Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#71

Post by leptons » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:23 AM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #57

doctorwho42 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sheer size of and resource consumption to build and operate them. Most people can't really understand the numbers in question due to their size. It's like that picture of 1 million dollars in $100's stacked up on a pallet, then 1 billion and 1 trillion. But instead of worthless paper, it is consuming huge swaths of the limited fresh water on the planet, creating the largest natural gas power plants in the world,…

100% of the water that is 'used up' in a datacenter, or even in electrical generation, is evaporated into the atmosphere. The same one where the rain comes from. Everywhere East of the Rockies, they don't even have droughts, so that seems like a lot of area where we can use a lot of water with basically no impact because it's all just coming back into the water cycle directly as opposed to ending up in a water treatm…

The datacenter is still heating the atmosphere and consuming enormous amounts of electricity, which also heats the atmosphere. And it still won't solve our global climate disaster and is far more likely to contribute to a lot of bad things happening for humans.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#72

Post by msy » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:25 AM UTC

baq wrote: post #70

halestock wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's pretty evident that all these data centers are primarily intended to eliminate jobs and make more trillionaires and destroy democracy, and the positive stuff (like solving unsolved math problems) doesn't remotely justify that.

If they also solve fusion, famine, climate disaster, cancer, dementia and child development disorders it isn’t as clear cut

Do they? There's been a lot of hot air, quite literally, but aside from some math conjectures actual evidence of meaningful progress on anything that actually helps humanity seems rather thin on the ground.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#73

Post by jkwn » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:26 AM UTC

tengbretson wrote: post #65

jkwn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no frame of reference, Donny. I'm guessing you have no conception of what the world used to be like before 9/11. Back then, the news was reported, and people got outraged at things. Sure, there was injustice then too, and all wars are a racket, but there were still standards of morals. Today, you have a level of corruption in all things that is beyond the imagination, out in the open; and it is out in the op…

You have to admit-- it is interesting that all of this media, that was made during a time when there were standards and morals, has painted such a clear picture of what you now expect life to be like.

It's easy to understand once you understand the power structures at play.

The US was founded on Christian principles. Even the chief author of the constitution separated church and state for the express purpose of spreading the gospels of Jesus. There is the source of morality.

And then since the mid 20th century this stronghold of morality was by the hidden architects of human affairs allowed to diminish by the corruption of the monetary system. The constitution only allows for the federal government to mint silver and gold coins, but over a series of events (starting with the sinking of the Titanic, believe it or not) the power to print money became centralized and co-opted by the global banking elites, and now everything that gets in the way is either purchased or neutralized.

Some of the media I cited like 1984 or the Terminator series were as a warning by moral men. It's not surprising that we failed to heed these warnings against the god of money, at least temporarily. Others like Back to the Future 2 (Biff == Trump), or the Simpsons, are predictive programming leaks from mortal architects.

What's more surprising to me is the myopic greed of those who choose the dark side willingly despite the forewarned consequences as if all of this wasn't already written about by higher powers, heavenly and earthly. We're living in biblical times whether you agree with it or not. They've been planning for global depopulation since the 60's w/ the World3 simulator. We just lived through the man-made pandemic from the Wuhan lab ala EcoHealth funded by Fauci, and I'm guessing it'll never bother most readers here that he's still not in jail because y'all neither have the attention span nor resources to learn the truth anymore because you keep scrolling censored sources.

Which reminds me... Utopia (the UK version), more predictive programming. It's just two seasons, I suggest everyone watch it to get a sense of what I mean by predictive programming. In one scene you'll even find the masonic square and compass. In the US version they even added Bill Gates as a character, just to hammer it home.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#74

Post by dqv » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:27 AM UTC

ianbutler wrote: post #58

xp84 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% of the water that is 'used up' in a datacenter, or even in electrical generation, is evaporated into the atmosphere. The same one where the rain comes from. Everywhere East of the Rockies, they don't even have droughts, so that seems like a lot of area where we can use a lot of water with basically no impact because it's all just coming back into the water cycle directly as opposed to ending up in a water treatm…

Most new builds don't even use evaporative cooling afaik, this will probably be closed loop. The implications being you're not risking the local water table and overall consumption is lower, a lot lower.

What percentage of new builds are using closed loop cooling? I've seen this pop data center "fact" thrown around, but with no data to back it up.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#75

Post by leptons » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:28 AM UTC

ares623 wrote: post #7

AmazingEveryDay wrote: post #3

All the compute being built out is very impressive and it's nice to think it could be used to further science, further our understanding, just in some way for the greater good. But I think mostly it will be used to serve ads.

Ads are the future. If you don't like them then you're a luddite.

They're going to need quite a lot more ads to try to sell stuff to people who don't have jobs anymore because of all the datacenters built for AI.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#76

Post by jmalicki » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:39 AM UTC

AmazingEveryDay wrote: post #3

All the compute being built out is very impressive and it's nice to think it could be used to further science, further our understanding, just in some way for the greater good. But I think mostly it will be used to serve ads.

Five years ago it would be to serve ads.

Today it will be used to power AI girlfriends.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#77

Post by chneu » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:39 AM UTC

doctorwho42 wrote: post #46

tengbretson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the 10 years prior to like 2023, any new large scale data center build-out was explicitly for serving more ads. Meanwhile, now that we have a new tech that's literally solving unsolved math problems, we're suddenly doomers. Why?

The sheer size of and resource consumption to build and operate them. Most people can't really understand the numbers in question due to their size. It's like that picture of 1 million dollars in $100's stacked up on a pallet, then 1 billion and 1 trillion. But instead of worthless paper, it is consuming huge swaths of the limited fresh water on the planet, creating the largest natural gas power plants in the world,…

Beef consumption dwarfs data centers in terms of environmental damage for no good reason and does much worse things to water, but nobody cares cuz beef is a status symbol for people. AI is easy to hate and requires no sacrifice. But giving up red meat is kind of tough so nobody does it.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#78

Post by themafia » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:44 AM UTC

baq wrote: post #70

halestock wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's pretty evident that all these data centers are primarily intended to eliminate jobs and make more trillionaires and destroy democracy, and the positive stuff (like solving unsolved math problems) doesn't remotely justify that.

If they also solve fusion, famine, climate disaster, cancer, dementia and child development disorders it isn’t as clear cut

The word happiness, fulfillment or even freedom didn't come to mind?

Well at least you're planning to have a very healthy population of enslaved serfs. I'm sure they'll appreciate all you've done for them.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#79

Post by King-Aaron » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:48 AM UTC

fooster wrote: post #53

halestock wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's pretty evident that all these data centers are primarily intended to eliminate jobs and make more trillionaires and destroy democracy, and the positive stuff (like solving unsolved math problems) doesn't remotely justify that.

The number of doomers and luddites with extremely hyperbolic views on a site for tech entrepreneurs is wild.

Luddites were not against the advent of new technology. They were against capitalists using new technology as an excuse to cut skilled labour and not offer any avenue for reskilling etc.

Which is what's happening again.

Re: Amazon Announces Multibillion-Dollar Data Center in Missouri

#80

Post by hibikir » Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 5:50 AM UTC

baq wrote: post #70

halestock wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's pretty evident that all these data centers are primarily intended to eliminate jobs and make more trillionaires and destroy democracy, and the positive stuff (like solving unsolved math problems) doesn't remotely justify that.

If they also solve fusion, famine, climate disaster, cancer, dementia and child development disorders it isn’t as clear cut

Once you start from destroying democracy, the chances that the results will quickly put keeping the owner in power ahead of anything good for humanity are high. Autocracies are, in practice, inefficient messes that put loyalty ahead of competency, so one cannot really get prosperity in exchange for no representation. The loss of representation will get us the loss of prosperity real quick.

This also applies within companies. You can get temporary lucky with a CEO that isn't accountable to anyone, but then that brings sycophancy, leading to degraded decisions. It's how it always works.

So it's very clear cut, because you are offering a trade that cannot actually happen in practice. The economic growth will turn into zero sum status games, like it always has.