**Bumped by Request**
A few weeks ago, I was having a politics conversation with a tech insider. The issue of datacenters became a focus of the conversation. The first response from him was “this is the issue that might decide 2026 and will certainly decide 2028.”
The tech side of the issue is essentially: As 5G wifi was to mobile connectivity, so too are the datacenters the cornerstone of nationwide AI rollout. Eventually, all of the datacenters will interconnect and become part of a massive information system that houses all knowledge, a great digital brain. From that point, engagement with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems will become like a public utility.
The datacenters themselves can be a hot button issue as their proximity to people creates friction. Battles against datacenters are taking place in rural and non-rural areas alike. With deep pockets and strong national security arguments involving the “AI race,” the technocrats are currently winning the argument. However, as with all special interest issues, the opportunity for political benefit now determines DC advocacy. WATCH:
What are your thoughts on this issue?
Is opposition to datacenters strong enough to tilt the outcome of the 2026 midterms? And do you believe 2028 will be determined with this issue at the forefront?
Skynet
Where are we in term’s of the life cycle of AI? For reference:
Technology’s life cycle:
Year 1: it’s invented
Year 2: it’s illegal
Year 5: it’s dangerous and needs to be regulated
Year 20: it’s a human right and needs to be free
Something like this (with other type of development) happened in my republican-leaning Indiana town. Democrats used it to fracture the republican base and get (a pretty awful) woman elected Mayor.
Don’t fall for it.
Wouldn’t it be nice to communicate the issue honestly and truthfully so the average person can understand why it’s happening? All I’ve seen is sneaky backroom deals, eminent domain, rising utility bills, and ugly ass concrete buildings taking over communities. Talk about recipe for disaster….
Would be nice, unfortunately our corrupt gov’t is incapable of honesty and truth.
Here’s what we know for sure: The Uniparty will screw us over. Elected Ds and Rs will team up behind our back and the same outcome will happen regardless of who’s in power.
The other thing we know for sure: The gov’t and big tech is lying to us about everything.
The only way to fix it is we stop fighting with each other and The People fight the real enemy… gov’t and rent seeking corporations that substitute financialization for real growth productivity.
The key is more people become financially independent of the government. This means welfare, social security and government health.
There are people learning how to become financially independent as meant by the Founding Fathers 250 years ago.
“I”m sorry, Dave. I can’t allow you to do that.”
It’s reminding me of the COVID shots all over again. The issue is being rammed down our throats with no transparency and the government insists that its all for our own good.
Thank you for clear headed thinking, appreciate.
It’s a tight corner to be in. Like it or not, to compete globally, in everything, we’ll need them. Hence, China will be sowing discord under the table to slow our progress towards global dominance. So my knee-jerk reaction to that is that we should be going all in. However, the impact to electricity costs should be fully absorbed by the tech companies. Their profit models can and should be accounting for that.
And yes, privacy be dawned. I get it. Guess what… It already is. I don’t see a way back from that without heading into the mountains and entirely unplugging.
They drop your property values because people don’t want to live near them and they give off this awful buzzing noise that carries for quite a distance.
Same as the stupid windmills. At least tge data centers are useful.
So give a cogent argument for why we need so many. Include a cost/benefit analysis with the pros and cons. Be sure to include why the quantities are required for the technological growth. Explain clearly and in detail why they are needed, including use cases. No hand waving and pie in the sky.
As an aside – the argument that “well something is bad now, so what does it matter if it gets 10x worse” is nonsense. It’s similar to the argument that “well, there are rapists, robbers, and murderers already in the country – what’s wrong with importing millions more?” It’s also extremely defeatist…
Oh, and what’s up with the “global dominance” idea?
“to compete globally, in everything, we’ll need them.”
To do what exactly?
They do nothing but store information. Mostly on you.
They are here to support the spy cameras and etc.
Embrace the inevitable.
Didn’t you mean bend over and BRACE for the inevitable, with plenty of vaseline on hand? 😎
Astroglide
“Just lay back and enjoy it, when your gang raped!”
As much as I think Alex Jones a nut, he nailed it with Prison Planet. People hardly notice with their own faces stuck on their portable spy gadgets accepting every single invasion of their privacy with one click. Unbelievable.
It is a huge issue and could definitely impact the midterms. It is alienating rural Americans fast. The same folks already losing their lifestyle and property to Green Energy now being dwarfed by the decimation caused by Data Centers… which would be far more appropriately placed in de-industrialized Urban Centers.
100% correct. First we had those useless solar panel farms and wind farms ruining the skyline and the rural view. Now we have these giant ugly data centers being dropped down for no reason at all. And, to top it off – many of them require *us* to foot the bill for their electricity and sometimes water needs.
Another problem is this: Why all of a sudden do we need all of these data centers? Nobody can answer that, they just say we do.
If there were more transparency and explanation, it would probably go over much better.
No, if there were transparency and explanation, they would be a major uprising.
Yes, especially in rural (generally red) America.
Definitely. This could permanently turn rural areas blue. If Democrats ran against data centers they’d pick up significant rural votes.
If Democrats were smart enough to support the 2nd amendment, stop talking about trans stuff, and oppose data centers they’d have the majority of the rural vote and close out the GOP as a national party.
While there is merit to that there is a huge issue for the Dims – most people realize that they ALWAYS say they will do something, they are for something, or against something – but once elected it’s all shown to be complete BS.
One of thousands of examples – for decades they talked about how illegal immigration was a horrible idea and that it must be stopped at all costs, made grandiose speeches on the topic repeatedly, then turned around and showed it was all a huge lie and they actually thought the exact opposite.
Not to say some won’t be fooled – but as a result of the experiences of the last 20 years, not nearly as many as folks might think.
IRONIC
How ” GOTTA GO GREEN ”
has MORPHED TO
” GOTTA HAVE DATA CENTERS ”
with Their DESTROYING the ECO-SYSTEM of WILDLIFE, WATER TABLES, Populations Influenced AND Impacted , CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION = HEAT Production, and CONSUMING FARMLAND worse than a SOLAR FARM or WINDMILLS
for DATA COLLECTION and SELLING That INFORMATION ( Demographics ) for Marketing, Health Information, Trend Analysis
supported by on average 150 Employees after Construction is completed
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2025/01/data-centers.html
CAN you tell that i Believe the BEST PLACE for Data Centers WOULD BE on LEGACY EPA SUPER FUND SITES – IF At all
ie, East Chicago ( Fiber ” Trunk ” is ALREADY There )
https://www.epa.gov/uss-lead-superfund-site
Yep. Fiber laid and internet functionality declined since.
I use Claude more and more for work and absolutely love it. Younger generations are right to be concerned but for an almost 60 year old, I’m lite years ahead of coworkers who resist due to privacy or unwillingness to change or whatever. AI is everywhere. Learn to adapt or die. As for data centers, a healthy debate is effective, I hate hearing about what they do to water supplies, living in Michigan, fearful of the obvious…that it will be too late , and sucking all the water out of the Great Lakes feels …retarded. Engineer a better way, pronto.
“Engineer a better way, pronto.”
Agree…
It’s almost like a “war time” need.
It is the next industrial revolution, no doubt about it.
For those in the stock market, buy as much AI and AI infrastructure related as possible.
Man, Bigly… I hope you’re double-checking your calcs – because A.I. is FAR from perfected and cannot be trusted for even choosing the next cell phone you should buy. A.I. screwed me twice – regarding a cell phone and an HVAC troubleshooting error despite all necessary and pertinent information loaded – it totally misled me both times.
Yes, I use Gemini for work to create reports for Work In Progress – I’m in finance in a service industry – but I have to constantly review it and retrain it for formatting and features to get my reporting usable.
I’ve seen Executive Idiots think they are hitting bank because A.I. is going to do the heavy thinking for them – and they undersold the heck out of used machinery by devaluing it incorrectly. Nothing replaces the knowledge of a seasoned sales and service representative who understands the value of machinery in practice as it pertains to machine life cycle.
Once you pave over farmland – it doesn’t come back. Once a human gets lazy and forfeits thinking – it’s hard to work one’s way back from the brink.
Proceed. With. Caution.
JWoo – you (and all other treepers) might find the following two threads of interest regarding its effects on workers and companies.
https://nitter.poast.org/socialwithaayan/status/2031999445974540792#m
https://nitter.poast.org/TukiFromKL/status/2032276627393044880#m
Note this isn’t info from “Chyna” or some technophobes. The information and views are from companies and people deeply embedded in AI. The first study is by Carnegie Mellon, a long respected institute (or at least once was) and Microsoft. The second includes information from Amazon, one of the biggest owners of data centers.
1st link gone. 2nd link I like.
It’s still there – just now checked in a new window – sometimes you have to hit refresh a time or two for the alternate hosts to load a page for you – I have it happen regularly 😉
So, When you design a solution to a problem, do you design the integration of testing, or do you put that off until later or for someone else. In our generation that was someone else’s problem. The newer design and configuration management environments include that as part of the solution.
It’s always good to remember, you get what you ask for.
You might want to read several bits of information shared in the Presidential thread today regarding Claude – and Anthropic friend.
The difference between AI and say the Industrial Revolution is that the latter replaced human labor and the former replaces human thought.
Opposition comes from how resources are being allocated and paid for. From what I’ve read (I don’t actually know firsthand), people say that their local government is raising water and electricity rates, screwing everybody in the area because of a single data center’s resource consumption. If this complaint is true, then it’s unacceptable. Crooked government officials need to rot in a prison cell for that kind of behavior, and their oligarch cronies deserve to lose their shirts.
However, I suspect that most of the opposition is manufactured propaganda being bankrolled by foreign interests who don’t want the US to gain a technological edge. All the concerns about the technocrats are valid, but I don’t think that’s a main driver of the opposition messaging.
So do the people of this nation want industry to operate in this country, or just become a wasteland of service jobs. This argument is like saying steel mills or an auto manufacturer in your town is a bad thing. Bunch of crybabies if you ask me. I guess folks complaining would rather their kids work at the local Walmart or McDonald’s.
When the State and Local government gives the Data Center a 25 year tax abatement and the electric company gives them special rates…….the locals get taxed to make up for the short fall.
There in lies the problem. It’s always local. Deal with it locally. Run the lying jackasses out of office.
We’re Americans. We can figure this out. AI is a fact, but we have to be on our toes just like with any new innovation. The biased MSNOW produced this video and found some farmers in Texas who are blaming this on President Trump. They blame everything on him. It’s time to think rationally. I personally don’t understand the need for these centers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t necessary. What I do understand is what the Chinese would do with this power and what the Democrats would do if they get back in power. I trust our President.
Industry? What exactly are they building? How many people are they employing vs the amount of resources they’re using?
“How many people are they employing vs the amount of resources they’re using?”
I read recently that they employ thousands to build and a hundred to run.
Also…. “you don’t need them… THEY need them.”
The newer centers, once built…
For highly automated hyperscale campuses, staffing can be as low as 20 to 30 permanent staff per 100 megawatts of power capacity.
They cost billions to build, employ almost nobody (10 people to operate), promote AI to take jobs and rely on the citizen to subsidize their massive power demands. But here they come. They generate tax dollars for localities on their build cost and cost to equip. So politicians want them. President Trump is right. They should have mini-reactors to generate their own power like submarines. But overall I see them as a blight on America.
Right. With the mini-reactors providing power, they can use AC for cooling instead of water and at least make that issue go away.
they are the new version of the sport stadium. ‘if we don’t build it, the team will move!’
I was watching an interview with The man they call ‘the father of AI’ on YT… he stated that AI needs power to complete tasks and the more tasks, the greater the power draw; however, it isn’t a straight correlation between the amount of energy needed and the greater the task performed, but rather an “Orders of Magnitude” between the two. For instance, if AI is currently just processing facial recognition for a school, say, and it takes about 1 gigawatt to perform that task, but it’s suddenly asked to do a second school’s facial recognition also, it’s only doing twice as much work, but will require 4 times the power to do so, not two times as you would think. The need for energy is already at a point where many data centers are using more energy than an urban city center, and they will have priority draw on the existing power transmissions, meaning they will be able to siphon off all electricity from the lines before citizens can use any. If this is true, how can anyone support it? There was much more in the interview, but our basement pipe burst and I’m now without anything but my phone for electronic communication until the insurance adjuster can provide for replacement computers. And also without the url; my concern was with the flooding at the time. ( if anyone else has seen that interview, I’d really be grateful for a link to allow me to watch the rest!)
And another thing, the argument is that you’ll elect an immoral party, promoting immoral candidates, instituting immoral ideologies and policies -all because a data center is going into your town?
If they are raising your electric rates, taking much needed water, producing a non-stop buzzing sound that carries through your town, creating a eyesore, lowering your property values, etc. Of course you would oppose.
Add to that, rural areas feel they are being forced to suffer all this so rich urban and suburban people can profit.
Just like the solar farms and windmills.
Having your utility bill go up because a data center comes in and forces up the cost of water and energy …
That’s definitely a hot-button issue.
Reminds me of the old days when we were told that off-shoring our industry was inevitble, so get used to it.
“Get used to it,” is not something voters like to hear.
Agree and its not just the COST of water. It will be the actual draining of available water sources, which will be quite damaging to everyone’s water access/use.
Put the data centers on the coasts away from populations and make them build desalination plants and plants for electricity.
On the outset, when the AI bubble pops, and it will as most of the companies are already in the red with their AI programs, who will be left holding the bag?
The surveillance state is what concerns me the most…research flock and what they are doing with these cameras. Gross and direct violations of our 4th Amendment.
Put data centers on the Alaskan coast, less cooling cost to contend with there.
As far as lack of electricity in Alaska, well, there will not be enough electricity in the lower 48 for the data centers, so the electric facilities will have to be built somewhere anyways.
I think Greenland is the site selected.
Turns out that taking private property via eminent domain is quite unpopular as well.
So is permanently destroying farm and ranch land…
I am totally against this expansion. It’s already gone way too far, thanks to the elected and unelected parts of federal govt.
Advances 1984 former science fiction into reality – brings even MORE massive violations of the 4th Amendment.
AI has limited usefulness but nowhere near the scale that globalists desire and are planning to build..
Jobs created by the construction and operation of datacenters will be minimal, and along with AI will bring a severe net loss of employment for meaningful work.
Energy and water required to run these using current technology is being re-directed AWAY from manufacturing (REAL PRODUCTION) and AWAY from human survival (POTABLE FRESH WATER FROM SURFACE RIVERS AND UNDERGROUND AQUIFERS) at a rate & volume that will exceed natures ability to replace it at the same rate.
Unless nuclear power generation is immediately authorized and mandated to power such behemoths, there is insufficient capacity in the 2026 electric grid into the foreseeable future.
Dear friend, I’m afraid I was extremely slow on the uptake when I voted “Yes” to a proposition which appeared on my Texas primary ballot this year…
To wit (paraphrased) “Keep Texas water in and for Texas”. None for any other state.
Strange, I thought…but our summers are routinely hot and rainless. What water (during those predictable months)? For whatever reason, I simply did not make the connection.
I see above the jaw dropping number of ” Data” Centres in Texas, for what precisely. I sense for things if we knew would cause us all to blanche.
I agree with you; though I expect that is no surprise…
But my concerns about AI go further….much, much further. As I have laid out the many reasons for my position many times, I shall not do so again tonight.
Suffice it to say that in short, the more I read, the more I think, the more I try to look around those corners as yet unseen, the more entrenched my opinion becomes. And that it is that eventually as AI grows it will come be recognized as antichristic.
That still, small voice will not leave me alone.
Call me a Luddite on this AI development tsunami if anyone wishes to. Whether or not it will play a part in the outcome of the ’26 or ’28 election is the least of our worries I think..
And that is my heart and my spirit as they honestly are.
Hope I am wrong, but….
it will come to be recognized as antichristic.
I’m reminded of the words of Yuval…note the 48 second clip will likely result in another frisson dear friend.
https://old.bitchute.com/video/2xvoVC9bsXRq/
I’m glad you posted this, my dear friend. So others who are unfamiliar with this vile, demonic creature and his heretical outpourings can know who he is and what he is.
He has also spoken of the melding of technology and humans. Even though we are in the nascent stages of AI development, I know you can extrapolate.
No need to think. AI will do that for you.
No need to create great works of art, music, or literature. AI will do that for you.
No need to revisit and learn from history. AI will rewrite what was, or obliterate it.
No need for much of human labour which gives dignity to the millions whose services are being dispensed with. AI has replaced it at a lower cost by far.
Until no need for what has been described as “Low value human capital” (so described by Standard Charter)…or human beings created in the image of Almighty God.
And in the end it is this which I believe is their ultimate, vainglorious project.
I know I have wandered down a road which seems perhaps obscure, but it’s just the way I think…and given the depth of egregious evil which we have been witnessing, I believe it is necessary to look much further than we seem to be doing at the moment.
Lamps filled and Armour secured, Harrison. Blessings always. B
There’s a video set I put on the second page of this thread – it pretty much confirms your “wandering” dear Betsy, in that vile demons own words.
As I’m sure you will, keep both the lamps and God’s Armor at the ready my friend, and may your cup overflow.
And yours, Harrison 💕
ps. He isn’t the only one talking of melding – all the transhumanists have, from Kurzweil to Elon…
https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-ray-kurzweil/
pps. Most won’t watch the first video or click on it at all…
If one isn’t disturbed by this…I say no more.
The man also want to colonize Mars, which light years beyond physically feasible and thus financially insane. In some ways he is smart but just does not comprehend his limits, somewhat similar to Napolean.
you are right, Betsy. AI is the spirit of the antichrist.
Amen!
👏
Now imagine what happens when an large area of the country with them goes through a couple of years of drought 😉 Look at what the several year drought in cattle country did to the herds – which are at or near all time lows. But who needs food?
One of the many corners which is all to easy to peer around. But then, isn’t that part of the NWO/WEF/One World Government shibboleths? Their all too often articulated agenda?
Exactly. And do not believe the nefarious globalists within our govt and entities that are contracted to govt to maintain a band of separation from it are not going to employ weathers modification technologies to cause drought where they want to deliberately kill off large herds of cattle to reduce the natural food supply. (It’s already been done fairly recently)
Those previously Trump voters feel he doesn’t care about them, but they are absolutely sure the communist Democrats will. Pathetic. Bless their hearts!
What the commies will do is predictable. The question is whether the people on our side have the foresight to deal with it.
Incidentally, this is the kind of issue that helps people refine their understanding of who is on their side.
2026 — no
2028 – too many things can happen before then. Pocketbook issues and wars could take precedence
Would agree with your assessment of the question Sudance posed Charles.
Climate change is dead so the Democrats need a fake problem to solve hence data centers!
Really? And just what are the windmill and solar farm people going to do about data centers?
I see opposition to AI and not just by the Democommunists who are never shy about exploiting a crisis or creating a narrative for political advantage.
This also involves the issue of taking farm land out of production.
Data centers aren’t the problem. Power for them is.
Correct. In fact data center rents aren’t quoted on a per square foot basis but on power allocation.
It’s been interesting to see the WEF twist themselves into knots as they pivot from the Green New Scam to the AI control vector because the two are mutually exclusive.
A little bit of data most don’t realize – the WEF has been pounding the table for AI for years…
The two aren’t mutually exclusive – the first was to prepare for the second. No electricity or gas or oil for you – learn to except less – so that there is more for them and the machines.
These are generational issues. Decades ago, no one wanted a nuclear power plant in their community.
Going forward, it won’t just be data centers. There will likely be a resurgence in the mining industry. Rare earth minerals and other critical minerals will be mined in mountainous and rural areas where they are abundant. No one will want mines or metal refineries in their communities either. Same with small modular nuclear reactors, as well.
It will always be a challenge for people to evolve / change with the times. Personally, I know these things are needed for national security, but I don’t want them in my backyard either.
“It will always be a challenge for people to evolve / change with the times.”
I keep thinking about displaced factory workers who were lectured about evolving and changing with the times. In my neck of the woods, it was timber workers who were expected to give up their jobs to benefit this or that animal no one had ever heard of.
So tell us – just how many are actually needed for national security?
One, two – a dozen?
Now, what are the other thousand needed for?
(Note – I don’t use the general term “data center” here, which are predominately old technology CPU based computers which make up the majority on the map SD provided – I’m specifically talking about AI compute complexes of the (current) new and future generations)
The midterms will be decided by 1) the state of the economy as perceived by the bulk of the voters and 2) turnout.
Unfortunately, elections are now about ballot harvesting and counting. Turnout matters in some jurisdictions, but not the ones that matter most.
Mom and grandma and great grandma had plants in their house and they were not real and they all called them artificial.
If people actually believe AI is anything but man programmed computers wake the hell up.
ALL of these “AI” systems and social media platforms have one thing in common.
They are all heavily connected and on the Strings of China and data centers need electricity and massive amounts of Water for cooling paid for by taxpayers no matter how they claim it not be true.
So, MSNOT is a credible resource now?
It never hurts to monitor what the other side thinks. Otherwise you live in an echo chamber.
Even the devil lets loose a bit of truth .
But it is never for your benefit.
The big points of contention against data centers is the tax breaks be given to the data center companies, electric use and water use.
The local politicians are only looking at the alleged financial benefits and have no clue of the potential problems.
Construction jobs as IL is building another one….with about 70 in the pipeline. They are competing with the swamp land in VA and DC.
Is this a globalist/corporatist/business/tech answer to all the green new scams, only this one has staying power, compared to Solyndra as that one comes to my mind?
last week, I think it was Meta, one of the tech giants, who announced lay offs as pre positioning towards AI?…sorry, cannot remember the details…
A significant number of them have already or are planning (yes Meta among others) such lay-offs. Note while the numbers are quite large, the remaining staff is still larger.
The effect to date is still smaller than those caused by the H1B (and other) visa scams…
Cascade of layoffs in tech world.
First off MSNOW is not trusted news. They will find the most negative individual on any matter/issue.
Find people that have jobs building these centers and then go ask what the small business have to say increased sales or maybe people in general that are getting some long need road work and street lighting sidewalks and such, how about tax revenues being up for school improvement. You could go on about the positive and negative forever.
Will it effect 2026/2028 vote, my, thought 2/3% maybe. If it is even that much, it will be because of morons listening to MSNOW!
The bigger issue is this Antichrist. Like I said right here, 15000 satellites in earth orbit at 600 to 1200 miles up, they are already calling it megacluster and then datacenters down here on earth, looking like the all-seeing eye of Sauron the Devil. Crazy thing it will not matter who is President or in control of Congress, it will go forward to its conclusion.
It is written, in God’s book. We are just seeing how that is playing out. I have always wondered how would it playout!
They are already planning for the day where the AI clusters are also in space – out of the reach of the common man…
We thought that with television when Jesus returns the whole world would see him but with AI images nobody will realize. Yep Satanic.
It seems to me that we should be doing what we are doing only as a last resort. Have they looked at other options, or just rushing to be first?
Seems like, instead of the numerous, large footprints being used, existing infrastructure…like existing cell towers, existing omnidirectional range radio staions (nationally average one every 100 miles, obsolete for current air traffic, other existing government buildings, interstate medians, etc., could be utilized to relay date and information with the natural coolness of space used to the heat sinks needed. so! Around that permeter, build the rest instead of lunging head-long out of the gate buying up property and using a lot of energy resourdes needlessly.
This is a $10 Trillion dollar business, so we should expect a lot of dirty propaganda. Against the data centers are China, Musk (space is the place), US commies, ecology nuts, and DEI/laptop workers. If there is peace with Iran I would expect Qatar and UAE to be a good place (cheap land and energy). But for low risk and cheap energy the USA is the way. The losers in the data center fight will be the blue collar guys that build and equip and maintain.
Almost every community in Virginia has grass roots groups fighting data centers. It seems to be a bipartisan issue with the majority of engaged citizens opposing them.
Add to that Virginia is planning to build a massive energy transmission chain that will run through many rural counties and require tens of thousands of people to lose property to eminent domain. People are tying that to data centers and are rightfully angry.
I will not vote for anyone that supports more data centers – VA is already full of them and they are an environmental nightmare that raise all our utility costs.
This issue is enough to flip votes all across rural and suburban Virginia.
” NextEra Energy intends to acquire Dominion Energy in a deal that, if approved, could have implications for how fast utilities can build new infrastructure for surging electricity demand and how much consumers will have to pay. ”
https://san.com/cc/a-major-utilities-merger-could-affect-how-america-powers-ai-and-who-pays-for-it/
IMPORTANT INFO and IT’s COST to – COMMON Consumers –
Lulu you are so right. I am in VA & we are fighting a potential data center right now. It’s not about disliking AI, it’s not the same as not wanting some manufacturing plant. It is about having no problem destroying the rural life by raising water rates, electric rates etc. just so a fortune 500 co can make more money. There is no morality about what is being done to the environment or the rural way of life, it’s all about the money.
ok, for all those currently against,
let’s say all of the objections are resolved
(noise, utility rate increases, water consumption,
electrical use, site location, anything else –
and all those issues CAN be resolved appropriately),
are you still in opposition?
if the privacy boat has sailed, of what further damage is a data center?
all questions – haven’t made up my mind either,
although i admit to leaning “for” if done properly.
“ok, for all those currently against,
let’s say all of the objections are resolved ”
Ok, for all those currently in favor,
let’s say all of the objections aren’t resolved
I smell Astroturf. Where were all these people when West Texas was despoiled by wind farms and solar arrays? They are a 100 times worse than data centers.
Many were still sleeping…and it is the wind farms and solar arrays in part that have woken them up.
i think that the first question to this line of thought has to be what data are the data centers collecting and how much privacy does the owner of that data have? if (sarc) our data is the source and we are the target then we have a constitutional crisis brewing. add this to the fact that without the data centers, the digital currency doesn’t exist on a practical basis and you have information and control connectivity.
I don’t know if it will affect the midterms overall, but on the county and local level, county commissioners that are for it will almost certainly lose their office if they are up for re-election.
Wanting to use copilot or other AI is not connected to wanting data centers in one’s backyard.
Also, I would love a map not with the number of data centers, but with the number of acres of data centers.
I think #acres would be more informative, since a small retail shop or 1000s of acres can both count as a data center.
Assuming that no spying or nefarious BS is going on for AI, I have yet to see the business case for AI. Like yeah, kill the workforce to maximize profits (slavery works on the same principle), but what are you actually using all that for?
AGI? Ad rev? Massive mathematical calculations?
Your starting assumption is wrong. It isn’t the only use, but it is a significant part of it.
I agree with Steve Bannon’s proposal to cut a deal with the principals that they transfer 50% of the equity interest to the American people as they are leveraging our pension and savings to fund the AI build out. No more of this socializing risk while privatizing profits.
🎯
With the equity, there also comes both risk and debt…of particular importance if they go the way of the dot com era. On the pension fund side of the equation, most of it is already equity based by the way…
opposition to datacenters is healing the Right/Left divide. Everyone hates noise/light pollution and poisoning the ground water.
This will not sway my choices one way or the other
It will break the proverbial camel’s back. In my opinion, this (AI datacenters) and high gas prices will undo all good will for Trump and his administration. I voted for him 3 times but it makes me nervous that he does not give a hoot about people who voted for him anymore and “damn the torpedoes” attitude. I am not voting for Abbott (I am from Texas) as under his 10 year governmenship, Texas’s demographics changed beyond recognition. He is selling Texas to the highest bidder.
In regards to PDJT – almost everything he does contradicts the idea that he “doesn’t give a hoot.”
In regards to Abbot – the time to get rid of him was the primaries and I wish he had been booted. However, if you think it’s bad with him at the helm, just wait until you see what happens if his Dim opponent wins. Most of the demographics changes are also a result of Dopey and Autopen.
Harrison, I simply cannot grasp how any true MAGA Trump voter could possibly think voting for a dem is an option.
In the modern day Patriot spirit, here’s AI’s spin on ‘Paul Revere’s ride’:
The Midnight Packet: Revere’s Ride in the Age of Data Warfare
In the shadowed grid of 1775 Boston—now reimagined as a gleaming coastal megacity of glass towers and endless server racks—tensions between the central authorities and the free towns had reached a breaking point.
The Regime (a powerful fusion of federal agencies and dominant tech corporations) had decided it was time to strike. Intelligence reports showed that critical data stores—vast repositories of unfiltered histories, encrypted communications, open-source code, and citizen-collected evidence—were cached in the quiet town of Concord. These were the digital powder magazines of the resistance: servers and edge nodes that powered decentralized networks, privacy tools, and local truth archives the Regime could no longer tolerate.
Under cover of darkness, a column of unmarked vans and tactical teams prepared to roll out from the Boston Data Citadel. Their mission: seize the Concord caches, neutralize key node operators (the modern Adams and Hancock), and send a clear signal that all data flows must route through approved, monitored central facilities.
But the old network still worked.
In the belfry of the Old North Church, a lone signal engineer lit the lamps:
One lantern if by land.
Two if by sea.
Two lanterns burned that night. The strike force was taking the digital and physical highways—fiber routes and service roads.
Paul Revere, a master silversmith turned cybersecurity artisan and midnight courier, received the signal. He mounted his electric dual-sport bike (quiet, fast, with encrypted mesh comms), and began the ride that would echo through fiber and folklore.
As he pedaled through sleeping suburbs and past the humming behemoths of corporate data centers—those sprawling, power-guzzling fortresses lit 24/7 by banks of green LEDs—he shouted the modern alarm into the mesh network:
“The Regime is coming! They’re coming for the data!”
His encrypted alerts flooded local nodes, private Signal groups, and decentralized social platforms:
“Lexington edge node—Adams and Hancock accounts are targeted for immediate deplatforming and asset seizure.”
“Concord cache under threat. Mirror your shards now. Go dark if you must.”
Revere rode hard through the night, dodging the Regime’s algorithmic surveillance—license plate readers, traffic cameras, and cell tower pings that formed their digital dragnet. At every crossroads and town green, he woke the minutemen of the information age: privacy engineers, indie developers, rural mesh-net operators, librarians running underground archives, and farmers who had begun hosting small data bunkers on their land to keep information sovereign.
The debate burned as hot as the servers themselves. Many said the giant data centers were a blessing—jobs, economic growth, “progress,” national security. They powered AI wonders, streaming entertainment, and cloud services that made life frictionless. Others warned they had become instruments of soft tyranny: tools for corporate-state control, mass behavioral surveillance, censorship at scale, and the slow erosion of individual rights. Every byte logged, every pattern analyzed, every dissenting node quietly throttled. The centralization of data was the new standing army.
Revere didn’t stop to argue philosophy. He rode.
He reached Lexington first. The local captains were roused. The node operators began spinning up VPN tunnels, mirroring critical datasets, and preparing legal and technical defenses. Then onward to Concord, warning every farmhouse with a Starlink dish or solar-powered server rack along the way.
By dawn, the alarm had spread like wildfire across the old New England mesh. When the Regime’s teams arrived at the Concord data cache, they found it largely evacuated—shards replicated across hundreds of home nodes, offline backups in Faraday cages, and thousands of citizen defenders already forming up on the high ground overlooking the North Bridge fiber crossing.
The first packets flew.
What followed was not just a skirmish but the moment the public realized decentralized data, encrypted comms, and local sovereignty could stand against centralized power. The Regime’s column eventually withdrew, battered by constant harassment from ad-hoc networks and public exposure. The ride had bought precious time.
And though the war was only beginning, one truth rang out across the wires that morning, as Ralph Waldo Emerson might have updated it:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
A packet was sent, encoded and free,
To every mind and every node—
The signal heard ’round the world.
The data centers would continue to rise. The question remained: Would they serve the American people as tools of liberty and prosperity—or become the new garrisons of control?
Revere kept riding.
The network was awake now.
Fractal computing makes data centers obsolete. AI runs on micro computers that you can hold in one hand, smaller than a box of kleenex. Data centers are a money grab and when the pot is empty, the data centers will be empty. Meanwhile, water levels in aquafirs plummet and electricity rates skyrocket, noise levels are unbearable for residents nearby the centers.
I don’t like the idea but unfortunately this is what our future is going to be. I don’t think myself, that it is going to hurt the politics of it because like it or not, it’s here. No politician is going to stop it from happening. Every country is racing to beat the other. LOL. Technology war.
We gave up privacy with the first computer being made so it makes no difference now.
Is this a NIMBY issue ?but the campaign promises of Trump said that data centers would be self contained power wise. They must also not use local wells for cooling. If technocrats are so smart they must invent new self contained cooling techniques. As Conservative I want government to leave me alone but when my neighbor destroys my environment I am tempted to want regulations. Can’t have it both ways. Ideally we need to all be neighbors who are good stewards of God’s gifts to us. I sure don’t want the surveillance of AI but the train seems to be rolling down the track and we can’t stop it.
Ai isn’t the one doing the surveillance, it’s the one doing the storage and processing of it, along with the myriad of data that people give mostly unknowingly and freely via their cell phones, non-secure data exchanges, and internet habits – and via what is becoming a denser and denser observation system of flock cameras, in store cameras, ring doorbells, internet connected security cameras, Alexa, “smart” connected appliances, drones, and other systems.
All of it can be stopped if the people are willing to stop shrugging their shoulders and do what is necessary – which is all legal. One of the starting points is obvious and involves the first part of the data vacuum. The second involves demanding the stopping of collection of biometric data, fighting against the Constitutional invasions of privacy, the loud and organized battle against the big chain businesses that do it, and the refusal to give in to their requests – such as “we need a copy of your ID” – or “we need you to take a photo of yourself holding up your ID”, etc..
Can’t never could, won’t never would.
There are cheaper better alternatives to Oracle run I/O data centers currently available MESH and fractal computing can do what data centers do and more using a $4,000 Apple mini on the power of a kitchen microwave oven.
Jay Valentine has three substack.com websites showing how and telling how the tech billionaires at Oracle, Palantir, Microsoft are spending money to convince your local politician to build data centers. Here’s a synopsis with link at the end (providing the admin mod. here doesn’t hyperventilate):
Hyperscaler data centers are I/O factories – built for only one reason: software companies never optimized their tech stack.
Pay attention here – this is the singularly most asked question we get:
“Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, META – are gazillion dollar companies – they are filled with smart guys, so why didn’t they just optimize their software for A.I.?”
They didn’t optimize for A.I. because they were just as stunned as you were when ChatGPT went viral – and they got caught naked with no solution.
When they tried to do those complex queries, the I/O made it impossible.
Software companies never thought about I/O because Moore’s Law – that computers would get faster – covered their butts.
But in the last couple of years Moore’s Law hit the wall – chips cannot get much smaller so software isn’t getting faster – so build more data centers.
So when you ask the question – if there are technologies that make software run 1,000 times faster, thus use 1/1,000th the energy and hardware, why doesn’t Oracle, Microsoft and Palantir just adopt them?
The answer is they can’t
They are all in on their current tech stack.
To adopt a new tech stack is to admit obsolescence – which crashes their stock valuations in an afternoon.
So you, the sucker in Georgia, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin – will have hyperscalers shoved down your throat because these billionaires screwed up.
We, at the Black Swan Files – show you that in every industrialized country outside the U.S. other countries are achieving A.I. success without massive data centers.
Why?
Because they do not have Oracle, Palantir and Microsoft writing checks to their politicos – they have honest, or pretty much honest politicos who know the score.
We at The Black Swan Files show up in counties across the U.S. demonstrating applications – which consume an entire data center – running on a computer you can hold in your hand.
Oracle, Palantir, META and the rest won’t adopt these new technologies – because they cannot.
While Oracle, Palantir and the rest cannot retool their stuff – other companies are coming out of nowhere with similar applications that ARE retooled.
Any Oracle application on planet Earth can be moved to low I/O technology – in 90 days or less, for 1/10th what it costs to run it in Oracle – can run on an Apple mini costing $4,000 – using the power of a kitchen microwave oven.
Oracle can’t move those applications – because they need that 10X revenue – but nimble software companies are now eating away at Oracle, Palantir and others – at 1/10th the cost.
For many in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Georgia – you are screwed and nobody can help you because those data centers will become stranded assets – the world’s largest environmental disaster – worse than Chernobyl when aggregated – and you bought it because your politicos sold you out.
However, for the late adopters, we will bring you hope – and we will demonstrate to your equally corrupt politicos – these data centers are not needed for A.I.
Hyperscaler data centers are needed to save Oracle billionaires a few billion dollars – and that isn’t your job – and we will help you say “no, not here, not my land, we are not Virginia.”
https://theblackswanfiles.substack.com/p/the-great-ai-surprise-software-industry
https://theblackswanfiles.substack.com/
https://substack.com/@jayvalentine?
https://substack.com/@omega4america
Hitting the wall maybe adds to Sundance’s observations as to why Peter Thiel moved his family to Argentina, and kids are already enrolled in school.
I don’t use social media. Can someone please link Sundance’s tweet about this?
Keep praying!
Happy to see someone posting about this. I have followed Jay Valentine for two years and it is distressing to me he doesn’t seem to get more traction. I believe there are powerful forces not letting the word get out.
Another take.
A colleague just pushed out a press release using AI. Saved him a lot of time. All good, right?
We used to do math in our heads, and on paper with pencil. With calculators, we have lost some of that skill.
I used to be the class spelling bee winner. I read using word sighting. When spell check came in, I found that I lost some of the ability to sight-see misspellings. I was trained away from that ability. I’m concerned that we will lose the ability to create the written word, to do analysis, to review and make judgments on collections of data. AI will do this and we as humans, will lose it.
Such as when you go in a store, have a $11.57 bill, hand the clerk a 20, a 1, and 7 cents and watch their eyes glaze over, often accompanied by a stuttered, “here, you gave me too much money” as the hand the 1 and change back?
It’s already happening with long term AI usage…
https://nitter.poast.org/socialwithaayan/status/2031999445974540792#m
Tech insiders I know have been saying recently that AI is creating more tech jobs. AI is making tech workers a lot more efficient. Taking on the work of 3 or 4 people causing the need to hire more workers. They are generating more revenue. Getting more done. No more long term planning that involves finding and acquiring man power, training said man power, developing the projects plan of attack, executing plan, refining plan etc etc etc.. Now one person can write code on 3-5 different projects at the same time.
The exact opposite of what everyone is saying AI will do to employment at large.
Phil – please read what you just wrote with an open mind…and apply critical thinking.
For those wanting an Ai platform that upholds your privacy and has a Biblical worldview, support Gab Ai!
Torba does a lot of good things – but any software hosted by others is a no-go for true privacy, even when the provider has the best of intentions.
In this case, if he really wanted to do something in the arena for those who wish to use Ai, he would open source the model for download – or at a minimum offer the model for download at a modest price.
I know we cannot as a nation not move forward in AI. I cannot foresee a way to go forward that doesn’t entail our enslavement.
I do believe the end of all things is upon us and the final unfulfilled prophecies are about to be fulfilled.
Interesting times are unfolding.
I want to be against AI, but I want our nation to succeed. No choices that play out well.
The data centers themselves are high cost in power and water and don’t bring jobs so I draw the line at NIMBY.
I understand the loss these people feel – the tranquil quietude of life on the land. But this piece is pure propaganda. We are all making sacrifices ($6 gas) to save our Republic. We are at war, fighting for freedom. To think that a socialist/communist country would let you keep your land, data centers be damned, is clearly weak minded emotional complaint. With little trust in God’s plan for our great nation.
We are not going back to how it used to be (1950s) and no one knows what The Next Golden Age will bring. Something greater than we have yet to imagine. Wake up. Embrace the suck and get on board the only train that is headed in the direction of true freedom for the whole of humanity. The Best Is Yet To Come.
…
Two thoughts.
First, the famous Tip O’Neill quote comes to mind: “All politics is local.” It makes no matter who you are, Republican, Democrat, conservative, leftist, or MAGA partisan like me. Ignore that truism at your political peril. I don’t care what global technological era we are about to embark upon. Ignore the locals, and the political support you need to make it happen will evaporate in moments. Gone with the wind.
Second, this quote: “Eventually, all of the datacenters will interconnect and become part of a massive information system that houses all knowledge, a great digital brain.” Hold on there, hoss.
That sounds great in theory, but some of us are VERY wary of who will be managing that brain and the information that goes into it. We don’t trust that certain uncomfortable knowledge won’t be left out, dropped down the memory hole, in pursuit of the political and social grievances of the day. A great storehouse of rewritten woke history and culture? Western Civilization as evil? Christianity as evil?
It is already happening with newer libraries. Old books, written by authors who don’t fit into the current woke view of history, are being weeded out because they reflect “wrong” sensibilities. Original source eyewitness accounts that don’t fit current false narratives of “white man bad” are being discarded.
No, I don’t trust it, because it all depends on who is running it. We can’t assume we will always have a MAGA administration.
Keep your books. Never throw one away.
Best comment
Agree!!
Can’t find certain books at library anymore.. who’s deciding that?
Plenty of lbqzyz crap, same with movies, dvds.
Classics are hard to find.
Yes. I’ve seen locals turning up to city council meetings, county board meetings here in Kansas/Missouri like I haven’t seen since the Covid/masking days. It’s definitely a hot button issue. I’m finding people both left and right are against them.
How many of these data centers does the USA need?
One more than everyone else.