What are Data Centers for?

RDKirk said:

Wait..."Colossus?"

They named it "Colossus?"

How is this not going to come back to bite us?

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Musk is part of a cadre of tech billionaires that read some cautionary tales in speculative/science/fantasy fiction as a youth and decided to use the object lesson of what not to do as inspiration. I used to think that the Bond Villians were over the top, but Musk basically is a Bond villain at this point. He'll probably try to set of a major fault line soon...

RDKirk said:

Wait..."Colossus?"

They named it "Colossus?"

How is this not going to come back to bite us?

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Haha, I know it is the wrong movie. But if it asks "Shall we play a game?", just pull the plug.

Landon Caeli said:

I don't understand why so much power and water are being used, for data centers, since I haven't personally noticed much difference in my life prior to data centers. Is there something big we should be expecting in the future that they will do?

I've heard general excuses for their existence, such as "AI", and "cloud", and "data"... But we've already had those things, and we already have AI, so what's the purpose of wanting more data centers?

Is there a goal that the masses are allowed to know about? Or is it a secret?

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I would say, first, what is called AI today is neither artificial or intelligent. It is a process of search (data collection), data correlation, comparison and filtering which is then compiled and creats an output. It is a simple, by computer standards, process and is not intelligient. This requires an extreme amount of processing and memory. Which leads us to hyperscaled data centers which simply means lage enough to provide the storage and processing required for the many such requests to be executed simutaneously. Computer chips running at high speeds within relatively small areas generate extreme heat which left unchecked would consume the processors themselves, this the need for cooling. It is expected that systems will "learn" from the results decreasing the need for extensive search. However that would also result in new searches of more limited data and in the short run create more biased results and no learning. Will these devices reach intelligience? Doubtful in our lifetime but possible at some point. Quantum computing systems have the promise of a small amount of inteligience eventually, but quantum brings its own randomized and unstable issues which are yet meaningfully addressed. So, yes data centers are needed but we may just be chasing our tails in the search to create intelligience.

New Mexico residents say their names used without permission to support Project Jupiter data center​

Residents from three New Mexico cities say their names falsely appeared on letters urging state environment officials to approve air quality permits for the controversial Project Jupiter data center after they were approached by canvassers for the project.

Residents in Las Cruces, Albuquerque and Rio Rancho in interviews said that canvassers in Project Jupiter T-shirts approached them while they were pumping gas or leaving the grocery store and asked for their opinions on the $165 billion data center development under development in southern New Mexico, which is expected to support Oracle’s and OpenAI’s operations.

All three recalled telling the canvassers either that they were skeptical or outright opposed to the development, citing concerns about its water use and environmental impact. None of them voiced support for the project, they said.

As each of them ended the conversations, they said the canvassers asked for their email addresses so they could provide more details about Project Jupiter.

All three told Source NM that soon afterward they received emails thanking them for making public comments on the New Mexico Environment Department’s online portal. The public comment period for project developer Yucca Growth Infrastructure’s air quality permit application ends July 6.

In each case, the residents’ names appeared at the bottom of identical form letters.

Landon Caeli said:

I don't understand why so much power and water are being used, for data centers, since I haven't personally noticed much difference in my life prior to data centers. Is there something big we should be expecting in the future that they will do?

I've heard general excuses for their existence, such as "AI", and "cloud", and "data"... But we've already had those things, and we already have AI, so what's the purpose of wanting more data centers?

Is there a goal that the masses are allowed to know about? Or is it a secret?

Click to expand...

I live in bumbuck nowhere, so I don't have personal experience with it. My location is extremely unsuited for datacenters too.

Can you explain what you mean? Just how bad is it?

jacks said:

What are Data Centers for?

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Heat islands for the lizard people.

CIA Agent #1029 said:

I live in bumbuck nowhere, so I don't have personal experience with it. My location is extremely unsuited for datacenters too.

Can you explain what you mean? Just how bad is it?

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It's about yay bad:

Cheyenne suspends datacenter wastewater after rare bacterium traced to Meta's AI site​

Meta's massive data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, isn't even finished, but it's already become another illustration of why more people would rather live next to a nuclear power plant than one of these facilities. City officials say wastewater from the site introduced a rare bacterium into Cheyenne's reclaimed water system, forcing a cleanup and a wider pause on data center discharges.

Cheyenne's Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) traced Cupriavidus gilardii to wastewater discharged by Goat Systems, a contractor working on Meta's $800 million, 715,000-square-foot data center south of the city. The facility, announced in 2024, is being built for Meta's AI workloads and is expected to come online in 2027.

Cheyenne has not only revoked Goat Systems' discharge privileges; it has also suspended discharges of data center fill-and-flush and closed-loop cooling wastewater from every data center connected to city services.


Cheyenne's reuse water system was taken offline, and BOPU staff spent two months draining and disinfecting the network and Prairie View Pond. Affected irrigation systems were temporarily switched to potable water supplies to prevent the bacterium from spreading through the reuse network.

Utility giant Georgia Power is planning to build a new transmission line to in part help power new data centers. It estimates 70-80% of the power on the new line will help serve data centers and the remaining 20-30% of power will serve the state's growing residential and commercial demand.

According to the company, increasing demand has outpaced the capacity of its existing grid and building a new transmission line requires acquiring more than 300 parcels of land, including residential properties.

Ansley Brown's childhood home that she said was built when she was 5 or 6 years old is just one of the properties impacted.

The Trump administration is exempting data centers from pollution laws intended to prevent acid rain
The EPA calls this one of the president's "commonsense approaches to regulating."

The Trump administration just announced that it is exempting data centers from certain pollution limits that were originally mandated to prevent acid rain, according to a report by Reuters. Simply put, power plants that primarily serve data centers will not have to be part of the Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program (ARP).

These "islanded" power plants that serve data centers instead of human communities will no longer have to reduce emissions of acid rain precursors like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. There are nearly 60 of these power plants being built or currently operating throughout the country, which were typically fast-tracked by the government.

The EPA says this new guidance is in place because the ARP policies are only for electric utilities. Power plants that serve data centers are not considered utilities, as they don't offer any kind of service to the public.

Bloomberg has projected that data centers will account for 20 percent of the nation's energy usage within the next eight years or so.

essentialsaltes said:

The EPA says this new guidance is in place because the ARP policies are only for electric utilities. Power plants that serve data centers are not considered utilities, as they don't offer any kind of service to the public.

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If we're not helping the public, we should at least harm them.

essentialsaltes said:

The Trump administration is exempting data centers from pollution laws intended to prevent acid rain
The EPA calls this one of the president's "commonsense approaches to regulating."

The Trump administration just announced that it is exempting data centers from certain pollution limits that were originally mandated to prevent acid rain, according to a report by Reuters. Simply put, power plants that primarily serve data centers will not have to be part of the Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program (ARP).

These "islanded" power plants that serve data centers instead of human communities will no longer have to reduce emissions of acid rain precursors like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. There are nearly 60 of these power plants being built or currently operating throughout the country, which were typically fast-tracked by the government.

The EPA says this new guidance is in place because the ARP policies are only for electric utilities. Power plants that serve data centers are not considered utilities, as they don't offer any kind of service to the public.

Bloomberg has projected that data centers will account for 20 percent of the nation's energy usage within the next eight years or so.

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We have been conquered by aliens. This is what being conquered is like.

RDKirk said:

We have been conquered by aliens. This is what being conquered is like.

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Or oligarchy.

I think there should be concerns about monopoly, but hopefully Nvidia and SpaceX will go ahead and build data centres in space which will solve the energy and water issue.

Space-based computing power will be the future.

Hans Blaster said:

Or oligarchy.

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Same thing.

Data center approvals in Texas halted until audits completed, Gov. Greg Abbott says​

Amid growing public backlash to the rapid buildout of data centers across Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced a moratorium on the approval of data centers until regulatory agencies can audit proposed data centers seeking connection to the state’s electric grid.

Abbott is asking the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to ensure data center developers provide information on tax breaks they will receive; power use and generation; water use and cooling operations; efforts to reduce impacts on local communities; and ownership of the facility. Any projects that fail Abbott’s ordered “comprehensive verification and audit” should be denied connection to the grid, the governor said.

ERCOT is currently tracking more than 1,800 projects in the queue, representing over 474 gigawatts of electricity, or more than five times the grid’s record for peak demand, according to ERCOT. Approximately 90% of the new power requests are data centers, Abbott said.

There is no state or federal government database of the facilities, but the Texas Tribune has identified at least 335 data centers operating in Texas. The state is currently the second largest market for the facilities in the country, behind Virginia, and is poised to take the top spot. The Tribune has identified at least 248 planned data centers coming to the state, although hundreds more in lesser development phases have lined up in the power queue.

Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller called Abbott’s directive vague and said it was not a substitute for legislative action, although he applauded the additional scrutiny.

“Without legislative action, this directive is all hat and no cattle — empty political rhetoric wrapped in meaningless fluff,” Miller wrote. “Texans need laws with teeth, not another press release designed to make it look like something is being done while hyperscale projects continue moving forward.”

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat running against Abbott, said his directives do not go far enough.

“So nice to see another strongly worded letter from Abbott after he proudly made Texas the wild west of data centers,” Hinojosa wrote in a statement.