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Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

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Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#81

Post by tsunamifury »

Aurornis wrote: post #20

I agree that I don’t want a data center in my backyard either. What’s missing from this strange conversation is discussion about how many data center proposals are near residential areas. I tried to look for one in my state and a few surrounding areas and couldn’t find any. There was an amusing story about how data center protestors had to organize expensive bus trips to get the protesters out to the data center site…

If you look at Elk Grove Village, Illinois as their budget there after declaring they would become the AI Datacenter Capital of the World -- there is an obvious answer:

Suburbs cannot continue to pay for their infrastructure without drastically increasing taxes or finding new sources of income.

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#82

Post by rsoto2 »

chasd00 wrote: post #7

No one ever cared about DCs before now. I think there’s a lot of social media influence from nation state competitors going on to try and slow SOTA development in the US. Ironically, There’s enough issues with the DC buildout going on that even with 100% public opinion support it would still be significantly delayed. The behind the meter power generation isn’t going well. There’s only so many gas fired turbines on th…

Wow it's almost like modern datacenters use way more power due to GPU consumption. Emit way more pollution. Use way more land. Make way more noise. Produce slop instead of functioning products. Do yall use your brain before chiming in and misinforming everyone?

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#83

Post by watwut »

RajT88 wrote: post #24
gortok wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think there’s a lot of social media influence from nation state competitors going on to try and slow SOTA development in the US. This comes cross as unbelievable, and at worst a fantastical statement, as someone who lives in Northern Virginia and is effectively watching the Datacenter battle unfold from the front lines, and dealing with the local politics and electricity costs rising at a precipitous rate. Our el…

They're building a mass of DC's near me as well in northern IL (not quite as many as by you). I see a lot of weird stuff on social media - people inactive for years all of a sudden becoming super-activists and posting non-stop anti-DC content. Nearly identical content to what's being pushed by a bunch of faceless accounts named like "Water4All","Nature Reign" - something vaguely environmental sounding. Talking points…

> We should call data centers what they actually are: surveillance centers designed to put us all in a digital prison by 2030

I mean, isnt that what Karp, Thiel are openly saying and one of the things Antropic doom trolls about?

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#84

Post by tsunamifury »

milkshakes wrote: post #26
RajT88 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're building a mass of DC's near me as well in northern IL (not quite as many as by you). I see a lot of weird stuff on social media - people inactive for years all of a sudden becoming super-activists and posting non-stop anti-DC content. Nearly identical content to what's being pushed by a bunch of faceless accounts named like "Water4All","Nature Reign" - something vaguely environmental sounding. Talking points…

nyt is no fan of AI, but they cover this: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

Read the top comment.

The story never questions if they are right, simply tried to smear the argument based on the sources.

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#85

Post by mikestew »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #65

IMO NIMB should be illegal, so long as the builder meets standards. Maybe those standards should rise to include ambient noise requirements, heat dissipation, capital contributions to water/electricity supply, additional tax burden points (for land use without, maybe?). But I also feel there needs to be an assertion that if you own the land it's your property and you're free to do most things with it, safely and poli…

This is about property rights and freedoms.

Your property rights stop where my ears are. Or I have the freedom to not listen to your gas turbine. Or however one wishes to flip that on its head. Whether you own the property or not, that property isn’t in a vacuum.

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#86

Post by jquery »

e40 wrote: post #70
redlewel wrote: post #30

I think this is because the demand is so extreme for datacenters now that companies are building them in a manner that disrupts the environment around them. The newer ones are using on-site generators that are insanely loud and require multiples more power than datacenters have historically needed. For a rack with traditional servers with just RAM/CPU/Drives, 5kW is sufficient in most cases. When you have racks that…

> I think this is because the demand is so extreme for datacenters now Point to _any_ analysis that says the current building boom is anything but speculation. xAI is renting out their DC space. I think I read that Google is, too. DC buildout is purely a gold rush. A play to be the one left standing after all the weaker players die.

Speculative demand is still demand.

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#87

Post by linksnapzz »

trollbridge wrote: post #67
ransom1538 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. A data center is no more than a industrial bread bakery (oddly specific i know). The entire anti-data US center is ran by China. EG. You can run a rack of servers in your closet. China is doing a great job.

Are you sure about that? I can't think of any bread bakeries pulling 2.2 gigawatts, which is us-east-1 pulls.

There are industrial bakeries that burn that much natural gas (powerwise); although the bakery probably smells better.

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#88

Post by 1970-01-01 »

adamrezich wrote: post #74

The other day I was talking with two friends—one programmer, one musician, both of fairly conservative political persuasion—and the topic of “AI data centers” came up. I said something to the effect of, “y'know, all that talk about how they just use all up all the water from wherever they're built is total propaganda nonsense, right?” and both were genuinely taken aback by this statement. As far as they were concerne…

Your two friends are factually correct. You somehow misinterpret how much water they consume.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-water-usage

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#89

Post by neckardt »

ryandrake wrote: post #50
WarmWash wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Negatives acknowledged, there are huge efficiency upsides to dense human living. Everything becomes smoother, faster, less wasteful. You get a society that leverages economies of scale for everything.

In some areas, density is appropriate, and in some areas it's not. I wish we could talk about housing density and "build more housing" as if there was not one universal solution that worked everywhere and for everyone. Dense urban living is not appropriate in a rural or suburban town. Single family homes are not appropriate in a high-demand urban area. Different people want different things, too. No matter how effici…

> I don't want to live in a concrete honeycomb in the middle of a loud city.

Yes, this is the crux. Loud, smelly, concrete cities suck. And you’re right that density alone would lead to this.

What we’d ideally want is cities that can be dense without being loud, smelly, and dangerous. These cities exist: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Zurich, Utrecht, Freiburg, etc.

We can’t do this in the US because we can’t remove the source of the noise/danger/stink/concrete problem: cars.

And that’s the catch 22: In the US everyone gets around by car, so density becomes undesirable. We can’t densify because density + cars is bad, and we can’t reduce cars because it’s not dense enough for public transit to get better.

Individuals get stuck in a prisoner’s dilemma where driving is safer, more comfortable, and faster than transit. So every individual with the means to drive chooses to drive. Public transit becomes branded as something for poor people. The concrete honeycomb fills up. The downtown becomes a noisy disaster. People can no longer imagine that good cities are possible.

Re: Most Americans say "not in my backyard" to AI data centers

#90

Post by alistairSH »

Aurornis wrote: post #20

I agree that I don’t want a data center in my backyard either. What’s missing from this strange conversation is discussion about how many data center proposals are near residential areas. I tried to look for one in my state and a few surrounding areas and couldn’t find any. There was an amusing story about how data center protestors had to organize expensive bus trips to get the protesters out to the data center site…

And on the flip side, I live in Fairfax County, VA and there are data centers EVERYWHERE. Especially if I cross into Ashburn (home of AOL and stuff) - literally mixed in with large townhome developments.

And the current plan - building a data center in Canaan Valley - is a whopper... 785 MW natural gas power plant on site with diesel generator backups (solely for the data center, not sold back to grid), 500+ acres of land, 2 million sqft initial building space, air quality impact assessment by the state is heavily redacted, $4 billion price tag.

All right next to one of DC's most popular outdoor/skiing recreation areas. The DC would loom over the two towns that support the entire region.

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