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Hopefully this also means billionaires can stop trying to drop data centers into residential neighborhoods with zero noise control and polluting on-site generat
by gwerbin 1mo ago
Hopefully this also means billionaires can stop trying to drop data centers into residential neighborhoods with zero noise control and polluting on-site generators, signing local politicians on with NDAs, calling for eminent domain to seize homes to build power lines to data centers, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention the water use controversy.
Token prices plummeting is probably a good thing, but not without the regulatory backstops that prevent these effectively industrial facilities from being operated with no regard for the externalities they impose on people who live near them.
- tmp10423288442 1mo agoNah, Jevon’s Paradox says that cheaper tokens will mean increased overall energy consumption. If we can’t even build data centers, the least disruptive industrial use possible, there’s no hope to reindustrialize the US or anywhere outside of China.
- gwerbin 1mo agoWe already had plenty of data centers in the US before the AI boom that weren't severely harmful to their neighbors. Cutting red tape is not the same as eliminating meaningful regulation. There are plenty of old industrial sites that could be repurposed as data centers. It turns out it's cheaper to bribe some small town government to give you a tax cut and discounted electricity and water rate.
- vlyan 1mo ago>polluting on-site generators how much pollution do you believe modern gas-turbine engines to produce? >Not to mention the water use controversy. what percentage of US water usage do you believe is by AI data centers?
- gwerbin 1mo agoReducing everything to national aggregates provides no insight into the strong negative externalities, imposed on the immediate surrounding communities, of unregulated industrial facilities. That's literally the reason we have zoning laws in the first place,