Plus, plenty of negative predictions turned out to be entirely true. And then it took a lot of time and effort to counteract them.

It is not like history was composed of happiness and roses only. Some of the really really bad stuff happened within last 100 years and a lot of that bad stuff was enabled and made possible by technology.

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XorNot 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Such as?

Like it's fine to say this but the worst exterminations of human beings weren't enabled by anything much kre sophisticated then the pointy stick, or at most, the railroad.

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tstenner 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We're in the middle of finding it out with climate change.

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bayindirh 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Middle?

We're just starting. The air conditioning technology didn't hit its wall of fire yet. What we're going to do when that tech will cease to cool us?

Every AC system (from refrigerators to air conditioners) has an upper limit, which is around 41 degrees Celsius for T1 class.

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boothby 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You can't AC your way out of climate change anyway: they make heat. In sparsely populated areas that might be okay, but in density, you're never far from the hot exhaust of an AC unit; they exacerbate the problem.

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Cthulhu_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> What we're going to do when that tech will cease to cool us?

Move. This is already happening, with water shortages forcing people to move. Climate change will (likely) cause famines and many deaths, but the bigger effect will be mass migration.

	▲	bayindirh 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Move. Another planet? How? We assume that we will have a planet to live at the end of the day. I'm not so sure about it for the long run.

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RandomLensman 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Why would 41C be the limit for the hot side? How does it work now in hotter places?

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bayindirh 3 hours ago | parent [-]

In short: Things degrade.

More: https://angliancompressors.com/blog/how-ambient-temperature-...

There's a T3 class for up to 52 degrees Celsius. While it's higher than 41 degrees, it's not significantly higher:

https://zerohvacr.com/blogs/t1-t2-t3-explained-climate-class...

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RandomLensman 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Is 52C a physical limit?

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bayindirh 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes. The compressor can't pump more heat outside since it's already hot from working and trying to pump out the extracted heat as well.

For T1 class of devices, that 41 degrees is also a physical limit, not an artificial cut, because of their design.

You know, thermodynamics.

	▲	RandomLensman 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Why would the limit of T1 devices matter when there are ones that already can do hotter? Thermodynamics make things harder to remove heat but not sure how they forbid it (you need the hot side to be hotter than outside to pump heat). Might need stages, for example. We can cool things 200K and more below ambient.

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RandomLensman 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Early data processing machines were used in the Holocaust, for example. Or cipher devices played important roles in WWII.

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blfr 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Mongols did it on horseback. It's mostly a matter of will/capability and no scruples.

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RandomLensman 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Why do we need modern weapons for defense at all then? Horses, bows & arrows plus will not enough?

	▲	bayindirh 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Because attacks have evolved. Defense follows the attackers. Good luck hitting a Mach 15 missile with a trebuchet.

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watwut 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Genocides are more common in the 20th century, because they are easier. Due to technology.

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4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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