Let's not forget about the environmental impacts. It's crazy that people are willfully burning so much energy for almost no return. And we thought bitcoin was bad... This is just completely irresponsible, if not sociopathic behavior.
They are not the same.
I agree fully with you on the potential for energy waste. We always do that, though, with nearly everything. How many of today's jet plane flights really needed to happen? The question is how much value people feel they're getting. People are having a whole lot more feelings about AI than they ever could about cryptocurrencies, and that train aint stoppin'.
> How many of today's jet plane flights really needed to happen?
Many jet plane flights are indeed not necessary and there are people who deliberately avoid such unnecessary flights.
> The question is how much value people feel they're getting.
It is indeed a question we should keep asking and weight the answers against the energy footprint.
We need to plan for the world we're most likely to be living in in addition to the one we want to live in but probably won't. The latter energy isn't entirely wasted, but it's also not as essential to our immediate survival.