On: Why AI’s environmental footprint won’t disappear into orbit

The morning chill bites, even indoors. Another day, another report of man’s cleverness outstripping his wisdom. They speak of moving the machines, these ‘data centres’, into the heavens, thinking to escape the dust and heat they generate here on earth. A foolish notion.

The obstacle is not the location of the machine, but the appetite that feeds it. To move the problem is not to solve it. It is to shift the burden, perhaps out of sight, but never truly gone. The cost, they say, is hidden. But what truly is hidden from the universe’s ledger? The energy to launch, the resources to build, the decay of what is left behind. These are not hidden; they are merely ignored.

Antoninus would have seen through this immediately. He understood that a well-ordered city does not merely sweep its refuse to the outskirts; it manages its consumption. This desire to escape the consequences of our own making, to project our mess into the void, is a failure of responsibility. My duty is to manage what is here, on this earth, with the resources given. Not to dream of new heavens while the old one groans under our weight. The work is here. The solution is here. Not in some distant orbit.