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Data centers trigger voter backlash

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Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#41

Post by Ethee »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #30
Ethee wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you only ever want frontier model performance then sure, you have to pay to play. But as it is now with open models, some of which I can even run from my gaming PC at home, we're only about 6 months behind frontier performance. Even when the money starts drying up for those at the forefront, the genie is out of the bottle.

And yet, the productivity increases with existing models are meh (ie not 0 but certainly not worth what is being spent) based on the data. Enjoy the tulips while they bloom. https://www.bok.or.kr/eng/bbs/B0000354/view.do?nttId=1009840... https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/9/ai-intensifies-work/ AI Doesn't Reduce Work–It Intensifies It - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46955703 - February 2026 (306 comments) http…

Productivity is typically a broader scale measure against the economy. I 100% agree that the shoehorned adoption of AI into general company processes is more of a negative than a positive. Most people here would agree that AI has only really affected productivity positively in the past 6 months-1 year. So obviously there wont be much general uplift across all industries yet, and obviously that would mean there's not really enough data to go off of empirically yet.

Beyond data and vibes though, I can't think of a single technology in human history that had a forced adoption quite like AI does. To the point where it should be pretty obvious to all of us that a large group of people are going to push back and be unhappy that it's disrupting their work. That doesn't mean that the people who actually like the technology wont find more productivity with it though. It's just when measured against a sea of forced adopters you'll never find a general uplifting trend. People typically don't like change.

Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#42

Post by cjfd »

yardie wrote: post #6

A few months ago the founders of the top AI companies walked into Capitol Hill. Tried to explain to a room full of elected representatives exactly how their technology was going to put almost half the working population into under/unemployment and they should consider UBI [0]. Then they went back to the airport, got on their corporate jets, and went home secure in the knowledge that they really showed them. That they…

You can talk about UBI if you want to appear nice but people on UBI are also rather useless. Of course the real solution to the problem will be the change of carbon based life into silicon based life and the extermination of the former kind of life. Which is not the elected representatives problem if it happens to happen more than 4 years into the future.

Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#44

Post by devmor »

echelon wrote: post #22
cdrnsf wrote: post #14

Nothing this technology offers is, to me, worth the noise pollution or increase in water and electricity rates.

[flagged]

Okay, now produce something meaningfully more appealing than everyone else with the same tools - when you do that, then you have the start of a leg to stand on to claim that it’s worth the cost to everyone.

Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#45

Post by xvedejas »

cdrnsf wrote: post #14

Nothing this technology offers is, to me, worth the noise pollution or increase in water and electricity rates.

In a working economy, an increase in demand for electricity would be met with an increase in investment and capacity, and (at least in the long-term) would benefit all electricity buyers. I'm sure there are market failures going on here in many places but it's not necessarily the case that you and the companies be on opposing sides. There are positive-sum solutions to a lot of these problems, if people are willing to consider them.

Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#46

Post by arjie »

Honestly, voter backlash occurs for every reason. Build more homes? Backlash. Build more wind? Backlash. Build more solar? Backlash. Build more geothermal? Backlash. Build more urban subway? Backlash. Build high-speed rail? Backlash. What I can conclude from this is that what is right to do and what voter backlash occurs in is orthogonal. I think it is right that we build all these things and more nuclear power, and more residential super towers, and more datacenters, and the other things for the same reason we climb the mountains, fly the Atlantic, and Rice plays Texas.

Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#48

Post by jplusequalt »

echelon wrote: post #22
cdrnsf wrote: post #14

Nothing this technology offers is, to me, worth the noise pollution or increase in water and electricity rates.

[flagged]

>Stop grandpa-ing and shaking your fist at clouds.

God forbid people have concerns over companies out in the open talking about replacing their jobs with AI.

Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#49

Post by spongebobstoes »

munificent wrote: post #33
echelon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> The keyboard gave everyone a "bicycle of the mind", now everyone can visually express themselves if they try. Right, everyone can. So now your film-making vision is simply one infinitesimally small slice of the pie that every viewer is eating. Yes, you can make a movie by yourself. Likely no one will watch it because they're too busy watching other movies made just as cheaply but by companies with marketing budgets…

discovery has always been the problem with art. many people are instrinsically motivated to create, that's why we have so much art

AI is orthogonal to human connection. people like people

Re: Data centers trigger voter backlash

#50

Post by echelon »

darksim905 wrote: post #43
echelon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

I am really starting to dislike how half of the Hacker News community are behaving.

This depressing miasma of pessimism is taking over, and it's absolute garbage.

I don't think many of you like tech as much as you like the current punch card phase of it. You're content to live and die in the world as it is now and don't want to see it transform into something dramatically more capable.

The point isn't to write C++ and Python until you retire. That was never the point. The point is to reshape the world into something more useful to humans, to cure diseases, to bring about limitless happiness and entertainment, and to satisfy everyone's needs.

It's disappointing to see so many of you bitten with this bug.

It feels like the chicken and eagle parable, with many of you content to stare at the ground because that's where you believe you belong.

We've got alien intelligent sand and it's transforming the whole world. I think it's the most exciting thing that has ever happened to us.

edit: flag, flag, flag. Nothing is 'safe'.

This is not the hacker ethos.

This is not the entrepreneur ethos.

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