[BlueRock-Jake]

I feel like this is always the case with new technology. People had the same reaction to the invention of the printing press. New is scary. It doesn't mean there aren't valid concerns, but unfortunately this feels a bit like an inevitability. The focus shouldn't be on stopping it, but how to maximize the gains and minimize the losses to the local communities where these are being built.

[Eji1700]

You're not doing your side any favors by using the printing press of all things as your comparison. People very legitimately don't want things like fracking in their area even IF it brings a boatload of jobs due to the costs on communities.

Datacenters might not be as potentially destructive, but they're also a massive net negative for the community in many real world ways. If you want them to "maximize gains", then the answer is "tax them more" which, shockingly, turns into a functional ban because somewhere else is taxing them less.

[will4274]

> Datacenters might not be as potentially destructive, but they're also a massive net negative for the community in many real world ways

No they aren't. Datacenters are air conditioned buildings that consume a moderate amount of power and generate a moderate amount of tax revenue through a small number of middle class jobs. They use a negligible amount of water compared to golf and farming and produce a negligible amount of heat compared to cars.

[jmye]

> New is scary.

<<If I just paint everyone who doesn't want to support my shitty AI start-up as a stupid Luddite, I can ignore everything they're actually saying and just demand I be allowed to do the thing I want the way I want, where I want! The people living in these communities I have never and will never go to are just too stupid to know what's good for them.>>

[franklinter]

Yes but totally insane that so many on this site seem to approve such a ban.

[physhster]

Data centers are hardly new technology... For the longest time, people had no idea where the cloud was because the footprint was pretty small. It's another golden goose moment where everyone is going to build DCs and we might end up like in the dotcom bubble where way too much fiber was deployed for what was necessary at the time.

[hackable_sand]

Why is consent so scary to you guys?

[lotsofpulp]

Presumably, the owners of the land do consent to it being built.

[soerxpso]

I don't think anyone in Maine cares whether the giant ugly environment-rape box is "new" or not.