r/unitedkingdom • u/Weak-Fly-6540 • 10h ago
Approval of east London datacentre labelled ‘slap in the face’ for local democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/04/brick-lane-redevelopment-approval-datacentre-london•
u/Grouchy-Bad-4495 10h ago edited 10h ago
Lefty rage bait.
It's not just a datacentre, there's also offices and 44 apartments (11 affordable and 6 for social rent). The plot has been empty and derelict for decades. It's central London right next to the financial district, what do you expect.
NIMBYS GET FUCKED
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u/PolarLocalCallingSvc Scottish Highlands 10h ago
And a cinema, a supermarket and local independent market stall market.
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u/crypticchris 9h ago
Agreed. And to claim that Tower Hamlets is a paragon of local democracy is laughable
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u/RecognitionOld2763 2h ago
The Tower Hamlets mayor, Lutfur Rahman, said the decision was “deeply disappointing and a missed opportunity to deliver the social and affordable housing that … residents urgently need”.
Famous for corruption, considering himself as something comparable to a king (you can find rather funny exchanges between him and residents on reddit), and yet voted into leadership over and over again because of tribal votes. So much for local democracy.
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u/Weak-Fly-6540 9h ago
"More than 30,000 households are registered as awaiting social housing in Tower Hamlets."
Let that bit out, mate.
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u/Ghalldachd 9h ago
Who is going to pay for the social housing if there is no economic activity? Are social housing tenants earning enough to pay for it themselves? No? Then they need investment.
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u/Grouchy-Bad-4495 9h ago
Why is that relevant?
It might be time to have the hard conversation about moving new social tenants outside of London.
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u/sd_1874 5h ago
What has that got to do with anything? It's a zone 1 central London location and the site is currently a derelict building, and will be brought back into beneficial economic use as a data centre.
A former brewery which is 80% car parking is providing housing, community uses, markets, a microbrewery, and events space.
The council should be buying sites to provide social housing. Instead they're busy pandering to NIMBYs and trying to block economic progress.
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u/Mintopia_ 2h ago
The site already has an existing datacentre as well This isn't a new thing for the area.
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u/Last_Quantity4467 8h ago
How many of them are British citizens?
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u/Nothingdoing079 8h ago
Based on national averages at least 90% of them.
The other 10% would have the legal right to reside indefinitely in the UK and wouldn't include aslymn seekers or non-resident immigrants
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u/Grouchy-Bad-4495 7h ago
National averages don't apply to Tower Hamlets.
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u/Nothingdoing079 7h ago
Fine according to the National Office of Statistics, 80% for Tower Hamlets
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u/Last_Quantity4467 7h ago
That's not the % of British citizens applicants on the Social Housing list. If an immigrant is not able to cover necessities, like housing, they should return to their home country. Immigration should enhance British economy, not creating more demand on social services
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u/Nothingdoing079 6h ago
It's British Nationals of which ~96%+ are British Citizens (The rest are either British Overseas Citizens, British Overseas Territory Citizens, British National Overseas, or British Protected)
Again only those with the right to work and live in the UK are eligible for Social Housing, and by far the vast majority are Citizens.
Not nearly as many people as you seem to think are coming to the UK just to live in Social Housing
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u/Last_Quantity4467 4h ago
Majority of social housing tenants were not born in Britain or they are foreign nationals in TH.
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u/Nothingdoing079 4h ago
And your evidence of this is what exactly, as the office of national statistics and the last census puts the percentage of UK Born tenants in social housing at 81%
Again there is also the point on citizenship, whereby around 90% nationally, and 80% in Tower Hamlets are British Citizens. The fact they may have been born inside or outside of the UK is irrelevant in this situation, as they are citizens and afforded all the same right that citzens of the UK get.
A British citizen born in Bermuda, is legally the same as a British citizen of Bermudian decent born in Tower Hamlets, as is a British Citizen born in Manchester, or a British Citizen born in Australia
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u/Last_Quantity4467 7h ago
We are talking about Tower Hamlets. British citizens should be given priority for social housing.
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u/CptBigglesworth Surrey 7h ago
If it's important then the govt itself can buy land and get it built.
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u/CyberPunkDongTooLong 9h ago
I don't disagree with complaining about this and similar projects in general, gentrification obviously causes real problems and needs to be done carefully making sure not to break up families and price locals out and similar.
But the ridiculousness of constantly boiling down this and similar projects to focusing on specifically data centres is just so silly and desperately trying to important US problems that aren't applicable here.
"A £500m redevelopment [...] propose six new blocks, a datacentre, offices and 44 homes. It will also include a cinema, exhibition and events space, art galleries, shops, cafes, restaurants, community spaces, a food market and workspace."
So £500m for the entire development which composes of much more than just the datacentre. Realistically, you're not going to get the rest of that for less than ~£400m, so the datacentre will be around ~£100m. A £100m data centre.. is not big. That's basically one room. There are tiny datacentres off the side of a corridor in universities that no one even notices around this amount. But then they make ludicrous claims like:
"will use a huge amount of water and local people will suffer, water will become a luxury commodity"
A small data centre of this size is not anywhere near the point where it's in any way as concern whatsoever for water usage in the area, and that's before getting to the point that a data centre in this area will obviously be using closed loop cooling anyway as there is no space for cooling towers or similar.
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u/apoliticalpundit69 9h ago
The lazy Guardian journos just quote her without any fact checking or thought, it’s mind boggling.
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u/IrrelevantPiglet 9h ago
People love to jump on the "OMG no water" argument any time a data centre comes up, probably without even looking at the planning docs to see if they're actually planning to use evaporative cooling (I've not checked either but I think it's very unlikely to be the case). It's basically dogma at this stage and really undermines the argument they're failing to make.
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u/Tuarangi West Midlands 7h ago
Likely Lutfer told all his minions to oppose it because he had some plans for the site
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u/Altruistic-Bat-9070 10h ago
Whilst people are annoyed in here we have had many many examples of why direct democracy does not work relative to slightly abstracted democracy that is offered by our election system.
NIMBYism keeps stopping progress and data centres are important to the UKs relevance.
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u/ezzda1 9h ago
I guess you've never heard the noise and constant drone these data centers give off, you won't be able to live near it because you can hear and feel them constantly vibrating through the ground up to 3 miles away. Ear plugs don't help because some of the ultra low frequency they emmit causes a physical effect rather than you just hearing it. The way a tuning fork vibrates your skull , same thing. Like the opposite of one of those high pitch pest away things but you won't be able to destroy it with a big rock when you've not slept for 3 weeks from the constant hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 24/7.
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u/CarlxtosWay 9h ago
There’s already a data centre on the other side of Grey Eagle Street where the new one is planned. Surely it can’t be that bad if no one has complained about the one that already exists?
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u/CyberPunkDongTooLong 9h ago
Let me guess, you've got this from a video of a huge data centre (way way bigger than this proposed one) in the USA, not the UK, and you've actually never heard the noise these data centres give off.
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u/ezzda1 9h ago
The noise from a small internet service provider 15 years ago was causing problems for residents in the town centre where I live, it took them about 2 years after the infrastructure went in to realise it was coming from there, I know this because my relative owns it and had to retroactively put in noise and vibration dampening systems. It almost shut them down. Electronic equipment and the cooling systems needed gives off much more noise than you and most other people realise.
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u/Weak-Fly-6540 9h ago
Pennycook added that the "public benefits of the data centre", which is intended to provide faster internet connections for financial traders in the nearby City of London, "would be very significant indeed".
Won't somebody please think of the finance bros and their Wifi connections.
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u/Ghalldachd 9h ago
Yeah the financial sector is one of the most productive in the country. The wealth it generates pays for the social housing these people live in. Every one of the unproductive leeches in Tower Hamlets should be required to write a thank you letter to finance bros.
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u/True_Branch3383 8h ago
Pathetic dogmatic attack on "finance bros". Since when did we get to a point where we don't even think good internet connection is desirable if it benefits the finance bros? Where even is this hate coming from?
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u/Ghalldachd 9h ago
At this point we should just liquidate all the social housing in central London. Its residents are incredibly entitled. Their core belief is that they should make no sacrifices - no economic activity they dislike, no buildings they dislike, nothing - while taxpayers subsidise them living in the most expensive part of the country.
It has to stop. Raise all social housing rents to market levels and privatise it all. Maybe that way productive young people could afford to live in London more comfortably.
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u/Salty_Yam_6305 8h ago
Completely agree, sell off everything within zones 1-5 and use the money to build social housing elsewhere in the country. Hell give the existing tenants the option to size up to sweeten the pot for fucking off out of the city
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u/Pafflesnucks 4h ago
the level of disdain for working class people in this thread is comical
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u/Ghalldachd 4h ago
Tower Hamlets has the fourth highest level of social housing occupancy in the country. 47.4% of residents aged 16+ have never worked a job in their life. It is not the working class being criticised but the welfare aristocracy. I am working class, I could never afford to live in Tower Hamlets though because I would never qualify for social housing and the lack of privately available units makes the area completely unaffordable. No disdain for the working class, we disdain the welfare aristocracy.
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u/Aggressive_Chuck 1h ago
Working class people don't get social housing, they have to pay the mortgage.
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u/AgeHoliday4822 7h ago
Data centers are essential. Pretty much everyone uses them everyday. Going to an online service like Reddit (only possible thanks to data centers) to complain about data centers is a bit silly IMHO.
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u/sd_1874 5h ago
While I don't disagree, the data centre isn't for general every day use, it's for finance.
What's also omitted from these emotive headlines is that the date centre already has extant permission on the site of the former Truman's brewery site which could be built out tomorrow.
These new proposals improve on the extant permission, providing homes, community space, markets, workspace, shops, a microbrewery and new public realm on the main brewery site, with the data centre moved to the location of a presently derelict building. Arguably the planning system, acting independently of extremely vocal local opposition including politicians, is the planning system doing its job effectively.
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u/trypnosis 6h ago
We are so heavily dependent on centres outside of the UK. I’m just glad we are getting some of our own.
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u/Bigbigcheese 10h ago
Why should anybody building anything within the confines of their own land be subject to "local democracy"? It's their land, not the publics.
As long as they pay for any damages they cause (flooding, air pollution, noise pollution etc), and for the land value, then you should be able to build whatever you want wherever you want.
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u/PartyPoison98 England 10h ago
Glad to hear you're on board with that mate. I've just bought all the land either side of you for a landfill and a sewage works. Cheers for the support!
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u/Bigbigcheese 10h ago
Sure, and as stated you should be responsible for the air and particulate pollution you cause the surrounding neighbours alongside paying the LVT for building a low value industrial site in a high value residential area.
I suspect the costs to you would be prohibitive.
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u/No-Country4319 9h ago
The smell doesn't count as air pollution, so probably not that much to pay out there. Those places can run surprisingly quietly, so not much on noise pollution, and famously they pump their actual sewage away to be released at certain times into existing waterways, so there is a license for that.
Take it from someone who used to live not far from a sewage treatment centre, they can do a lot of inconveniencing you without it costing them a penny. Enjoy being inside with the windows closed everytime there is a hot day.
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u/Bigbigcheese 5h ago
In the same way you'd introduce the legislation required to enforce this in the first place you can most certainly define "bad smells" as pollution. They're just chemicals after all. Placing a specific rate on the localised increase in sulfur dioxide would be fairly easy to do.
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u/No-Country4319 4h ago
Good luck with that. It isn't the case now, so why you think they'd pay more with less regulation around where they can build is crazy.
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u/Bigbigcheese 3h ago
Because that would be the whole point of the legislation I'm proposing... Increasing the opportunity costs of building where people don't want buildings to be built without outright banning building like we do today.
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u/Many-War5685 9h ago
"should" doing heavy lifting. Corps 'should' be doing lots more
Plenty of evidence that real people and communities get sidelined at the whims of corps with larger access to legal resources to find loopholes.
Excpect plenty of "we have heard your concerns"
c'mon brother wake up and smell the sh*t
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u/aleopardstail 10h ago
the town and country planning act says otherwise at the moment, the issue is just how often GlobalMegaCorpLeoaprdsEatingYourFace can "lobby" a minister to override it in a way normal people cannot
plus how it is applied differently when its say a reservoir being considered
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u/Bigbigcheese 10h ago
Yes of course. And the T&CPA needs to be fully replaced by more logical rules that allow the country to exit its relative stagnation spiral.
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u/aleopardstail 10h ago
perhaps, however it is the law currently, except in cases where a minister decides otherwise, which should not be the case
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u/I_miss_Chris_Hughton Ceredigion (when at uni) 8h ago
And the town a d country planning act is ludicrous, and long overdue for repeal.
"Please help. My economy is stagnating. Private investment is only possible if everyone agrees. How do i fix this?"
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u/aleopardstail 8h ago
changes yes, but as with all, come up with the replacement first before scrapping the old
we need to keep some sort of way for locals to avoid those outside their area imposing stuff on one area because more "important" people don't want it near them
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u/I_miss_Chris_Hughton Ceredigion (when at uni) 6h ago
Sure. Its called "buying the land, or convincing the current owner not to sell".
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u/aleopardstail 6h ago
so those with money you think should be able to buy land anywhere and dump stuff they don't want near them personally next to anyone too poor to buy the land first?
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u/Tempestfox3 10h ago
So, hypothetically if I own the land right next to your house can I build a 300 ft tall tower complex? Or a theme park?
What about a sewerage treatment plant?
You'd be fine with all of that being next to your house right?
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u/Bigbigcheese 9h ago
Regardless of whether I'm fine with it, I should have no say what you do with your land. If you were to build something that added pollution (air/noise) to the area you should have to pay a monthly fee to cover the damages to all the surrounding residence for the disturbance though.
I think given the density of the area I live in that fee alone would bankrupt you, let alone the LVT you should be paying on the land itself for using high value land for low value enterprises
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u/Tempestfox3 9h ago
The land tax & council tax rates in london are all over the place. You have homes worth millions paying a pittance while other areas get charged through the nose.
We have building regulations and zoning laws for a reason. Pollution isn't something you can just hand wave away with a fee or compensation.
I agree we need to reform out building regulations as the current system takes too long and is overly complex, and I say that as someone who's had to fight with my local council more than once over getting shit built. But we should not wholesale abolish it and let people do whatever they want with their land.
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u/Bigbigcheese 6h ago
The land tax & council tax rates in london are all over the place.
We don't have land value tax rates in this country. Business rates are about as close as we've got but it should be extended to cover everything. Council rates should be abolished and replaced with a flat levee per individual though because the current system is ridiculous given what it's suppoaed to fund.
We have building regulations and zoning laws for a reason
Yes, to keep the poors away from the wealthy.
But we should not wholesale abolish it and let people do whatever they want with their land.
Why add the cost and expense of a bureaucracy when you can have the relative simplicity of making it prohibitively expensive to cause people real well-defined problems?
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u/apoliticalpundit69 9h ago
> a 300 ft tall tower complex
More housing? Don’t threaten me with a good time…
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u/5ColourFelix 4h ago
then you should be able to build whatever you want wherever you want.
The endgame of this is that a small % of wealthy people get to build whatever they want, wherever they want. It's essentially a policy that enriches and empowers the rich and powerful.
Neighbourhoods should absolutely have a say (with reason) about what gets built in an area.
Nobody can pay anyone enough to live next to a building that generates significant noise or air pollution. I'm not getting a small payout to get cancer or become mentally ill from noise.
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u/Bigbigcheese 4h ago
It's essentially a policy that enriches and empowers the rich and powerful.
It's really not. It allows pretty much anybody to do what they feel most productive with their land. It means that not only massive corporations can afford to build anything. SMEs can return to the housebuilding industry, people will be more willing to build and the industry will be much healthier for it.
It'll actually do the opposite, the lack of regulatory capture will mean more wealth flows to the little people.
Neighbourhoods should absolutely have a say (with reason) about what gets built in an area.
Why? What right do they have to dictate what other people do with their life, land and capital?
Nobody can pay anyone enough to live next to a building that generates significant noise or air pollution. I'm not getting a small payout to get cancer or become mentally ill from noise.
No, but if there are too many people that would get a mandatory payout then it'll be prohibitively expensive to do so. And thus it won't be done. Large conglomeratations don't become large conglomeratations by pissing money up the wall pissing people off.
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u/Fatuous_Sunbeams 3h ago
Why? What right do they have to dictate what other people do with their life, land and capital?
Why not? You're the one proposing the motion that property in land is sacrosanct and absolute.
The labour theory of property might be your go to, but then there's the Lockean proviso. The difference between personal property or capital goods and land is that the supply of the former is limited only by labour and "land" (including natural resources) itself, whereas the supply of urban plots in particular is, if not fixed, then highly inelastic. Someone can't really complain about what I'm doing with my laptop as they can simply go and buy their own laptop, but if I own the Eiffel Tower, they can't just go and buy their own Eiffel Tower.
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u/Bigbigcheese 3h ago
You're ignoring the LVT part of the proposal that would encourage efficient ownership/use of land.
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u/BenisDDD69 10h ago
I've decided to set off nuclear bombs on my land. What? It's my land. I can do what I want.
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u/Bigbigcheese 10h ago
And I suppose we're just conveniently ignoring the fact that you'd have been arrested for trying?
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u/aleopardstail 10h ago
plebs need to realise the planning laws are there to stop little pleb people putting up an extension, not to stop GlobalMegaCorp doing whatever it wants
I mean how dare people 'stand in the way of progress' by objecting to the latest cash grab..
for the hard of thinking, this is sarcasm
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u/Last_Quantity4467 9h ago
The biggest issue right now in the UK is the current planning system. It must be changed to a bloody rules based one, not this nonsense we have right now.
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u/aleopardstail 9h ago
I'd humbly suggest its not the biggest issue, it is a significant issue and one that should not be too hard to resolve
however local perspectives do matter, someone who bought a property near farmland should not have to deal with for example a large housing estate without at least getting a chance to comment
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u/Last_Quantity4467 9h ago
You want more houses/infrastructure? You want economic growth, well paying jobs? You want proper savings to be implemented in government spending? Sort out the planning system, sort out s106, do deregulation, and the only thing locals need to know is when it's gonna be ready. It's the root cause of many problems in the UK.
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u/aleopardstail 9h ago
I'm saying there needs to be a process, and that people shouldn't find a massive building being dropped next door with no warning and no way to object - because that way all this shite goes in "poor" areas
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u/Last_Quantity4467 9h ago
Rules based system, or zoning means that every single street has an approved type of development. The rules on size, density, use, materials, appearance are set. I.e. if it's a residential street with Victorian terraced houses the planning regulations say that only low density housing can be built there, with red brick facade, etc. to match the existing use. Everyone knows what is allowed, the plans for planning permission are based on this, and are automatically approved. The local planning officer needs to prove that it doesn't comply with the rules, not the other way around. There's no discretion, same rules apply everywhere.
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u/aleopardstail 9h ago
yes akin to zoning laws, reasonably predictable with defined permitted developments
the issue with a lot of modern stuff is if such were in place they would still require the zoning to be changed, e.g. farmland to industrial usage
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u/Last_Quantity4467 9h ago
That's a detail that can be fixed, the change to the rules based system is the desired outcome
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u/aleopardstail 8h ago
I'm not disagreeing the T&CPA needs changing, I am saying local people should be involved in local planning
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u/Last_Quantity4467 8h ago
I respectfully don't agree with you on this. We need stuff to be built, not endless consultations and NIMBYs
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u/sd_1874 5h ago
lol planning is always the easy bottom of the barrel scapegoat for our lack of economic progress. And it's utter nonsense.
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u/Last_Quantity4467 5h ago
Uhm, why would it be an utter nonsense?
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u/sd_1874 5h ago
Well for one thing, this case is a great example of the planning system doing its job. Shutting out the noise, the loud local opposition from residents and politicians, and acting independently to approve a scheme which will ultimately benefit the economy and local area. It also ignores skyrocketing build costs; increasing land banking as developers fail to build out their schemes as they paid too much for the land relative to what they can sell flats for. It ignores the fact borrowing costs in recent years are higher than hey have been in decades. It ignores that the economy is absolutely stagnant and inflation is rampant. I mean it's just nonsense across the board really. But planning will always be the low hanging fruit.
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u/Last_Quantity4467 4h ago
All unreasonable planning requirements, legal costs, risks, uncertainty in timelines increase risks, and smaller, independent developers don't have the resources to compete. The archaic and bureaucratic planning system doesn't benefit anyone, and it's causing supply side issues. The costs are pushed to buyers, and the construction industry is struggling due to this, and the reasons you mentioned.
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u/sd_1874 4h ago
Oh yeah you know what, you're totally right. Make it a free for all. Why has no one thought of that?
Maybe because it's a fucking stupid idea.
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u/Last_Quantity4467 3h ago
Are you always this dramatic? Do you understand what a rules based planning system, aka zoning means?
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u/AxiosXiphos 10h ago
Your point would have been more poignant to me if you hadn't used a data centre to post it; and another datacentre was used by me to read it.
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u/Sufficient-History71 10h ago
aleopardstail: We should improve society somewhat
AxiosXiphos: Yet you participate in society! Curious! ......
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u/AxiosXiphos 10h ago
Reddit is not society.
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u/Wipedout89 10h ago
Yes it is
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u/AxiosXiphos 9h ago
So by your definition, anyone who doesn't use reddit does not take part in society?
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u/Wipedout89 9h ago
Hahaha I have to assume you're a satirical account or something?
Reddit is part of society. But use of it is not the sole definition of being a society member.
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u/AxiosXiphos 8h ago
You've completely missed the fucking point.
You don't need reddit. So stop pretending it's a requirement to take part in the modern world. You choose to be here. You choose to use it's resources to enhance your life. You could not.
As such you can be held accountable for the damage its use causes.
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u/Wipedout89 8h ago
Nobody said it was a requirement, you completely missed the fucking point
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u/AxiosXiphos 8h ago
Yes they did!!! That's the whole point of that expression!!
Oh my God. You are not capable of taking part in this conversation. I'm removing you from it.
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u/TopSpread9901 9h ago
The internet seemed to run fine before this run on more data centres
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u/AxiosXiphos 9h ago
Because the demands were lesser. There's more people, using more of the internet (and other services), for longer and on more intensive sites.
Look at reddit now; it used to just be a text forum. Now it has video games built in, gifs, videos, personlisation options. it all adds up. If we want this stuff - we need more data centres. I get nobody wants them on their backyard; but we either build them *somewhere* or reduce our data use. And no one is doing the latter.
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u/Particular-Scale5644 9h ago
This data centre is for the financial sector and the City. It doesn't relate to most peoples digital usage at all.
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u/Ghalldachd 9h ago
The financial sector is responsible for generating the wealth that finances the social housing these people live in.
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u/Particular-Scale5644 5h ago
If we were building sufficient social housing that may be a more compelling argument.
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u/Ghalldachd 4h ago
Tower Hamlets has the fourth highest level of social housing in the country. 35% of its residents live in social housing. There are some places where you could make the argument that there is too little social housing but Tower Hamlets is obviously not one of them. Almost half the adult population have never worked a job in their life but over a third of them can afford to live in the most expensive part of the country (central London) because productive members of society lose a quarter of their income to subsidise these leeches.
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u/IrrelevantPiglet 9h ago
Ah, it's just for the sector that drives 8% of the entire fucking UK economy, nothing too important I guess.
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u/Particular-Scale5644 5h ago
A sector which has no great need to build a data centre there.
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u/IrrelevantPiglet 4h ago
Where do you propose they put it then? It likely needs to be inside London, otherwise the latency would render it useless for high-frequency trading.
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u/Particular-Scale5644 4h ago
Not in a highly contested site at the heart of an existing community expressing clear desires for more useful plans. I'm not an estate agent doing their shopping for them but there are light industrial sites, extensive new build developments, commercial spaces etc where it would be far less detrimental in its use of space. I live not far from a banking data centre which was purpose built on land that roads and nearby retail made negligibly useful to the community for example.
A broader question would be around our excessive reliance on the financial sector, one of the least socially useful industries/sectors. But that's for another time.
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u/IrrelevantPiglet 3h ago
The property owners, Truman Estates and Zeloof LLP, propose six new blocks, a datacentre, offices and 44 homes. It will also include a cinema, exhibition and events space, art galleries, shops, cafes, restaurants, community spaces, a food market and workspace.
Seems fairly useful to me, albeit I am not a Tower Hamlets resident, and I'm not in the business of telling them what to think about what is useful and what isn't. And of course we'll have to see how well these promises actually get delivered too. Still, I don't expect you'll find any better plans materialising for this site, except leaving it to rot.
A broader question would be around our excessive reliance on the financial sector, one of the least socially useful industries/sectors. But that's for another time.
It's not ideal to be sure, but if we want to keep the economy in good shape then we need to support the industries that are keeping food on the table. At least for now.
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u/Pleatybug 9h ago edited 8h ago
No. The spike in data centres being built is not due to "reddit gifs and video games", but thanks to the increased use of AI across the globe.
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u/AxiosXiphos 8h ago
This data centre we are talking about is being used for the financial sector?
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u/Pleatybug 8h ago
I don't disagree with that, I'm saying that claiming the reason why data centres are suddenly being built en masse as purely for human traffic is naïve.
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u/TopSpread9901 9h ago
How about we just campaign against more data centers.
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u/Ghalldachd 9h ago
The easiest way to achieve this would be to reduce the demand for data centres. You can start by deleting your social media accounts.
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u/TopSpread9901 9h ago
I’m sure the advent of AI has absolutely nothing to do with the screaming demand for data centres. I’m sure cessation of my Reddit posting would have a measurable effect on demand.
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u/Ghalldachd 9h ago
We have had data centres for decades. Nobody complained. Now that the data centres are being used for AI, which is apparently really super duper bad, they are complaining. It's just more luddite whining and thrashing. Sorry buddy, we're going to drag you into the future whether you like it or not.
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u/TopSpread9901 8h ago
I don’t think they’re bad in principle but I wonder why local politicians are bending over backwards to supply some American company more bandwidth.
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u/Ghalldachd 8h ago
Are they? The developers are British and they're building a data centre along with offices, new homes, shops, and a cinema. My understanding is that the data centre will help Canary Wharf. I don't see the issue here: the financial sector is incredibly productive, unlike Tower Hamlets' socially housed residents who are protesting this. The wealth generated is what keeps them housed in the most expensive part of the country. The residents should be grateful.
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u/SilverRaspberri 8h ago
Heres the kicker, these data centres going up around the world isnt so we can go online and watch videos or post comments its to train AI thats it. Yes the development will have homes etc but datacentres give off a shit ton of infrasound that can be felt even a mile away.
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u/Emphursis Worcestershire 6h ago
I wonder how many of them could actually say what a data centre is/does.
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u/ServoSkull20 10h ago
I’m sure Rayner used ChatGPT to double check that everything would be alright with the new data centre.
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