this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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I'm not necessarily in favor of data centers. That said, every time I see something like this I just wonder when we are going to start hearing about data centers being built in poor countries powered exclusively by coal and zero regulation. I really have no idea what a good outcome looks like but playing ultra hardball seems unwise. I'm very poorly educated on data centers and AI in general. But, I am an expert in electrical generation. I know we could do it pretty clean, at least relative to coal/heavy oil. I don't think stopping data centers built in the US will magically cease the boulder rolling in the AI direction. Seems like the money is at its back so its going to happen, just a matter of when, where and how dirty.
It’s pretty easy to regulate this:
I'd say your list is a bit too short. Some more considerations (not comprehensive):
Edit:
Data centers ought to only be allowed in rural areas to begin with. Even if the noise/vibration/heat/etc. weren't an issue they're still a goddamn hole with zero foot traffic, and that's just bad urbanism. They're like public storage warehouses, but even worse.
They need access to the Internet backbone, but that doesn't mean they have to be in cities. Put 'em somewhere along the fiber halfway between.
I have first-hand experience living near a source of infrasound, and oh my god, it's terrible. Here's a good video about the infrasound generated by data centers.
Jobs are a necessary evil, not a goal in itself. The goal should be to eliminate all jobs.
Until that time we should figure out a better way to share the burden of the work that nerds to be done as well as better way to distribute resources. Trying to preserve jobs is not the way.
It's more about resource allocation, who gets to control of how much. You can eliminate jobs and have most people scratching out a meager existence or you can elinimate jobs and have everyone on a level playing field. I think we'd mostly agree we want the latter but currently looks like we'd need a war against the already wealthy to avoid the former.
Still missing heat increase, up to 26°F in the surrounding area. All that heat from the gpus and cpus is a lot. I've heard of people using their gpus to heat their apartments.
One square foot of parking lot generates 80 watts of heat in the summer sun. A Walmart parking lot is approximately equivalent to 20 megawatts of heat.
There was a Bitcoin mining computer being marketed as a dual-purpose space heater lol
What type of generation are you envisioning here? What type of cooling systems?
My place uses very clean diesel generators. The sound level is below 65 DB with all the generators running - which only happens during an outage. And that's 10 feet away.
The cooling is fully closed loop. A toilet uses more water a day than the 120,000 sqft DC used in a year.
Datacenters aren’t responsible for workers displaced by automation.
Construction and noise aren’t special to datacenters and don’t need special regulation.
On this particular topic, the more red tape the better. These companies are shady and will find any loophole available to circumvent any protection the current laws are meant to provide.
That’s how you end up getting republicans elected into local office: by putting up unnecessary or complicated barriers.
Additionally, I believe we’ll be in a really bad situation in the next 10-25 years in regards to access to advanced CPUs. The more we onboard now the more we’ll have later.
It’s also a concern of national security if we put up enough barriers that people and companies put their resources in datacenters in other countries that can’t defend them against attack.
you like boot huh
I need to switch to voyager so I can tag you as "likes boot"
I try to be realistic. I dream of having every thing perfect to my liking but then I look at my neighbors and understand that we have to live together somehow.
Mmmm pleather 🤤
Per itar regulations, government data already has to live in the US. They will never change that law in order to store it in another country's DC.
And putting barriers on multi bullion dollar businesses is not the same as putting it on citizens. People aren't going to vote a Republican because of regulations on a DC that makes the neighborhood quieter and cleaner, stops excessive water consumption for cooling, and forces them to build their own power infrastructure. They will vote Republican for a million other dumb AF reasons, including a conservative taking head telling them regulations are bad for DCs, but they won't do it because of those reasons. They won't even know what those reasons are
“Leftist lunatics tie up small business development!!!” It’s dumb but it works. I live in an area like this.
I’m not talking about government data, I’m talking about businesses. Securing corp data and service availability it’s just as important. Just think how many companies would go under if a datacenter was droned. The 2nd level impact of a mass email outage or payment processing going offline would put employees out of work.
Business data doesn't require the mega datacenters that are all compute for AI. Those types of datacenters won't have the same issues with infrastructure for power and closed loop systems. If they do, they'll figure it out because they have the money to do so. Someone will build them. DCs that have storage and racks for cloud compute are in a different category.
I agree and mentioned that talking heads will spin regulations in a way that convinces their idiotic base that there's an issue. It's not the regulations that are the problem, it's the media. But the thing is, If it's not regulations, it will be something else. It will be just as nonsensical, but something will fill that gap. Might as well do something good if the propaganda is gonna flow anyway.