Jon Reisman
If you had asked me about “AI” a decade ago, I probably would have responded with something about Bradypus tridactylus, the very slow-moving, three-toed, arboreal, pale-throated sloth native to South American rain forests in Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and Brazil. (Forgive me, one of the courses I often taught for UMM Education majors was Geography 101 — that was prior to the still ongoing digital revolution replacing geography with geographic information systems (GIS)). That revolution has now given us Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is transforming our economy and lives.
Some of the transformative effects are visible, but most of the AI iceberg is out of view. The formal economics term for the study and analysis of the consequences of major technological and paradigmatic change in a capitalist (at least til Platner and his Jacobin compatriots succeed) is Creative Destruction. Many “old” jobs, businesses, and institutions will be destroyed, replaced by the innovation and enhanced productivity the new technology creates. Model Ts replaced horse and buggies, and computers and printers replaced typewriters. AI will enhance productivity and create new opportunities and wealth, but it will also likely destroy many occupations and previously successful resource allocation choices. Possible destruction candidates: coders, lawyers, writers, teachers. Higher education looks like it will take a substantial (and probably DEI and grade-inflation-deserved) hit. The trades and community colleges look to be a much wiser investment than liberal arts colleges and graduate schools.
One current element/sideshow in the AI Creative Destruction saga is the data centers and their impacts on energy and water resource infrastructure and costs. The ultimate environmentalist/anti-capitalist sustainability/climate scam strategy has been dragged out of the green/Democrat/socialist advocacy closet with policy proposals for data center “moratoriums” and/or “bans,” depending on the level of misdirection and misinformation desired. There were probably similar Luddite efforts to ban internal combustion engines to save the equine industry. Sustainability advocacy and associated definitional (lack of) clarity have always had a deeply embedded element of pure horse manure. It’s probably built into the Large Language Models.
The data center policy sideshow came home to roost in Maine and Washington County when the legislature passed a data center ban/moratorium. The ban was generally supported by Democrats and climate alarmists and opposed by Republicans. Governor Mills vetoed the ban because it did not exempt an approved project in Jay.
It is an issue in Washington County because Republican rifts on the data center ban are in play in the two GOP legislative primaries on June 9. In House District 10, Rep. Will Tuell supported the ban and opposed the veto; Lubec selectman Dan Daley vocally disagreed. In Senate District 6, Representative/GOP leader Billy Bob Faulkingham led the opposition to the ban and supported the Mills veto. Former Representative Bucket Davis has not taken a public position to my knowledge; I suspect he likely aligns with Rep. Tuell, but I don’t know for sure. I guess I could ask ChatGPT.
Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at jreisman@maine.edu.
