[rconti]

I don't think the average person actually knows anything concrete about them.

They're a proxy for peoples' sense of powerlessness about what's going on around them.

Skyrocketing electricity prices, the sense that elected officials aren't looking out for their interests, job losses, etc. They're a convenient proxy for many disparate concerns because they represent all of those things in one way or another.

[98codes]

> I don't think the average person actually knows anything concrete about them.

The average person around them knows quite a bit about the noise level, and how far it carries. They're starting to learn about the effect consistent noise at that level has on their mental & physical well-being as well.

[Rebelgecko]

Town by me had a huge outcry about a proposed data center and how it would ruin the area. Funnily enough there's already data centers on the same street!

[samrus]

Thats what the parent comment said. Older data centers are built more consciously of the surrounding, but these newer ones are being built with no regard for the community and are egregious. For example using on site generators that make alot more noise than the existing on grid datacenters

You gotta read the comment

[Rebelgecko]

This new data center was air-cooled and would use the same grid as existing ones, so I found it funny that the complaints people made about it were either inaccurate or applied just as well to the existing DCs in the area

[quickthrowman]

The average person is familiar with sound mitigation enclosures for generators and chillers? I kinda doubt that.

If noise regulations are in place where the data center is being built, companies that make chillers and generators will sell you an enclosure that reduces the sound level to comply with sound regulations. It’s not like these data centers are the first buildings ever to have a lot of generators and chillers installed, all non-AI data centers have plenty of each.

If you live in an unincorporated area and a data center moves in and there’s no sound regulations, then they can do whatever they want, but that’s the risk of living in an unincorporated area.

[rconti]

Right, and most people opposing datacenters don't _yet_ have one near them, so they don't have the direct experience yet.

[yellowapple]

Plenty of the people opposing datacenters are opposing them in places that already have datacenters. If there was a direct experience to be had, they would've already had it.

[AnthonyMouse]

> The average person around them knows quite a bit about the noise level, and how far it carries.

Do they? How much noise do you imagine comes from a data center that isn't operating a gas turbine?

[ThunderBee]

I believe there’s been a number of investigative journalists/ YouTubers that have looked into this and it can be quite staggering. Not just human audible noise but infrasound and ultrasound as well. IIRC Ben Jordan’s video “ Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons” would probably be a good place to start.

They could build these data centers to eliminate the noise but it’s cheaper to ruin the livability of surrounding areas.

[lotsofpulp]

>I believe there’s been a number of investigative journalists/ YouTubers that have looked into this and it can be quite staggering.

The only thing staggering is the amount of trust placed in "YouTubers".

[AuthAuth]

That video by Ben Jordan is emotionally convincing but it makes no solid case for any of its claims.

[AnthonyMouse]

Ultrasound is extremely non-penetrating and wouldn't make it through the walls of a building. Infrasound is the opposite and would go through most anything, and in principle can be produced by anything that moves, but the thing to care about at those frequencies is the amplitude, i.e. the sound volume. It's a meaningful concern from things like wind farms that have massive slow-turning turbines, but there is nothing in a data center that moves that kind of volume. On top of that, having multiple independent small sources in the same place lessens the effect, because multiple sources that emit at the same frequency but out of phase with each other cancel each other out.

Undoubtedly if you get some measurement equipment and stand next to a data center you could register some infrasound, but the same would be true if you stand next to an ordinary office building or in an empty field, because infrasound carries for hundreds of miles and there are much larger sources than data centers.

"There is a sound but you can't hear it trust me bro" is solidly into YouTube quacks territory.

[ramdomthought]

>Ultrasound is extremely non-penetrating and wouldn't make it through the walls of a building

sometimes people like to be able to be outside. the 'quiet' part of the covenant of quiet enjoyment

[AnthonyMouse]

When you're outside you're not inside the walls of a data center.

[TitaRusell]

The Pittsburgh steel mills provided jobs and a sense of purpose to communities.

Something that tech bros fundamentally oppose.

[doron]

I think AOC made this point easy to understand in a recent hearing..

"ask ... if they [Zuckerberg, Thiel etc] want one of these data centers in their own backyard"

[duped]

> I don't think the average person actually knows anything concrete about them.

A new class of oligarchs are trying to obsolete every profession and human endeavor for the sole purpose of enriching themselves. You don't need a PhD in environmental policy or domain expertise in construction to listen to what AI advocates are saying and realize their success comes at the expense of society, and say "no thank you."

Data center construction is not a proxy for powerlessness, but the vanguard of the powerful.

[srmatto]

I think there's truth to what you're saying but I also think there's truth to what people are experiencing and perceiving.

A highly power and/or water consumptive data center being installed in a town or city is pretty much a perfect embodiment of people's frustrations. It consumes tons of power and/or water and therefore drives up utility costs for the locals or pollutes the air with diesel exhaust. And it doesn't create jobs so it's just frankly some rich cabal of capitalists getting richer while people's lives continue to feel materially worse. I can't think of a better embodiment of the sort of confluence of crumminess that seems to be underway.

[bjustin]

I've heard talk from some folks telling these people that their concerns about data center water use, power, noise etc. are overblown. Water companies disagree, saying data center water usage in fact is quite significant. Oops. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/21/not-enou...

[scarmig]

> In May, a House of Lords report said England faced a 5bn litre a day shortfall for public water supplies by 2055.

> Water UK estimated that datacentres in England use 6.6m litres of drinking water every day.

> England’s current water shortfall is 220m litres more a day than was assumed in water forecasts.

[yellowapple]

The UK is surrounded by a planet-spanning body of water. It has no excuse to be complaining about water shortages even if every square inch of it was a single giant datacenter.

[pseudalopex]

Removing salt from ocean water is costly.

[yellowapple]

The UK can surely afford it. If not, then surely they can require the datacenters themselves to foot the bill.

[econ]

https://www.tumblr.com/geneseelibby/35053843499/a-horrible-m...

[bjustin]

Amazingly, they managed to _undersell_ the ill effects that the oil industry would have on even just the US, such as the oil-driven military actions we've taken over the years.