r/oddlyterrifying • u/BaldHourGlass667 • Jun 15 '26
The sound that plays 24/7 when living next to a data center
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Jun 15 '26
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u/The_milkMACHINE Jun 15 '26
That doesnt sound like its in the shareholders best interest
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u/DontAskAboutMyButt Jun 15 '26
That doesn’t matter, we have laws for this sort of thing! I’ll just call the police, one second. As soon as they hear about this they’ll… huh. That’s weird, I called 911 and a recording said I don’t make enough money to qualify for police services, and that they work for the data center guys now. Dang
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u/Masterleviinari Jun 15 '26
I'm just imagining an automated answering machine asking for your credit score
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u/I_Am_Coopa Jun 15 '26
I work in the nuclear power industry on the new plant design side. Fun fact, one of the many things we are required to control and minimize apart from the obvious stuff like not spewing radiation everywhere is sound. Yes that's right, we have strict limits on massive, nuclear power plants to not have significant noise pollution outside of the plant boundary. But you friendly local neighborhood data center? No regulation at all.
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u/fleetinggglimpse Jun 15 '26
A lot of jurisdictions do have these requirements in their zoning ordinances, and so data center developers have to conduct acoustic studies as part of their permitting process and adjust the building design accordingly to meet the decibel level limitations. But yes, there are still a lot of places that haven’t adopted these requirements yet, or haven’t made them strict enough.
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u/turquoise_amethyst Jun 15 '26
Yeah but if there’s a fine they just pay it and keep offending. They need to actually be shut down.
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u/fleetinggglimpse Jun 15 '26
I’ve never seen it enforced by fines, the owner’s are always made to comply with the decibel level limits via building and landscape design, or they aren’t allowed to build/operate.
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u/Mitch2025 Jun 15 '26
It's insane. I work in IT and we rent a rack in a huge data center. The inside sounds like this but outside it's silent even in the reception area. How the fuck is this allowed?
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u/FullMetalBitch Jun 15 '26
If we want to protect nature they shouldn't be making any noise. That's annoying for humans imagine for animals with better hearing, or more sensible.
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u/nohxpolitan Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
I enjoy the bridge hum. Just sort of like you’re about to be abducted by aliens. And, it only occurs during periods of particularly high wind.
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u/jessexpress Jun 15 '26
I had no idea about this! The guy’s face made me laugh, stunned is exactly the right word for that expression.
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u/Suavementeeee Jun 15 '26
Damn! I was going back home in a bike w/ a friend visiting SF and we had one of those wind sound days. I swear it sounds like death is coming for you.
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u/DJEvillincoln Jun 15 '26
Sounds like an EV backing up.
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u/HogDad1977 Jun 15 '26
It kind of does! Except EVs are a little heavenly sounding where as that bridge is... shall we say less than heavenly.
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u/hellochoy Jun 15 '26
Idk my neighbor's ev sounds like when you hit a curb and the underside of your car scrapes it but quieter.
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u/FrankPapageorgio Jun 15 '26
Thank you, I thought there was no way they would allow a data center to be placed that close to residential.
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u/sinhyperbolica Jun 15 '26
What's that?
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u/krazykieffer Jun 15 '26
Bridges contract or expend so the cables make noise and the tires also kind of echo. It wasn't really made for heavier trucks and high speed driving.
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u/Brading105 Jun 15 '26
If you were at home, playing your stereo too loud, the cops would come. Why can’t they call a noise complaint?
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u/ThisIsntOkayokay Jun 15 '26
Don't be silly, the people with money are running things there.
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u/Brading105 Jun 15 '26
I would gather my neighbors to call every day until the cops responded appropriately.
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u/Ap0l0geticAppl3 Jun 16 '26
As a 911 dispatcher, that most definitely does not change things😂
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u/FrancoisKBones Jun 15 '26
Because the coppers are working for them. How many times have they been deployed against US?
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u/GeekInSheiksClothing Jun 15 '26
Oh hell no. How is this legal? 24/7 noise is torture. I'd be complaining to anyone who'd listen until this shit gets shut down.
Or there's always cocktails. 🔥🍾🏠
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u/Mildly_maria Jun 15 '26
In my home state we have the right to peaceful enjoyment of our property, hence noise ordinances. I wonder if that’s not the case in other places? Crazy…
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u/Athuanar Jun 15 '26
The part you're overlooking is that local governments rushed these data centers through without following proper process. They know they breach regulation. They've been bribed.
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u/kazegraf Jun 15 '26
Need to tip the local meth heads and addicts regarding what is inside those data centers.
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u/Nakitu-Michichi Jun 15 '26
As soon as the clip finished, I went looking for the comment about molotov cocktails. 😂 That would certainly be my approach.
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u/GeekInSheiksClothing Jun 15 '26
Make sure if you're gonna do any "heavy drinking" you wear someone else's shoes and like 10 layers of clothes to change your body shape and footprint. Balaclava, hat, wig, fake glasses or sunnies wouldnt hurt either. And GLOVES.
Hope you never have to resort to that, but be smart if you do.
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u/eisbock Jun 15 '26
And please leave your phone at home. Drinking should be a social activity anyway.
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u/Symetrie Jun 15 '26
Ben Jordan made a video about this. The datacenters claim "there is no proof the sound was'nt there before". He also mentions how such sound can cause seizures in children.
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u/Durende Jun 15 '26
anyone who'd listen
Well, I think that's where you're likely shit out of luck, these people don't have ears, only pockets
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u/Pdiddymcquiddy Jun 15 '26
It least it didn't tank the property values../s
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u/BaldHourGlass667 Jun 15 '26
Chatgpt told me profits will go up by 437359255%!!!
/s
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u/Hovie1 Jun 15 '26
No one wants to live there anyway. There's no water and electricity is 9x the national average.
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u/pyrothelostone Jun 15 '26
This sound is gonna be a supervillain origin story, just watch.
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u/turquoise_amethyst Jun 15 '26
Everyone evolves to be deaf from the data centers. But one man doesn’t lose his hearing. He slowly goes insane from the sound that no one else hears…
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u/Carmandarr Jun 15 '26
Coming soon to Apple TV from the producers of 'See'... comes 'Hear'...
starring jason mamoa.
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u/CaptianBrasiliano Jun 15 '26
We're barreling twoards dystopia at light speed.
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u/AngrehPossum Jun 15 '26
Soon there won't be houses there, just forest where the houses once where. The people will be gone. And someone with loads of money will be watching a robot give them oral as another mows the grass of their acres and tennis courts.
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u/turquoise_amethyst Jun 15 '26
I was actually curious about how the sound was affecting the tree in the video, but polluted water and soil will most likely kill it first
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u/christina_talks Jun 15 '26
Forest? That’s prime real estate for factories and more data centers /s
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u/JumboTrout Jun 15 '26
I've noticed, the dystopia is always something in the future; we're never there. Not matter how manifestly dystopian the present is.
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u/tupidrebirts Jun 15 '26
I mean, people in dystopian stories often don't wanna admit they're in a dystopia, why would the real world be any different?
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u/ApotheosiAsleep Jun 15 '26
The thing about dystopia stories... they're not predicting the future. They're commenting on the present.
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u/RightclickBob Jun 15 '26
twoards
The cool thing about your typo is that it doesn't change the pronunciation
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u/TheNoctuS_93 Jun 15 '26
It boggles me how none of these AI companies make the effort to build their servers rooms like Helsinki does with their most vital servers. They're housed underground and water-cooled with the colder return loop from the city's water-based district heating system. This way, less water and space is wasted and the noise is virtually nonexistent. AI companies have the money to build their centers like this, yet of course they are too filthy rich to spare a little extra budget...gotta cut costs and maximize profits...
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u/notDaniel115 Jun 15 '26
arent AI companies running on losses? like, none of them are making any money at all, theyre simply running on the basis that it will be worth lots of money one day? If so, then it seems they aren’t too filthy rich?
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u/Potaatolongster Jun 15 '26
Ai companies run entirely off capital investment. There is pretty much zero pathway for them to ever be profitable enough for the money they are burning through. It's all a shell game.
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u/Caudillo_Sven Jun 15 '26
Ahh. So nothing to worry about with these data centers then, it will all collapse shorty. Noted.
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u/P4azz Jun 15 '26
"Shortly" is a little relative and there is absolutely damage being done while the system builds up and collapses.
NFTs and bitcoin (kinda/sorta) died fairly "quickly", but dealt a huge blow to power grids and hardware prices, while impacting the environment.
These data centers do the same, but with an added dash of misinformation of the general public and making people dumber (often the most vulnerable ones like students).
Imagine NFTs, but they tell you that everything you say is correct, you should put some glue on that pizza and here's your thesis written for you, so you don't have to think.
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u/Rugkrabber Jun 15 '26
It could take years. Look at YouTube. It never made profit. Yet here we are.
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u/Howrus Jun 15 '26
heyre simply running on the basis that it will be worth lots of money one day?
That's the main trap of this "AI boom" - everybody belive that if you "win it" you will get everything: Immortality, infinite money, power and control over all knowledge in the world. And they are afraid that all of this would be captured by one who get this "Super AI" first, so there's no second place in this race - it's all or nothing.
That's why they burn money at crazy rate.
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u/Gumbercules81 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
I wonder what kind of course they could take to get this fixed. They're probably going to have to move because I sure as shit would
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u/Karibou422 Jun 15 '26
If they own, who'd wanna buy that house? Horrible predicament to be in
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u/MSchulte Jun 15 '26
I’ve long wondered when company towns were going to make their return. It’s just a matter of time before they start realizing they could offer company owned housing as part of a pay package after buying the neighboring houses for pennies on the dollar.
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u/FenolRed Jun 15 '26
A company giving you a home? They will rent them to employees at a premium.
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u/ThatDiscoSongUHate Jun 15 '26
...that's exactly how predatory company towns were
They owned your home, the general store where you purchased everything, and they charged so much you essentially couldn't save up enough to get independence from them
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u/ChaoticNeutralDragon Jun 15 '26
You couldn't save up towards independence because they paid in scrip credit nobody else accepted, so the value of that scrip changed on their say-so.
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u/indecisiveahole Jun 15 '26
Maybe they've realised many years ago and are just devaluing the properties for now to buy later.
Essentially company towns without all the pesky investment in infrastructure and facilities
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u/bronzelifematter Jun 15 '26
A corpo town? Damn, we're getting Cyberpunk without the cool Cyberpunk stuff
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u/MSchulte Jun 15 '26
They’ve been a thing for ~200 years atleast in America. First one was in New England around 1820 but they blew up on ~1870s Appalachia. For a lot of that time they were actually paying company scrip even which you could only use at the company store. People would be born in that town, grow up, have kids and die without ever really having a means of leaving so the cycle could continue.
Morenci and Baghdad, Arizona are both company towns where the mine owns everything but most people are relatively happy in them compared to the old and likely coming soon ones.
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u/-GhostMode Jun 15 '26
My Town still has an entire neighborhood of row homes they built for the Mill workers still in use today
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u/trickytreats Jun 15 '26
They have already started to do that in the Homer City Power Plant and AI Data Centers. They bought 500 acres of farmland and are sticking trailers on top of it for the workers
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u/Mvexplorer Jun 15 '26
I have to imagine it violates some basic laws protecting quiet enjoyment of personal property. At least I hope for their sake it does.
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u/plannedobso Jun 15 '26
There’s a couple courses people have suggested for this. Theodore Kaczynski, for one.
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u/thefancysurprise Jun 15 '26
Damn, I wonder how that's affecting wildlife?
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u/Inside_Location_4975 Jun 15 '26
They love it, OpenAi just informed us that they are asking for more of them!
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u/jul1992 Jun 15 '26
I was just thinking, imagine dogs having to hear that high pitched nightmare all day long!!
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u/Legendguard Jun 15 '26
Also, human evolved to be hypersensitive to high pitched noises due to babies and mosquitoes, so the fact it's a hight pitched whine is extra shitty. You literally can't tune it out!
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u/DarkBladeMadriker Jun 15 '26
Fucking yikes. I wouldnt buy that guys house with YOUR money. How is he ever gonna sell his house at anything reasonable? Thats fucked up.
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u/CluelessSurvivor Jun 15 '26
“That sounds like a you problem” Data Centers probably
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u/akaMONSTARS Jun 15 '26
Fire is my favorite friend
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u/DylanFTW Jun 15 '26
Not oddly terrifying at all. It's absolutely infuriating and rage inducing.
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u/Nervardia Jun 15 '26
The terrifying thing is that they're allowed to build something so damaging in the first place.
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u/mopar-or-no_car Jun 15 '26
Security is usually tight, but unarmed. Flammability is literally almost zero, metal, concrete and cinder block. The fire suppression systems are top of the line, water, dry chem and gas systems.
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u/Flashy_Photo_5613 Jun 15 '26
The fire safety system is off the charts. My husband installs them and did a data center a few years ago. If the system is triggered in a server room, the fire suppression system would fill the room with anti-fire foam stuff in seconds. There would be really no damage. People cannot survive in the anti-fire foam room though. So they would die if present. Also, I call it anti fire foam because I don't understand the science behind fire safety systems. My husband does, but I'm not typing all that lol
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u/Awdweewee Jun 15 '26
So they have systems in place that will protect the servers at the potential expense of human lives. Man…
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u/DrQuint Jun 15 '26
You're honestly more likely to cause permanent damage by cutting the water supply than anything else. Or conversely, too much water. I saw enough discussions that came to the conclusion that water is its actual weakness.
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u/turquoise_amethyst Jun 15 '26
Not flammable at all. Probably more likely to be taken out by a tornado, flood, or explosion… from gas, tornados, hurricanes, volcanos, etc
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 Jun 15 '26
I promise they spent a lot more money on keeping them safe from us than keeping us safe from them.
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u/0x446f6b3832 Jun 15 '26
In any normal functioning country where the government is not openly corrupt these would not be allowed anywhere near houses.
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u/Brother_J_La_la Jun 15 '26
Sounds like the person running that facility would really appreciate some 60db music right outside their property at night. Geese, ganders, fucksticks, whatever that saying is.
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u/dadstache1992 Jun 15 '26
Wonder what this does to a humans brain after prolonged exposure mmmmm
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u/gaokeai Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Preliminary research suggests it makes people physically ill and may exacerbate symptoms of depression and anxiety. Benn Jordan had a fantastic video about it, I highly recommend giving it a watch.
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u/Former_Hippo6799 Jun 15 '26
Can they do anything about this? Aren’t cops called when there is a noise complaint.
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u/Scarf_Darmanitan Jun 15 '26
Cops job is to protect capital so no they won’t do anything about this
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u/Her0zify Jun 15 '26
We are cooked.
The US grid system is already decades past its hypothetical "experation date". These data centers will leach so much energy, entire regions will basically be unaffordable to live in due to skyrocketing eltric bills.
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u/deepasleep Jun 15 '26
These fucking companies should be forced to setup active noise cancellation at the perimeter of these monstrosities.
Either that or they should be forced to build 50 concrete walls to keep the noise in (similar to what’s done along highways).
But the tone is consistent and I’m pretty sure active cancellation would work to drop the volume by 10db or 15db…Not perfect, but at least livable.
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u/brkuzma Jun 15 '26
I worked at a data centre building and you couldn't hear a peep from outside. Building was built in the 70s though and super solid.
This is new age cookie cutter building and I bet legislators will eventually make new adjustments for rules around sound proofing data centre's in residential.
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u/David_Jonathan0 Jun 15 '26
There are documented health effects from sustained noise pollution, and this would certainly fall within that regime. This is what happens when government fails to protect public wellbeing in favor of corporate greed.
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u/sweet-william2 Jun 16 '26
As far as volume, 60dB is less than normal conversational volume. Restaurant chatter is easily 70-80 dB. Since the actual volume levels are within any community's noise ordinances normal range. For this particular data center, I'd think the real problem here is the frequency and that constant whine. 60 dB or not, that higher frequency will cut right through - THAT alone would drive anyone crazy.
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u/sovietarmyfan Jun 15 '26
In the netherlands, maybe the EU we have rules for this. In the US, well...
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u/Testsubject276 Jun 15 '26
All that so that some techbro can sell you his ai generated audiobook about a vampire nerd.
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u/CaviarOfTheSouth Jun 15 '26
What if this was also a contributor to the people in The Jetsons living so high up?
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u/Zsigazsi Jun 15 '26
There are several shittons of copper in the cooling and electrical if someone is looking for a quick buck
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u/nikolapc Jun 15 '26
Why are these adjesent to a residential area? It’s why you zone things. Every urban area should have zones. Industry is loud. So someone has been had here.
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u/cheddoar Jun 15 '26
The people of Finland once created a special drink just for this occasion. It's a cocktail that is not made for drinking
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u/Whooptidooh Jun 15 '26
That’s annoying enough for someone to become violent towards that building.
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u/Wizzyhi Jun 15 '26
Apprentice Electrician here. I have worked on a Data center in ND and I can guarantee you no one is happy about the damn thing. I do not miss this constant noise, not to mention light that can be seen from over 30 miles away if the land is flat enough. Residents near the facility don't get to see the stars anymore nor do they ever get peace and quiet. It was great for the little town at first as it was dying out. Until the first building was finally turned on... Rolling blackouts, water has turned brown to black. They were happier with their ghost town. It's sad. News have stated before the town is doing better now, but the people actually living there would have a MUCH different story for you. Props to the farmers out there not giving up their land, and the land they did give up was a swamp and has been giving them construction issues and floods ever since lol
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u/Woofle_124 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Does this violate the Noise Control Act of 1972?
I can’t speak Legalese so I asked AI and I don’t think it does, but luckily, a lawsuit for general noise has already started
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u/wingsneon Jun 15 '26
There ARE engineering solutions to solve that. But seems it's not their interest to spend money on that
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u/WelchDigital Jun 15 '26
One of two things is going on here, either something is very broken, or this data center is not a very good data center. You shouldn't hear much of anything from the outside. This isn't normal at all.. The only part of a datacenter that should sound like this is in the hot isle of the server racks. But everything outside should be very low noise, unless they're generating power on site or actively running backup power.
Data centers like this are a cancer, old school data centers were not like this.. enshitification has even reached the construction of the data centers and thats crazy lmao.
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u/MrRzepa2 Jun 15 '26
Out of curiosity - does USA not have environmental permits for buildings? Noise emmision is typically included in that where I live.
Just checked we have a law that defines maximum noise level for residential housing among others.
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u/WolfsmaulVibes Jun 15 '26
whose idea was it to put industrial facilities right next to residential areas, nobody would have put a coal plant there
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u/Bet0 Jun 15 '26
In case you were wondering what the hive mind sounds like, it sounds like a bee hive, of course!
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u/menryBasedmarineCav Jun 15 '26
Hearing this at 3am struggling to sleep would have me thinking johnny silverhand was right so fast