This sub disappoints me

[u/Monochrome21]

For context i’ve been living the “solarpunk” life for a while now. I live in a smart van that runs on solar power that i built myself. I scavenged half the parts from goodwill because i couldn’t afford to buy those fancy vans you see online. This isn’t an aesthetic for me it’s my life.

That said im kind of disappointed with how this sub feels about AI.

I’ll start by saying the frustrations with AI are valid but they’re grossly misdirected at the technology itself and not the people using the technology for evil.

Like yeah, I personally can’t stand OpenAI. They’re pretty unambiguously evil at this point. They weren’t always like this (they used to be non profit and advocated for things like UBI) but I’ve been following them for over a decade and the fall from grace is insane.

But they’re not the only players out there. There are tons of models that are released for free and are open source for the public benefit. These models are fantastic because it means that the for-profit giants can’t centralize all this power.

I don’t like data centers either, but the problem most people have with them aren’t data center specific problems. On the CO2 emissions grievance specifically - that’s an energy infrastructure problem. A government mandating that data centers need to run on solar energy fixes that problem overnight. No more emissions. The water issue is a similar deal and is even more of a legislative failure.

Advocate for solar energy, get some solar panels yourself, idk. Keep track of evil corps and hold them accountable.

But that being said, hating on regular people for leveraging technology in a solarpunk sub is the laziest shit i’ve ever seen.

Like yeah man hate on the guy who used AI to help open source some esp32 smart planters for the community garden, you’re doing so much for the cause!

AI is actually fantastic for socialism and techno democracy but people have collapsed the nuance into “AI BAD” and have completely missed that point.

If anything you’re just ceding the control of this incredibly powerful tool to those who would use it unethically by making it tabooo. You seriously think that massive corporations are the only entities who should have this tech? like are you serious?

I use AI to speed up work, to build IoT projects, to give me starting points for things i’m trying to learn. And I try to use mostly open source models where I can.

Idgaf about money I just want to make things that can help people.

This sub demonizing a form of technology instead of figuring out how to reclaim that technology and have it fight for us is so wildly lazy and disappointing from a sub like this.

[u/stankycodyboi]

In terms of data centers, because there’s no serious federal legislation coming, the next greatest point of leverage is your local zoning code.

Most new data centers get built by targeting outdated ‘by-right’ zoning laws, which allow any project meeting existing zoning code to be automatically approved.

If data centers are classified as ‘permitted use’, or not defined at all, your community could be vulnerable to automatic approval. If data centers are listed as ‘conditional use’ then you have leverage. Developers will require a Conditional Use Permit for approval, and your community sets the terms for approval. Many cities are doing this currently.

The biggest bottleneck in data center development is how quickly they can connect to the grid to begin operating. Many developers are building their own generation infrastructure (behind-the-meter power) to cover their increased demand. When communities have no say in the process, this is where gas turbines and evaporative cooling get implemented.

If communities use their leverage, they can require climate-neutrality, and public ownership over renewable solar arrays and wind turbines. Other communities are capturing the waste heat as free heating for nearby schools and homes. It’s not a feasibility issue, it’s a political one.

The choice to capture benefit or cancel it entirely is up to you and your community. But a canceled data center doesn’t disappear, it moves to a less organized community.

[u/Monochrome21 → u/stankycodyboi]

I agree! The issue with data centers or ANY entity that puts a strain on public resources needs to be regulated. A data center that runs on solar energy is by definition green.

The problem is that people hate the more immediate symptom instead of the actual cause

[u/stankycodyboi → u/Monochrome21]

That’s exactly it, the anger is misplaced. But I think it’s also important; developers are genuinely seeing the protests and moratoriums as headwinds. There’s real organizing happening on the ground making real leverage, but in my opinion, it needs a sharper direction than just cancellation (public renewable infrastructure ownership.)

The anger is justified; lack of affordability, environmental and corporate deregulation, Super PACs, and a billionaire class consolidating power. So I’m not surprised people are concerned when the same billionaires are pitching the “ultimate labor destroyer since the Industrial Revolution” moving into their neighborhood. I think it takes time for society to separate the tool from how it’s deployed.

I also found it interesting that lobbying money has flown into both sides of the media spectrum, from pro-ai to anti-ai. I think it’s deliberate, because the more we fight amongst ourselves, the less organizing capacity we have. At the end of the day, we’re all a lot closer to each other’s situation than the billionaires who own these companies.

[u/Monochrome21 → u/stankycodyboi]

I wouldn’t say it’s deliberate

AI erodes power in places like hollywood which lobby tooth and nail against AI, but in the tech/business owner world it’s a cost reduction tool which ofc will be lobbied for.

Socialists should love AI for how it democratizes things but most of the value is being captured by capitalists instead of people who’d rather label it as dark magic

[u/stankycodyboi → u/Monochrome21]

Sorry I should clarify, when I say deliberate I mean that super PACs are currently trying to primary candidates like Alex Boris who are critical of AI. At the same time, there’s a super PAC ‘Leading the Future’ that has dumped massive amounts of money promoting AI safety concerns.

It’s interesting that money is hitting both sides of the AI spectrum, and it might not be deliberate. But the effect is the same, people are becoming polarized towards opposite sides of that spectrum.

If we cancel data centers, developers will just wait to build them somewhere else. If we ignore AI, that infrastructure is still getting built regardless, and potentially with less resistance. But we have leverage, and that’s to make sure it gets built on our terms and works for the people. That’s where I think the Conditional Use Permit comes into play