Make money doing the work you believe in
Original Note:
I think this has gone well beyond Chicken Little and boys who cry, “Wolf!” Obviously, there is a certain amount of hypocrisy to any critique of AI and data centers, as some benefits are useful and convenient and unavoidable, but it appears that the forces driving this development are largely self-serving and willfully ignorant of the long term consequences for the little copper-tops. The air and water pollution are the obvious pressure points for push-back but it appears that the sonic effects are also significant. That said I’ve watched coverage of several public meetings where representatives, both public and private, have rammed through decisions (favorable to data center construction) despite much public resistance, aka push-back, rendering the whole concept of “we the people” farcical and toothless.
Follow-up:
This is the original video that got me thinking about other forms of pollution associated with the large data centers, that I hadn’t heard referenced in any of the public comment on construction of those centers.
Then No Magic Pilldropped a link to a fascinating article that deconstructs (nice term for ‘tears apart’) Jordan’s video, research, and conclusions, which are largely unsupported by the previous work he cites. The conclusion I appreciated most is,
“The reported symptoms of inaudible, undetectable infrasound appear to be a nocebo. If you tell people infrasound is going to harm them but don’t actually expose them to any, they develop symptoms. If you don’t tell them, and play infrasound without telling them, they don’t develop any measurable symptoms.”
Working through the article, I was at first mad at (once again) being led down the garden path then realized my main point of contention with any of the data center related issues is the manner in which the public, people being affected by these projects in some way, and their opinions about these projects and their consequences, intended and otherwise, are being treated by the developers and commissions and local politicians. Granted, some of the hearings have devolved into unsophisticated attacks and counters — humans doing human stuff — and these are the events that splash out on media platforms. It appears to me that this issue may be a back-breaking straw seized upon by a public long frustrated by having been disenfranchised on any number of other topics. The solution to many problems is often as simple as education, education, education but instead we often get rhetoric in its place. The whole, “we must do this and do it now or China will win the race, and dominate us” argument/justification raises suspicions regarding intent, and the speed being demanded by developers. Obviously, someone will lose some race and their behavior makes it look a lot like it’s them and their businesses rather than the whole of the US.
I was going to pull the Note down but decided it’s a good exercise for all of us regardless of our position on the subject or the why of that stance. For now, I will dial up my skepticism back up to 11.