Comment by ungreased0675
14 days ago
A good portion of this movement is irrational and driven by viral media. Last week a coworker was talking about how unbearably loud data centers are. I asked them if our parking lot is loud. (There’s a decent sized server floor in our building and a bunch of cooling equipment in the parking lot.) They had never noticed the cooling system.
On the other hand, my city gave the local data centers big tax breaks to come here. In the last couple years my property taxes have increased significantly along with my electricity bill. It seems obvious that I’m subsidizing the local data center. There’s probably a couple dozen people who work there, so it’s not a realistic employment opportunity for me or anyone I know. I’m not anti-tech at all, but I wish the city hadn’t made the deal they did. Perhaps big tech could be less parasitic and contribute beneficially to society?
You know as well as I do that your server room is not the same as the cut-all-corners AI DCs getting built right now.
You never know, they might have a gas jet turbine in the parking lot blasting away 24/7
Still wouldn't be the same, because Musk has like, 30 of them.
There's a big psychological difference between the noise level in a transitory space like an office parking lot and the same noise level at a suburban home. Nobody wants their backyard, deck, or bedroom to sound like Eraserhead, even if it's subtle. (And some of the gas turbine ones are not subtle.)
Sure. But is your DC funded by AI insanity that will pay top $ to provision ASAP, which requires 100s (up to 800) turbines?
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Is it big tech's responsibility to somehow 'contribute beneficially'? Data center construction is not a welfare project.
As long as there is no corruption involved, I do not see what is wrong with big tech choosing a project site where the cost is minimal.
If there are many poor rural cities which compete for data center deals, this seems to me like an efficient free market.
If public opinion swings, will this not influence politicians, and force big tech to provide better benefits in these deals?
A free market is not one particular company getting a better deal on taxes than all the other businesses in the area. That’s the opposite actually.
There is more than one company constructing data centers, and I am not sure what you are saying here.
It is not a free market if cities offer tax breaks to data center developers to attract large projects?