Wants vs Needs

The good thing about hopes, dreams and ambitions is they can be limitless. The bad thing is that they meet reality eventually (dammit).

I can have my super secure fridge with AI that’s built to stop hackers.

This is the world’s most secure fridge - but it’s not designed to stop midnight snack thieves

Built to stop hackers, not snackers

TechRadarJosephine Watson

I can also have my AR enabled vacuum cleaner so I can check on my phone where I’ve missed a bit.

Dyson’s AR app shows you where you’ve vacuumed

It requires an iPhone 12 Pro or higher and a $1,000 vacuum.

The Verge

Or a pin that fails to work a lot of the time but might keep my chest toasty warm.

Humane AI Pin review: not even close

AI gadgets might be great. But not today, and not this one.

The VergeHumane

I thought I was happy if the fridge door closed and the light came on when I opened it. Normally use my eyes when vacuuming and if I miss a bit then generally get on with life and catch it next time. Never wanted a pin, got a phone - more than one.

Apparently that’s not the future though.

But all of this requires power, and that demand is increasing. It also might be that the push to the future is starting to meet reality and there’s not enough power to meet demand in some places. Infrastructure and distribution is important for data as well as power. It’s a very real problem. Asking an LLM won’t help. It’s a government, engineering and society issue.

AWS resource restrictions point to datacenter power issues

Users report being pointed to other EU regions if they need more grunt

The RegisterDan Robinson

Wants and needs are very different things.