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Not Needed

 As I read this story about health issues caused by bitcoin mines, my thoughts turned to my late grandfather who died in the early 90s. He was a very well-read man with varied interests. It occurred to me that this story would be particularly hard  (if not impossible) for him to follow. The first stumble would come from making sense of bitcoin and everything goes downhill from there

Dr. Bhaloo, the ENT doctor in Granbury, says he’s seen an uptick since the new year in patients whose ailments—including ringing in their ears, vertigo, and headaches—could be related to the mine. “These people here, they’re good country folks, and Bitcoin, to them, is almost a foreign alien thing,” he says. “They don’t understand it. And [the noise] is detrimental to their health and anxiety.” Dr. Stephen Krzeminski, another Granbury ENT, agrees. “Sonic damage is real, there’s no disputing that,” he says. Krzeminski says he believes the mine is causing “mental and physical” health issues. “Imagine if I had vuvuzela in your ear all the time,” he says.

This whole business would be "a foreign alien" thing to my grandfather too. I had to pause and wonder if Michael Pollan's rule about food should not be adapted in someway for technology so we had rules for the road and did not build things that people of above average intelligence from our grandparents' generation would not find useful.  

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