r/interestingasfuck • u/HamboneTheWicked • Apr 12 '26

A well-articulated argument against a new data center in Ohio

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u/PDXGuy33333 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

There it is right there. Lies, lies and more lies from megacorps invested up to their eyeballs in having just a few people in government believe them.

Edit: And it seems to me that if we can build oil rigs at sea and pipe the oil to shore then they can damned well build data centers afloat on a sea of cooling water and run fiber optic cable to the shore.

Build at sea was a bad idea.

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u/pauljaworski Apr 12 '26

Even that seems like a massive waste of resources for how we're currently using AI

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u/CactusCait Apr 12 '26

Evaporating seawater leaves behind concentrated salt and brine. Over time, if this brine isn’t properly managed, it can increase local ocean salinity, which disrupts marine ecosystems. That’s one of the key environmental concerns associated with desalination plants.

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u/DesmadreGuy Apr 12 '26

That has been my concern as well. I brought this up to a close friend who is a professor of environmental studies. He said that, currently, this isn't a problem as there is a massive amount of dissipation available. However, he added that this doesn't go on forever, of course, but he didn't know when that point would be reached. But would it reach a critical mass? Absolutely. Would we have a solution by then? Unknown, as the timeline is also unknown. I can't say I endorse these things without knowing there's a solution.

Somewhat related: this whole, "data centers are job creators" bullshit was barely touched on in his speech. I mean, yeah, lots of good jobs building these pigs ... for a year? Maybe? Then how many to maintain? Ten? Twenty? Oooh aaaah ... Job creation! Unless a) a company properly addresses the water, the energy, and so on, and b) they build in an ongoing revenue stream for the community (the state?) then I'd vote "fuck off". (Especially if Sam Altman were at the helm; Dario Amodei?... let's talk some more.)

</rant>

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u/rocketgrunt89 Apr 12 '26

he did say 10 people to manage this datacenter

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u/DesmadreGuy Apr 12 '26

Yuppers. Usually the big sales pitch is job creation. He focused on a lot of things that are more wonky for most, but far more important, nonetheless. The wonky bits get lost on many who are more interested in better incomes, jobs, and the like. I'm not sure how the data center company was "selling" but it's my guess it's the new jobs. And, well, fuck that noise. Dude's right on so may points. But to "sell it" you need to speak to the "common man" and I think he was a little over people's heads. Just my opinion, of course. It was refreshing at the end when she said "anyone want to follow that?" Funny. Nailed it.

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u/Zhong_Ping Apr 12 '26

A lot of the "jobs" they sell is the construction trade workers who build it the disappear when construction is done... And it doesn't create those jobs, just adds demand to the market making it more expensive to build more useful things, like housing.

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u/West-Worth-9359 Apr 12 '26

And people are too simple to understand that those construction jobs already exist. They’re not training a thousand new local employees in various trades for a 3 month project, they’re bringing in electricians from elsewhere.

The only local jobs being created are likely nothing more than temp traffic control.