Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their computers to make up for it.
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5 daysWe all see this coming, but the billionaires and our state/county/city leaders assure us everything will be fair and fine.
Same deal with water. It will be 100 degrees and data centers will be draining local water supplies, while residents will be told not to water their flowers or take too many showers.
Fuck all this.
I love that their solution is to not use the thing that the data centers are supposed to be for.
Oh don’t worry, people in Silicon Valley won’t feel the restrictions and will be running their OpenClaw-type chained agents all night long doing absolutely nothing of worth.
- 5 days
People will be sacked for turning up to work smelling of sweat. Such fun times.
- 4 days
It will be 100 degrees and data centers will be draining local water supplies, while residents will be told not to water their flowers or take too many showers.
Wasn’t this already the case like 2 years ago in Texas? Except I remember the governor telling people to drink less water and shower together when possible to save water for the data centers.
- pdxfed@lemmy.worldEnglish5 days
California: 80% of water use is agricultural and industrial but who do they lean on in drought years? Jimmy fucking John and minute showers. Corporations will not budge without force so state goes after the soft target.
Same play here.
- jumjummy@lemmy.worldEnglish5 days
California also has the stupidest water rights with “use it or lose” it clauses that counters any incentives to become more efficient. A couple families control a ridiculous amount of water rights.
- 4 days
The problem is that data centers don’t need water, they need cooling, and water is suitable for that because it’s the cheapest. They could do the cooling in many other ways, but it costs money
You mean cost more money. It’s not like water is free but it is very cheap to use. But those other ways to cool it cost quite a bit more electricity and aren’t nearly as efficient.
- 4 days
That’s what I meant, sorry, english is not my native language, but yes, water is the cheapest of all solutions
- TrippingBalls@lemmy.worldEnglish4 days
That’s typically how the government operates as well. No incentive to use funding wisely and decrease spending
- NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish4 days
Please sir…can I have some more…electricity
said the poor school to the billionaires
- MML@sh.itjust.worksEnglish4 days
If you Google the model number their AI will sometimes list the 20 tons of armor as an option like you could just order it that way.
So it’s official now. AI comes before schools, and before children. Welp. So much for thinking about the children.
- 4 days
And when it comes to starting moral panics to strip away rights.
- Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish4 days
The perception that children matter only exists in election cycles.
They never really matter.
- 4 days
The children only matter when they can’t speak for themselves.
That way they can’t disagree. It’s why they put so much emphasis on the unborn. Once they can speak their own opinion, they’re worthless.
- chiliedogg@lemmy.worldEnglish4 days
Why spend all that money and resources cultivating actual intelligence?
Here comes Abbot’s elementary comedy series, where they build a big stadium, but they can’t afford to fix the lights in the school.
In Virginia during the fifa World Cup there are a lot of pro data center ads funded by a group that was created for this purpose called Virginia Connects.
It’s the usual shitbags lying to the public to make it sound like data centers are good
- XLE@piefed.socialEnglish5 days
Are they in cahoots with the PACs that support pro AI candidates? (Are they the same groups? I really don’t know.)
In Virginia ads are still running about not leaving rural Virginians behind by banning data centers. Claiming that they will bring jobs to the rural community but those nasty politicians are banning the progress of data centers.
- NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.caEnglish4 days
Educating the kids would be a waste of taxpayer dollars. The only training they need is how to mow the grass around the data centres.
- betanumerus@lemmy.caEnglish4 days
I actually saw a robotic mower doing that job just a few months ago. I think it was around a school.
- NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.caEnglish4 days
Well then we just let them starve and blame them for being homeless.
- knomie@feddit.orgEnglish4 days
We need
Anonymousto do something about data centers.Don’t wait for others to save us.
- 4 days
While I agree, theres nothing I can actually do. Besides inform people of the damage they cause by using big tech, which has gotten me nowhere so far.
If everyone today quit using meta and google products and openai (and voted on laws to keep data centers out, and voted on laws against monopolies) , the entire industry would crumble.
- knomie@feddit.orgEnglish4 days
First of all, thank you for (trying) to inform people.
It is really important that we do not see ourselves as passive, waiting for other more skilled people to solve the current problems. Everyone of us can do something. Although sometimes it doesn’t turn out as we had hoped, but not trying would bring is nowhere.
I don’t exactly know about the organization of anonymous, but for most groups there are a lot of possibilities to support. Legal support, social media and website support, giving interviews, food and material, logistics as a few examples.
You could also join other local groups against datacenters. I think there is a lot of campaigning going on.
- 4 days
I just have no idea how to do it. I mean theres a fb group (ironiiiic) for us against data centers in our state. But that gets us nowhere. I’m afraid something real, physical, is going to actually be needed. they know we won’t do anything, and we are too scared of the fascist paramilitary at their disposal.
- knomie@feddit.orgEnglish3 days
Sometimes you have to us big tech to reach more people. Many groups also use Instagram, some also mastodon. But you should certainly not use it for organizing. If they don’t have a signal group or similar, I would stay away.
You could look into environmental groups. On the national level, there are climate defiance and scientist rebellion in the US on a national level (and probably a lot more). Maybe they also have local groups that you could join? Or you could support remotely and start building a local group (that’s hard but someone has to start).
- rynn@piefed.socialEnglish5 days
I guess they could light a data center on fire to keep warm and not run their heaters? Win/win?
(Also I hope it’s very obvious to everyone this is a joke, I’m not trying no to incite or encourage violence in any way at all).- melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish4 days
I’m just amazed at the grotesquely huge amounts of copper they have in those datacenters.
I also hope that data centers “don’t” get burnt down. How "un"satisfying would that be. While I’m at it, I hope no one kills the trillionaire.
- 5 days
County with 37 datacenters can go fuck itself with a cactus.
here come the brownouts motherfuckers…
- NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish5 days
But also, don’t forget to teach AI and use AI in your school!
https://www.vaco.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HenricoGenerativeAIPreparingForDigitalAge.pdf
I never understood why we’re supposed to need to be ‘taught’ how to use AI if it’s so good at natural language processing. If the reference desk librarian can understand it and give you what you actually want (not necessarily the exact thing you’re asking for), so should anything being touted as AI.
- 4 days
No. Next fucking question. I’d rather data centers have brown-outs than schools.
