2026-09-20 21:52 UTC
@harld@masto.ai I will keep mentioning the Jevons paradox until everybody understands what it is and how it works
Making use of a resource more profitable increases the return on investment of exploiting that resource.
So increased systems efficiency *increases*, not decreases, resource use.
Unless your approach is to have a fixed expectation for capability and just optimize for lower and lower resource use to achieve that capability. Which is not how capitalism works, at all.
Replies (1)
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@maccruiskeen@social.linux.pizza 2026-09-20 23:32
@renardboy@mastodon.social @harld@masto.ai Is 'efficiency' in the sense of cost reduction and 'efficiency' in the sense of use reduction always the same? I work as a production editor in a publishing office, and we're pretty much paperless. I never print out a damn thing. There are certain advantages for using Word files and pdfs all along the way--usually fewer typos in the finished product. But, being old enough to remember doing it all on paper--even doing layouts with waxers and x-acto knives--I can say that the *process* of editing and proofreading are worse, less efficient, slower, than marking paper by hand.