Tesla the Man
AI, the Energy Wall, and a Peek Beyond It
From the essay
We do not need Tesla’s laboratory back. We need the scale of his questions. Look at the frenzy around AI data centers. What started as a fascinating technical race—bigger models, faster chips, better answers—has spilled out of the computer and entered the physical world. The cloud has come down to Earth, and it is much heavier than its name suggested. We can hide a building. We cannot hide thermodynamics. AI is developing on the time scale of software, while the electrical system grows on the time scale of power stations, permits, concrete, copper, and public patience.