Data Centers

[steve_bank]

In the late 80s I lived in thee Idaho Silver Valley in the panhandle. Silver mining. It was super fund cleanup site. The Town of Kellog which had a smelter had its topsoil scraped and put in a berm along the higjhway. Arsenic contamination.

The whole area was contaminated by mining waste.

If as some predict the market falls out for AI, all the data centers will have to be cleaned up. Electronics is toxic waste.

We never learn.

 

[Ford]

Here in my city (Chandler, AZ) there was recently a fight over a data center. Most of the leadership was behind it, but the citizens said "no you fucking won't." One of the leading candidates for mayor ran partially on a "no data centers" platform.

It's not that we're against growth. When I moved in, there was cornfield just around the corner that's now a mall. We've got tech jobs (Intel has a campus here, and we're the original test market for Waymo robo-taxis) but having giant buildings that just suck up power and water and don't provide any jobs is something the residents clearly don't want.

 

[Harry Bosch]

https://www.cityofsalem.net/Home/Components/News/News/2200/15

I have watch some of the Councils meetings on this.
They voted last week to have a moratorium on data centers.
Is there any of this going on in your area?
The national tread seems to be very negative.

Is this just a “NIMBY” issue or do people actually not want data centers to exist at all? That would seem strange in this modern world. Hope they are storing their printed photos in shoeboxes under their beds, I guess.

The primary issue in Salem is Water. We’re in a drought right now due to zero snow pack in the mountains.

 

[steve_bank]

Given the choice between data centers and water to drink and grow food it is a difficult decision, but after lengthy thought ad deliberation I think I'll go with drinking water and food.

Our chronic problem is congresses unable to set pragmatic priorities .. Captain Obvious.

 

[robnisch]

‘We Are Not Expendable’: Southaven Residents Fight xAI Plan for 41 Gas Turbines to Power Musk's Grok

Many residents around Southaven, Mississippi, oppose xAI’s data centers and presence in their backyards, fearing for their health and environment.

www.mississippifreepress.org

Golly, why do they always build this stuff near lower income people's homes?
F&*k Elon!!

ETA: When local groups tried to stop expansions, the DOJ said because the US military uses Gork in Iran war it is a National Security thing.

 

[Elixir]

But no. The polling numbers I seen recently has people heavily against them to the tune of about seventy percent. The NIMBY numbers are a bit higher but near them or not, people are heavily opposed.

There is something innately repulsive about them. Hot festering consumptive, relentless intrusion, maybe? Or just the pointless swarms of models falling all over themselves to be most likely to be mistaken for realities …
At some point there will become more information about information, than there is information to have information about.