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The moral panic over data centres is foolish

economist.com

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Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#21

Post by CPLX »

Memo to anyone in the tech community who doesn’t agree with this:

People fucking hate you and don’t trust you and are convinced, not without reason, that you have the specific goal and intention of destroying their way of life and ability to provide for their families. They also feel like they were never consulted in any of this and that nobody is representing their interests.

You can agree or disagree with that point of view, but unless you thrive on ignorance you might as well get your head around the fact that it’s likely a majority view in this country by now.

Consider for a moment trying to figure out why that is the case rather than pretending it’s not true or that it’s a mass delusion.

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#22

Post by agentultra »

> just about everything in modern life, from streaming Netflix to running a dishwasher, consumes water at levels that can be portrayed as wasteful by hair-shirt environmentalists.

Ad-hominems in an Economist article. This reads more like an opinion piece than reporting. There are plenty of documented problems with water usage of data centres. Some can use it efficiently but it costs more to do so and many (most?) do not.

We are also in a time when most people would prefer to use that water for drinking, washing, cleaning… basically anything except data centres.

Don’t think many people are going to read this and think, “Gosh, I was a fool!”

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#24

Post by q2wahj »

"Moral panic"? Did they read Michael Tracey?

First of all, there are reasons apart from pollution, rising electricity prices and global warming:

These things make noise. Noise bad. Noise very bad for health. Maybe if post from Economist or Spectator villa no know noise!

Thanks for your attention to this matter and please continue to eat cake.

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#25

Post by lc9er »

jedberg wrote: post #15

I have a lot of left leaning non-tech friends. They are all very much against AI data centers. I've built AI data centers, and I keep trying to educate them, but they just won't listen. The water is mostly part of a closed system. Sure, you need a lot to build one, but once it's running it's pretty water efficient. The lack of green power is a problem, but as the article points out, you now have a large customer subs…

Cool. Then then you live next to one.

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#26

Post by neuroticnews25 »

jpgvm wrote: post #6

NIMBYs are the enemy of all that is good in the world. No datacenters isn't about AI or even resources like water or power, it's mostly about real-estate and housing prices as usual. If we listened to NIMBYs we would have no new infrastructure, no high density housing, no public transport.... oh wait.

Why would a huge industrial scale investment be in anybody's backyard? Is this a US thing? It seems intuitive it belongs in a sparsly populated area.

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#27

Post by plazmatic »

jedberg wrote: post #15

I have a lot of left leaning non-tech friends. They are all very much against AI data centers. I've built AI data centers, and I keep trying to educate them, but they just won't listen. The water is mostly part of a closed system. Sure, you need a lot to build one, but once it's running it's pretty water efficient. The lack of green power is a problem, but as the article points out, you now have a large customer subs…

[dead]

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#28

Post by cl42 »

jedberg wrote: post #15

I have a lot of left leaning non-tech friends. They are all very much against AI data centers. I've built AI data centers, and I keep trying to educate them, but they just won't listen. The water is mostly part of a closed system. Sure, you need a lot to build one, but once it's running it's pretty water efficient. The lack of green power is a problem, but as the article points out, you now have a large customer subs…

Given your experience with data centers, what do you think of this quote from the article?

> In any case, even the noise worry is overstated: many viral videos of supposed AI data centre noise are really Bitcoin mines, not state-of-the-art hyperscaler facilities.

Are there really major differences between a hyperscaler, neocloud, and crypto mining data center in terms of noise pollution or other negative effects?

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#29

Post by bayindirh »

r_lee wrote: post #14

what about the videos of residents showing decibel meters going off and water pressure dropping? just an anecdote but what exactly do local residents gain here? a handful of permanent maintenance jobs?

> a handful of permanent maintenance jobs?

No. Permanent sleep deprivation and probably tinnitus. It's sad, really.

Poorly designed cooling infrastructure is indeed noisy. There are lower noise versions exist, but they are expensive, and I don't think they can be that quieter to make a difference at that scale.

Re: The moral panic over data centres is foolish

#30

Post by choochooo »

jpgvm wrote: post #6

NIMBYs are the enemy of all that is good in the world. No datacenters isn't about AI or even resources like water or power, it's mostly about real-estate and housing prices as usual. If we listened to NIMBYs we would have no new infrastructure, no high density housing, no public transport.... oh wait.

There’s no such thing as a YIMBY.

It’s only NIMBYs and YIYBYs

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