> They're preparing for it by blocking it off completely.
No we don't. Quite the opposite. Several dams have been made into movable mechanic contraptions precisely to NOT stop the tide coming in.
A lot of the water management is living with the water, not fighting it. Shore replenishment and strengthening is done by dropping sand in strategic locations and letting the water take care of dumping it in the right spot. Before big dredgers, the tide was used to flush sand out of harbours using big flushing basins. Big canals have been dug for better shipping. Big and small ships sailed and still sail on the waters to trade with the world. A lot of our riches come from the sea and the rivers.
The water is a danger and a tool. It's not stopped, only redirected and often put to good use. Throughout Dutch history, those who worked with the water generally have done well. And similarly, some places really suffered after the water was redirected away from them. Fisher folk lost their livelihoods, cities lost access to trade, some land literally evaporated when it got too dry, a lot of land shrunk when water was removed, biodiversity dropped...
Anyway, if you want to use the Dutch waters as a metaphor for technological innovations, the lesson will not be that the obvious answer is to block it. The lesson will be to accept it, to use it, to gain riches through it: to live with it.
The difference is that right now we're looking at a giant onrushing wave and we're considering maybe building a few dinghies to "ride it out".
Please understand. We're not in a position where we have sophisticated infrastructure to carefully control AI development. We have nothing, and the waves are getting bigger every few months.
You're in a position where you're safe enough (after centuries of labor!) that you can decide to not block some amount of incoming water. That is not where we are at with AI. There is no dike.
I understand that you're afraid. I'm not. But that's not what I was responding to. I was just pointing out that your comparison to the Dutch does not bolster your argument, but instead supports the opposite view.
I agree that what I said was literally false. I think the comparison to the Dutch still bolsters my view with the added context.
When you understand tides and local ecosystems and have flood level forecasting, you can choose to operate dikes in a way that allows tidal flow while blunting floods. However, we're currently in a position where in the analogy, we have no dike and people are arguing that dikes are impossible and anyway who's to say that the incoming flood won't be good for houses? In that situation, the first thing you need to do is get the incoming masses of water under control, and that's a thing that humans can do and it's the thing you did. (Unless I'm wrong?)
edit: Hang on, isn't Amsterdam below zero? How is that not blocking tidal flow effectively completely?
My point is just that tides are in the feasible range of human engineering, whether that's a good idea or not. Pragmatic management is not the same thing as unconditional surrender, which the other comment was advocating on basis of infeasibility, which is doubly wrong.
No we don't. Quite the opposite. Several dams have been made into movable mechanic contraptions precisely to NOT stop the tide coming in.
A lot of the water management is living with the water, not fighting it. Shore replenishment and strengthening is done by dropping sand in strategic locations and letting the water take care of dumping it in the right spot. Before big dredgers, the tide was used to flush sand out of harbours using big flushing basins. Big canals have been dug for better shipping. Big and small ships sailed and still sail on the waters to trade with the world. A lot of our riches come from the sea and the rivers.
The water is a danger and a tool. It's not stopped, only redirected and often put to good use. Throughout Dutch history, those who worked with the water generally have done well. And similarly, some places really suffered after the water was redirected away from them. Fisher folk lost their livelihoods, cities lost access to trade, some land literally evaporated when it got too dry, a lot of land shrunk when water was removed, biodiversity dropped...
Anyway, if you want to use the Dutch waters as a metaphor for technological innovations, the lesson will not be that the obvious answer is to block it. The lesson will be to accept it, to use it, to gain riches through it: to live with it.