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Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

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Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#251

Post by ajross »

mike_hearn wrote: post #221
ajross wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the wastewater issues can be real in some environments. It's not a completely insane idea and like all things can be reasonably discussed and mitigated. It's not like these things have the ecological impact of steel foundries or fruit orchards, but they're not parks either. I do think the tech industry would be wise to do more outreach and less sneering, though. Freakouts about AI (which ultimately is what th…

If it's not rational it's not reasonable. The two words are more or less synonyms, unless you're using the word reasonable to mean something like "not uncommon". AI does have clear tangible benefits everyone can see and understand! That's why ChatGPT has 800M+ actives! Those people aren't just experimenting anymore, they're getting real value. I myself ask models questions about all kinds of things many times per day…

> If it's not rational it's not reasonable.

That seems needlessly pedantic, even for HN. I genuinely thought the scare quotes were spelling out the distinction I was making, but for the record:

"Rational" is used in the sense of "derived from logic", or "correctly understood". "Reasonable" is used in the sense (this is very common in legal paradigms, for example) of "an understandable opinion", or "an idea likely to be held by a typical person".

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#252

Post by AndrewKemendo »

kennywinker wrote: post #212
dyauspitr wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s better than your suggested future where Asia shoots off into orbit because we give up the race so you can have your dev job for a few more months.

What’s the difference, either fantasy scenario - yours or your straw-man of mine - ends with no jobs and us fighting over the scraps the oligarch class toss us.

You two are close to having a class solidarity moment

My guess though is one of you is a more temporarily embarrassed millionaire than the other so it won’t happen

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#253

Post by [deleted] »

no-name-here wrote: post #141
jmye wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a serious comment? No one, in an environmental discussion, ignores how much water beef needs. It’s a central part of most vegan/vegetarian commentary. But this is a conversation about data centers. It would be great if you had the capability of staying even vaguely on topic instead of spinning off into “what about” bullshit.

1. Beef uses trillions of gallons of water per year, while data centers use billions - data center water use is nowhere remotely as much as beef. 2. Despite beef using far more water, is it getting anywhere remotely as much coverage as data center water use? 3. Senators like Sanders proposed stopping data center construction nationwide - have senators proposed similar nationwide bans for beef?

[deleted]

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#254

Post by sometimelurker »

engineer_22 wrote: post #3

the money being talked about is so large that eventually the lobbyists will get their checks and the politicians will pass laws forbidding local scrutiny of data centers

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48249747

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#255

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

cootsnuck wrote: post #152
cratermoon wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It seems fairly likely that a comically gargantuan data center like Stratos would endanger the surrounding ecosystem, at a minimum. https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2026/05/07/utahs-dat... But I also think there's very little chance that they even get 1 GW up and running anytime soon, and less than 3 GW before the whole thing gets scrapped (just like plenty of the other hyperscale data center projects that kee…

No one needs that much AI, even if they did need that much AI there are more efficient and cheaper ways to make it happen, and even if there weren't these boxes will be obsolete within 3-4 years.

The whole thing is baffling.

If I were cynical I'd wonder if they're actually trying to cook the planet.

Or maybe there's some kind of tax grift involved.

Makes no sense at all otherwise.

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#256

Post by Aurornis »

noosphr wrote: post #71
Aurornis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not violence. The word “violence” doesn’t mean anything you don’t like. I don’t understand why some people want to call everything violence. Watering down the meaning of a word doesn’t help anything.

Killing you slowly is very much violence.

That is also not violence.

I think you should look up the dictionary definition of violence, because none of your usages of the word match the definition.

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#257

Post by cryptoegorophy »

kennywinker wrote: post #133
cryptoegorophy wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If water is the problem then why are we ignoring how much water beef needs? If we measure per person use it is hundreds times more than data center usage in comparison if we measure in per person consumption

Beef uses water, but you can eat beef. Ai uses water, but you can’t eat ai. Can you see the difference?

Point I am making is if we need to tackle the water issue then we need to do it via 80/20 rule, focus on the elephant in the room first. Data centers are a fly in a room with an elephant in this case.

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#258

Post by cycomanic »

mike_hearn wrote: post #220
SilverElfin wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a canard? In Florida a data center drew water in an unauthorized way and the surrounding community had issues with brown water and had to go into water rationing. Even if datacenters are highly efficient, if the water supply is strained, you can pollute people’s supply by drawing wells down too far and things like that.

There are lots of nonsensical stories like this circulating on social media right now. Water draw for datacenters can't turn tap water brown. That's a supply or piping issue.

That's a strawman, nobody is saying that the datacenters are directly turning the water brown. But if adding a single customer (the datacenters) causes the supply not being able to meet the demand and the water turns brown, then yes the datacenters was the cause. Saying it's a supply issue is like if I come to a party at your house and load all the drinks into my car and saying that there's no drinks left is a supply issue

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#259

Post by insane_dreamer »

cryptoegorophy wrote: post #115
kennywinker wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they do.

If water is the problem then why are we ignoring how much water beef needs? If we measure per person use it is hundreds times more than data center usage in comparison if we measure in per person consumption

you quickly went from "AI water consumption isn't a problem", to "it's okay because cows consume water too"

Re: Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

#260

Post by cycomanic »

mike_hearn wrote: post #221
ajross wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the wastewater issues can be real in some environments. It's not a completely insane idea and like all things can be reasonably discussed and mitigated. It's not like these things have the ecological impact of steel foundries or fruit orchards, but they're not parks either. I do think the tech industry would be wise to do more outreach and less sneering, though. Freakouts about AI (which ultimately is what th…

If it's not rational it's not reasonable. The two words are more or less synonyms, unless you're using the word reasonable to mean something like "not uncommon". AI does have clear tangible benefits everyone can see and understand! That's why ChatGPT has 800M+ actives! Those people aren't just experimenting anymore, they're getting real value. I myself ask models questions about all kinds of things many times per day…

[flagged]
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