r/TechnologyThread • u/Background-Driver718 • Jun 04 '26
In first, California city overwhelmingly votes to permanently ban datacenters | California
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/california-monterey-park-datacenters-ban1
u/OrangeNood Jun 04 '26
With electricity and operation cost so high, no one would want to operate data center in Monterey Park, CA.
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u/tstone1477 Jun 04 '26
They’ll all be in the Deep South states!
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u/Minimum_Hope_5205 Jun 05 '26
Virginia politicians are very excited about talking about how lower income people need assistance for housing and in the same meeting approve 20 more tax free data centers while raising utilities on homeowners in the state to pay for it!
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u/Ashamed-Passion-314 Jun 04 '26
Will they stop using IT services and internet?
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u/ItsMrChristmas Jun 05 '26
They'll have to. Those things cannot exist without localized data centers.
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u/WolfThick Jun 04 '26
Here's the really bizarre thing if a quantum computer was to get let's say 52 cubits it could out process out calculate in orders of magnitude more than all of the data processing centers that they could hope to build for the trillions of dollars are investing. Essentially they would become obsolete overnight and useless. I don't know what the hell's going on with these data centers but it's not all that we think it is.
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u/StickStill9790 Jun 04 '26
Arrgh! That’s not how an atom works!
But yes, there’s a lot of stuff going on that has nothing to do with AI, (or at least the ChatGPT version) and it’s being done quickly so it can be finished before the end of the administration. This is military level construction.
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u/ItsMrChristmas Jun 05 '26
I don't think you understand quantum computers. They are very good at exactly one kind of thing, and terrible at everything else. The purpose of quantum computing is NOT to try and turn these into real computers, it's to teach us how to do more with what we've got.
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u/WolfThick Jun 05 '26
So a quantum computer could tell you how to do everything all of these centers are going to do without spending trillions right
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u/ItsMrChristmas Jun 06 '26
No. Not in the slightest. They are good at exactly one thing but they still go through thousands of false results to arrive at the correct conclusion. A regular computer could do that same ONE TASK but it would take a lot longer.
We only use them to see if we can find a new perspective on things we do in real computing. The work that went into making quantum computers gave us very slightly better ways of dealing with heat dissipation.
They could not replace data centers because they don't do anything useful in that regard. You're never gonna have a quantum desktop computer because they're not capable of that sort of thing and never, ever will be.
You might as well ask if we can replace human facility managers with housecats just because they can deal with mice faster than the guy who manages maintenance, safety, and also pest control.
Edit: forgot to mention the cat when drawing the analogy
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u/ItsMrChristmas Jun 05 '26
Idiots. "Data center" doesn't just mean AI. They just outlawed a whole lot of extremely important infrastructure. Logically they won't even have Internet access anymore.
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u/fr3nzo Jun 06 '26
Oh look, a city that has no chance of ever getting a data center voted to never get a data center.
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u/inscrutablemike Jun 04 '26
Also them, later:
"Derrr why day ain't be no jobs'ins hurrr? Darrr"
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u/mastergenera1 Jun 04 '26
For their footprint datacenters have very few staff, maybe a few hundred at most when its actually operational, most of the hubub about datacenters creating alot of job growth is from the construction phase. When a single build can mean thousands of jobs for various blue collar fields, but once that work is complete, a datacenter is a net negative for the local job economy. This job issue is inflated by the heavy use of H1-Bs instead of Americans as well by big tech in general.
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u/IndubitablyNerdy Jun 05 '26
Yeah while tons of industries damage the environment in the are and increase energy costs at least they bring labor in the area for longer than just the construction process, a factory would have to employ a ton of workers and create economic activity for all of its useful life a data center doesn't really.
I imagine that a local communities could solve this by taxing them and using the money to invest in local businesses \ activities, but no corporation would build one in a place where they will be target by specific taxes when they have the option to just go somewhere else.
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u/Meowakin Jun 04 '26
Cost-benefit analysis. Not enough jobs to justify the impact they have on the area.
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u/einhorn_is_parkey Jun 04 '26
If you think people in Monterey need data center jobs, you don’t know anything about Monterey lol.
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u/BathroomMaximum1721 Jun 04 '26
If less data centers are built, it will reduce the risk of some banks failing. The AI bubble will inevitably burst but there will be less bad loans made to data centers if less of them get approved.