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The real AI bubble

Phil Edwards | November 6, 2026



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Written by Phil Edwards

Comments

This post currently has 25 comments.

  1. @PhilEdwardsInc

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    me: "tulips are a bubble"
    comment: "he just said tulips don't exist!"
    me: "well, not ex-"
    comment: "this dude hates tulips!!!"
    me: "no, not re-"
    comment: "this dude thinks there's no tulip bubble!"
    rinse, repeat

  2. @sidelightdocs

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    Using the abandoned wooden ships at Mallows Bay as a case study for the data centre build-out is a really clever way in, especially the point that a bubble soaks up supply for something that wasn't even that good. The wartime quote about building faster than submarines could sink them shows how urgency can justify almost anything.

  3. @richardlgambrell1144

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    there are too many data centers with growing capacity that just won't find a use that pays for them before they become obsolete and before we figure out how REALLY to use AI productively. Factories were not usually built like this. Imagine if cars were manufactured by the tens of thousands before people knew how to drive.

  4. @pohldriver

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    What happens if the bubble pops or GPU upgrades? The old high powered GPUs get used in regular computers and local servers. The buildings get docks installed and it gets turned into a warehouse or manufacturing facility. They're hard, reusable items. Those ships were obsolete when they were constructed. Other than reclaiming the timber, which wasn't a thing back then, they served their intended purpose.

  5. @Aman-ti4qu

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    I think the war analogy fits very well with the current one, just because how reliant US is on AI for its economic growth and really nothing else. Just like in the war, where the bet on continuation of the war is what kept the economy growing

  6. @zilog1

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    they are gonna grind up the GPUs and tech because they don't want it to get in the hands of consumers. Who knows what those Rapscallions will do with em!

  7. @puzzzl

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    Running an AI ad in the middle of a video about the negative consequences of AI is an interesting choice. I'm not personally anti-AI or anything, but isn't that a little… dissonant? Regardless, what breaks me up most about this video was the mention of long leaf pine: they built the shipbuilding yards near the densest groves of said pine in Virginia, then proceeded to cut nearly all of it down. Long leaf pine is now endangered. And what did they do with all of it? Well, it turns out they dumped it in a lake and lit it on fire.

  8. @Fleischkopf

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    but why didnt they just sell the boats instead of letting them rot? or at least given away for free? i bet there were people who could have used them. even if just for firewood or something, or to house the poor maybe

  9. @hiskishow

    November 6, 2026 at 4:11 am

    It's feels similar to the railroad bubble. After the first railroad between Leeds and Manchester gained a million users in one month people went absolutely crazy about railroads in UK and Germany and private companies built railroads everywhere with private investor money, thinking it will be the greatest money making machine ever. Turns out railroads were expensive to maintain and all the companies were taken over by the local governments and people lost their money as all the private companies went under basically. AI seems like the next big thing so everyone is betting on it and it's a snowball.

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