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by Angela N. Johnson (Author)
Can a potato run AI?
Yes. Technically. You'll need about 300,000 of them, an industrial spool of copper wire, and a level of patience that borders on insanity. But yes. A resounding yes.
This book takes a single question - can it run AI? - and applies it to 100 power sources, from the ridiculous to the Nobel-adjacent. The math is real. The sources are real. Some of the answers will make you laugh. A few may change how you think about the next decade of infrastructure. A few will make you realize that nature has been computing a lot longer than AI has.
Inside, you'll find out whether AI can be powered by:
- Hand-cranked brass calculators from the 1880s
- The static shock you get petting your cat
- Electric eels, pistol shrimp, and slime mold
- Pedaling a bike, human body heat, and the jaw muscle that chews gum
- Volcanic lightning and the aurora borealis
- Coffee grounds, beer fermentation, and the food waste from an average Tuesday
- Orbiting solar mirrors, Dyson spheres, and neutron stars
- The heat death of the universe itself
Every chapter shows the math. Every chapter answers the same question. Every chapter is simultaneously stupid and profound, both art and science. And that is the whole point.
Written by a innovation strategist with a PhD and flair for translating between how people actually talk about emerging technology and the scientists, artists, and engineers making it, this is what happens when you take AI's energy crisis seriously enough to do the math on a stationary bike. And not seriously enough to count it in potatoes, and remind everyone its not rocket science. You can do it at your house with DIY elbow grease and spite.
