The Internet disintermediates
But ai destroys. Ctrl + alt + del
Ai is forcing a system reset like no other.
Ai will enable peer to peer sharing like no other. By tracking provenance through blockchain and linking production to consumption, we are entering an era where trust is not just not important, it is not required. Opinions and judgement matter when there is no data. If you have data, ask the question and the answer is presented.
The key point is that you don’t need to have the data to get the answer. Ai will answer it for you. The hope and myth of course is that Ai will find the data. If the bubble grows fast enough – it actually will. Ai will buy data. So it is the guys selling data who are going to be laughing to the bank. If they are smart that is. That excludes most Indians.
Let me analyse Discoms. These monopolistic incompetent and corrupt parasites have been the enemy of socio economic progress. Thanks to their inefficiency, most of India did not have 24/7 electricity. They built horrible networks because of corrupt purchase practices and poor technical competence.
So much so that at one time 50%+ of all electricity generated was lost in transmission and distribution – a technical word for electricity sold by the discoms without billing or collection. You can’t get project finance in India from a govt bank without a bribe and you can’t get electricity as a straight forward purchase. And people say you can’t get justice from a court in a lifetime – with or without a bribe.
Ai is set to put the discom out of business.
Like telcos, discom network architectures are not relevant to the times. Telcos have hierarchical networks whereas the markets demand flat networks with just two primary elements – distributed data centres and point fibre drops. Essentially all intelligence goes into the data centre. And then you need a fibre to connect a MDU to the DDC. There is no role in future for the hierarchical networks that telcos like Airtel and Jio have. It has to be micro cells otherwise frequency re use will not work. And you need oxygen attenuated short distance cordless links to avoid interference.
Discoms have the reverse challenge. They currently have a hierarchical broadcast network which goes from generating station to consumer. Power goes one way. But with rooftop solar and garage nuclear, it is going to be a two way network.
A prosumer network. Where each end can be a producer and or a consumer. Just like a video conference is for digital bytes. This decimates Discom networks as we know them. Rebuilding discom networks is the biggest opportunity of our times. And it probably cannot be done independent of the data networks.
Data centres are going to be colocated with nuclear power plants. There is no other way to do it.
The discoms can’t deal with it. They are obsolete irreversibly. Interactive electricity networks will do to discoms what fibre telcos did to broadcast tv.
And it’s already happening.
