The answer to many problems is reducing energy usage. Progress often comes from using less energy, whether that’s jamming circuits closer together on a silicon wafer or swapping incandescent bulbs for LEDs. More energy spent doesn’t guarantee a better result.

This is a false dilemma, yes we absolutely need more clean energy, and yes reducing energy usage is also a good thing to do in many instances. Automotive and aeronautic engineers can tell you about that given how many billions have been invested in making engines consume less.

Should I leave my AC at 65 while I’m on vacation for a month just to save myself the trouble of pressing a button, then tell anyone who calls me out that it’s society’s fault for not producing enough clean energy and I bear no responsibility whatsoever?

Burning 500B token for a fun unsharable side project is a simple choice someone made with (presumably) no gun to their head.

I agree with you in spirit, but using less energy is undeniably the answer to numerous problems.

The human brain runs on ~20 Watts (last time I checked). I suspect we’ll find some energy efficiency gains in regard to this technology in the next couple of decades. Computers have a lot less vacuum tubes in them lately, after all.

Sure but we need a lot of it.

Population is growing plus electrification of transport plus more energy for compute plus we want to phase out fossil fuels.

We can do both - like running your air con while the sun's out (with solar panels) and turning it off at nighttime.