AI Slop, all of it. "A theocratic sunk cost trap"?
Not sure why you think this is AI slop. It's an interesting argument. Not sure I agree, but it's a different take.
I admit religions are a cost trap, but they are not connected to data centers
The connection is right in the subject line: it is comparing AI to a "sacred prestige competition." The central idea is that AI is like religion in that it promises great and wonderful rewards in the future if we make sacrifices in the present, and if we don't see any of these great and wonderful rewards: that's because we're not sacrificing enough. It becomes a death spiral: the worse things get, the more effort goes into propitiating the gods (rather than growing food).
The idea that some past societies have collapsedbecause when times were bad the theocracy responded by building more temples and making more and larger sacrifices instead of putting resources into solving their problems) is not new. I don't know if any actual historians credit this theory, but it's been proposed.