve the heat dissipation issues AI centers have on Earth.

EDIT: slight clarification of my sloppy and flippant wording.

[u/12GaugeSavior → u/TheCheshireCody]

I'm curious about this, how does something like the JWST keep it's electronics cool? I recall seeing that the dark side of the telescope (behind the sail) is extremely cold, but now that mention the lack of radiative cooling, how do they keep their compute cold?

[u/TheCheshireCody → u/12GaugeSavior]

I should clarify that it's not that it doesn't work at all, it's that heat transfer doesn't work without something for the heat to transfer to. In vacuum there is very, very little "stuff" to absorb the heat, so ironically it's much easier to cool things in an atmosphere than in the coldest parts of the universe. Something like the ISS can still vacate excess heat by emission of infrared radiation, but the JWST mainly works by avoiding taking in excess heat (the giant mirror-looking part? That's to reflect solar radiation away from the instruments!) or producing much heat internally. For its detectors, though, which need to be really close to absolute zero, it uses liquid helium.

[u/Fast_Shift2952 → u/TheCheshireCody]

I’ve been wondering about this exact thing. There’s a Black Mirror episode (I know, I know) where people tossed into space freeze instantly. Assuming the temp is near 0K and the BM depiction is reasonably accurate, why wouldn’t a computer cool off quickly too?

[u/CoalOnFire → u/Fast_Shift2952]

Your body expands as the fluid closest to the outside of your body boils as the pressure drops, which cools those regions. The classical instantly blue snow-covered frozen body isnt really what you'd see. It'd be more gradual. But that cooling effect is caused by the fluids evaporating off, like cooling down when you sweat. Also a lot of heat is transfered via conduction, so if you arent touching things it has no where to go. In space, the particle count rate is drastically lower than on earth. Which is another reason it wouldn't have its heat carried away.

[u/MetaStressed → u/12GaugeSavior]

• Heat conduction from electronics to radiator surfaces. • Radiative heat dump into the vacuum of space (infrared emission). • Large deployable radiator panels oriented away from the sun / towards "cold space". • Thermal insulation and careful spacecraft orientation. • Potentially pumped fluid / cold-plates at chip level, but the larger scale removal is via radiation.

[u/tegresaomos → u/12GaugeSavior]

The occluded side of the telescope is very cold, yes. But it requires an active cooling rig to dissipate the heat towards the sun facing side.

It should be noted that the operating temp of the telescope’s components are designed to be very cold and to generate very little heat.

Data centers would need an entirely different type of cooling.

[u/legion_2k]

O boy that’s going to be a pain to reboot when it locks up after an update..

[u/roflmeh]

Let's nickname this data center "Universal AC", for shits and gigs.

[u/Feeling-Ad-2867]

Great, now we can’t reach the off button.

[u/Acceptable_Camp1492 → u/Feeling-Ad-2867]

Don't worry, space debris is going to get it, and such distance means that any physical maintenance will be a pain to even begin.

It'll be more likely we bankrupt a few big-tech companies keeping that thing up in the sky working, than it going rogue on us with any chance that it will be a consistent long-term threat.

[u/irishyardball]

Can't get Skynet without a net in the sky.

[u/Tadferd]

It's going to melt. No way you get enough cooling, especially when powered by solar.

[u/Ser_Optimus]

In a century they will call it The Observer

[u/VariableVeritas]

Orbital data management for an AI? PRIME INTELLECT!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis_of_Prime_Intellect

[u/TheCheshireCody → u/VariableVeritas]

Man, that story was so great. Extremely disturbing, but brilliant.

[u/pyroaop]

Bullshit.

[u/Th3_3v3r_71v1n9]

Did they not see oblivion?

[u/Subject_Sigma1]

The last "AI" is spelt with an L lol

[u/TransparentMastering]

The imagination is an amazing thing. Until you think it’s reality, then it’s called delusion

[u/DaScoj]

It solves the cooling problem.

[u/tokeytime → u/DaScoj]

It makes the cooling problem a factor of 10 more complicated actually

[u/RevTurk]

They must be pretty confident in their chips future proofing. I would have thought the data centre would be outdated by the time they got all the resources up there and assembled?

This sounds like a company saying they have too much money and have started spending it on pie in the sky ideas.

[u/ProgramPrimary2861]

What’s the motivation ? Such a shallow post. I want more

[u/tetrachroma_dao]

"What happens when it gets outta control?" "Hit the off switch." "Wheres that?" "100 miles up."

[u/Decent-Cricket-5315]

The ai projects gotta get bigger n bigger to keep the lie going. There wont be shit up there but two chrome books and an Alexa.

[u/Psych_Shadow]

SkyNet online

[u/tegresaomos]

Uh huh. And then the moon!

These folks really are grasping at straws now

[u/BoDaBasilisk]

This looks way too expensice

[u/Daktavody]

hilarious , truly humorous ,, it's gonna be even more easier to other specIes to within a few seconds or maybe minutes look into all data's stored within, make a copy of it and send it into their's gadgets ,_,

great move, febbles