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Poll

Mark your preference(s)

Gaming station full monty (complete with elaborate hardware controls and sound system)
[ 2 ] (12.5%)
Home workstation full monty (printer-scanner, music instruments and/or home cinema)
[ 3 ] (18.8%)
Modest homebox (just the absolutely necessary peripherals)
[ 1 ] (6.3%)
Laptop/netbook (hardware keyboard separate from the screen)
[ 3 ] (18.8%)
Big-screen tablet (software keyboard)
[ 1 ] (6.3%)
Smartphone
[ 3 ] (18.8%)
Gaming console with internet connection
[ 0 ] (0%)
Different devices on different occasions and for different purposes (specify in the thread)
[ 3 ] (18.8%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Topic: The Hardware Thread (Read 62990 times)

Re: The Hardware Thread

Reply #225 –
Of course it's obvious. Just as it's obvious that no car is always better than any car. But EVs still have lower lifetime CO2 emissions, see here for example.

Re: The Hardware Thread

Reply #226 –
If green thinking is the point, then all industrial pollution matters, not just emissions. The mining of metals and production of chemicals, how to recycle or dispose of them, everything.

It's obvious that nobody is thinking holistically about this. Nobody except a few isolated ecofascists. In the mainstream politics, we have the half-assed bottle recycling scheme that is nowhere near the recycling scheme that was in effect in Soviet Union. And we have silly initiatives like banning plastic straws while leaving plastic covers for cups. Essentially just turning everything into a such a stupid joke that no ecologically minded person wants to be associated with it - and clearly isn't, otherwise the initative would be sensible.

And don't even get me started on sorting garbage.

Re: The Hardware Thread

Reply #227 –
Some items will have near 100% recycling rates, and that includes EV batteries. (And incontrovertibly virtual & HPV > public transport > EVs > ICEVs both in emissions and environmental impact; leaving the Cybertrucks and F-150 Fat boys aside, there was a point where EVs vs ICEVs were a trade-off, we are past that point now.)

Everyone will return EV batteries unless that EV has been in a major accident or lost in a lake. There are second-life use cases and they are simply too expensive to throw away. Maybe in the far future EV batteries will be cheap enough to forget about, but by then reuse has hopefully been automated.

Consumer electronics is a different story. Here the financial incentive a near negligible. But this looks promising.

Framework announces Laptop 16 — and promises ‘holy grail’ of upgradable graphics



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx-Lggf2TXc 

Re: The Hardware Thread

Reply #228 –
Quote from: jax on
Some items will have near 100% recycling rates, and that includes EV batteries. [...]

Everyone will return EV batteries unless that EV has been in a major accident or lost in a lake. There are second-life use cases and they are simply too expensive to throw away.
If so, then why was there no green solution for this poor guy? Why wasn't his old battery so valuable as to make it viable to exchange it for a replacement battery in his Tesla? Why is his old battery treated as worthless? The conclusion: There is no meaningful recycling going on.

Besides, we are talking about different things. Rowan Atkinson considered production pollution as opposed to vehicle exhaust pollution. It should be obvious that production pollution is a more important consideration.

Whereas recycling is a third thing, different from both vehicle exhaust and production pollution. My reference point to the currently hyped "recycling as lifestyle" (i.e. recycling by individual initiative, engaging in returning bottles, sorting of garbage and the like) is the Soviet Union of the 1970's. Back then, people were steered by economic realities to recycle to the extent far exceeding the current rates. And also the institutional infrastructure to enable recycling far surpassed what is in place at the moment. For example, why the heck can I not return a bottle to EVERY recycle point in my country? Why do I have to take it to the recycle point of the particular supermarket chain that sells it? And why the heck can I not return EVERY glass/plastic bottle/can/package, but only a few select ones? In Soviet Union in the 1970's you could return everything everywhere (everything that had contact with food, that is - they had to be separated from bottles/cans/packages that had contact with chemical poison, such as paint cans).

If your reference point is different, perhaps your optimism with regard to the current state of recycling may be justified. Given my reference point, the current state of recycling is a tragic insult to the very idea of recycling.