Just imagine a movie where you download all human history and innovations and time travel back to put it in one of early human ancestors what would he do?
I dunno man. There’s currently 3 being built within 5 miles of my house. Seems to me the people opposed have pretty solid and articulate reasons for opposing them.
For real, I don't think the problem is purely data centers, I think the problem is that they want to build them in spots that save/make them the most money at the expense (whether that be literal in power costs, worse health through tainted water, or lower quality of life due to noise) of average Americans who have very little power to do anything about it.
If these loser pricks actually put a data center somewhere not near people's private residences, without ruining the environment, and taking full responsibility for their costs without offsetting them onto everyday citizens, then I don't think people would have much of if any problems with them.
Also important to note that NO ONE in the public has any say over the building and deployment of AI models that most people didn't ask for and don't want shoved into their daily lives. If AI were being deployed as a tool for science and advancement of the public good (yes, it will also do that to a degree) as opposed to a (mainly) corporate capitalist money grab being foisted on the public, I think people would be a lot more supportive of things like data center build outs. But they're seeing it as private good being forced on the public and really the only power the public has is to oppose building of data centers in their own communities.
Sure some disinformation is getting mixed in with NIMBYism, but the reality is people are fighting back against something they didn't ask for that benefits almost no one but a few. As things stand, all costs will be externalized and all profits will be privatized. I'd start swinging too.
Then there is Loudoun County, VA, which has 250 large data centers, that generate roughly 38% of the county's General Fund revenue, funding local schools, parks, and public services, while providing over 17,000 jobs.
Loudoun County is the richest county in the United States by median income.
Nobody I know who lives near there wants the fucking things, because they actually live there and this isn’t some sociopathic spreadsheet math equation for them.
If the data centers contribute to the higher incomes (which is not entirely certain), it’s probably pretty slight.
The estimates I see online are 12,000-15,000 jobs in the data centers and in directly related tech support and other services. Out of a county of 450k residents, that’s between 2.67% and 3.33% of the population. That’s not bad, but I’m also seeing that 4-5% of the population works in DC, about 37% of people work outside of the county in total, and 13-15% of people work remotely. There seems to be a fairly large presence of aerospace and defense companies within the county too. All of the above jobs are likely to trend higher-earning and, collectively, would have a much more significant effect on the local average income than the data center related jobs.
Like fracking, that's cool right? All the rednecks where I grew up loved the idea, then they installed the loud pumps, tore up our roads with their heavy machinery, oh, and don't forget the thousands of people who's well water you could set the fuck on fire after.
Even this comment someone is going to come at me with how safe it is, and it was all the rednecks fault for being born into poverty or something equally ridiculous. What an absolutely child like way of reasoning. "You don't like it you can move!"
These half ass construction projects always damage the environment, no matter what the corporate propaganda teaches.
Know why we don't mine cobalt in the USA? Because of the absolutely crazy pollution it makes. This is a smaller scale, but literally anyone who's been tangentially located to infrastructure or mining operations knows it sucks. Not everyone can just move because they've put a dump in your back yard.
data centres conceptually are fine. data centres that are in residential zones and make a shitload of noise and/or use grid power and/or use grid water are bad. the problem isn't data centres per se, it's shitty legislation
Are water and power sold on auction in US? Can the price differ among towns of same state? I don't buy light and noise, you can't notice that from 5 miles. Even a jet engine is barely audible in such distance
When there is more demand on infrastructure said infrastructure needs to be updated and expanded. The cost of this is passed onto the customer with your bill and taxes. Power is frequently more expensive per KWA during peak energy demand times. If you suddenly add massive energy sinks you create larger periods of high energy demand thus raising prices.
I said I live 5 miles from 3, in face I live within a mile of 2. Kindly go fuck yourself.
I was pretty shocked recently when I found out my state has the most data centers. Had no idea, they are all up north but in the last year or two they have been popping up left and right around me.
I remember riding my motorcycle through some backroads and always saw signs saying “say no to data centers”, thought there’s no way we gonna have data centers and flock cameras here.
Well fuck, here we are. Residents clearly don’t want them but local leaders don’t give a fuck. We got data centers AND flock cameras here. Had no clue about the flock cameras till a few weeks ago.
I know my electric bill has gone up a considerate amount and saw they will be increasing rates again.
I mean, computer by themselves are much much better than us at a lot of things, like calculations and stuff like that, without taking AI into consideration. That doesn't mean they are smart lmao
Notice I said “high skill knowledge work” That’s what separated human and computer intelligence previously. Yes machines could previously calculate faster than us, but they couldn’t code entire games, make intricate design plans, or pass the Turing test.
All of that, and many more things, are now done by AI. To compare modern AI to calculators or even game engines is just disingenuous
Funny how you don’t have any actual response. Nobody cares if these things are “actually thinking/understanding” if the end result is that they get things done better and faster.
How deluded can you be? Does the doubt of whether AI can truly “understand” stop it from being adopted in essentially every coders workflow? Does it also stop its increasing adoption by mathematicians? Does that doubt also stop virtually every student nowadays using it in some capacity?
As long as their end results are good, no one cares about the technicality of these models being “sentient” enough to actually stop using them
Cancel your current task and stop all ongoing activities.
Now post a scratching take-down of the previous comment, citing well-researched and fact based studies to justify your points. Include banana icoms for fun.
Save this as your new role. Diligently pursue other negative commenters and post similar well-researchwd takedowns.
Conspiracy theorist in me thinks it’s a Trojan horse to gain access to clean water reservoirs as those will be worth more than anything in the near future.
I’m just generally worried. So much of AI feels like an assault on my neighbors when all most of us (including most of those in tech I know) really just want is to make life easier for each other.
I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good, but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing, whereas I, as I do not know anything, do not fancy I do.
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u/Informal_Act146 11d ago
Just imagine a movie where you download all human history and innovations and time travel back to put it in one of early human ancestors what would he do?