
The Digital 'Engines of Innovation' and Jevons' Delicious Paradox (2018) - dwighttk
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2018/12/11/energy_and_the_information_infrastructure_part_3_the_digital_engines_of_innovation_jevons_delicious_paradox_110368.html
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skmurphy
Key paragraph:

Over the past 60 years, the energy efficiency of ever-less expensive logic
engines has improved by over one billion fold. No other machine of any kind
has come remotely close to matching that throughout history. Consider the
implications even from 1980, the Apple II era. A single iPhone at 1980 energy-
efficiency would require as much power as a Manhattan office building.
Similarly, a single data center at circa 1980 efficiency would require as much
power as the entire U.S. grid. But because of efficiency gains, the world
today has billions of smartphones and thousands of datacenters.

