I don't get it, why do we need so fucking many? Reading the thread about temps downwind from data centers and it's describing all the multiple HUGE data centers just around phoenix and it's just, like, why are they building so fucking many???

It's one thing to be like "yeah we're building a facility that uses more power than human civilization to power the Lying Machine" but it's like they're building fucking thousands of them. What the fuck is that?

Let's be incredibly generous and assume The Nerds invent intelligence, even then what is the fucking point of all this shit

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[–] Owl@hexbear.net 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The batch of tech billionaires that rose up through the dotcom and mobile booms were all young nerds in the 90s (except Elon Musk, who was never young). They read all the same tech singularity wank that every other 90s nerd read.

They all grew up assuming the singularity will happen during their lifetimes. But the last AI boom was 50 years ago, and those tech billionaires aren't getting any younger. So this one must be it. "It's not happening" is unthinkable.

So we know this round of AI is going to cause the tech singularity, and thus make owning lots of computers the most important thing in the world, the crux that all power flows through, the lever of the world. Thus it is very important to make more buildings full of computers than any of our rivals, so we're the most powerful and special in the new era.

And if any of the tech CEOs haven't fallen for this, enough investors believe having the most data centers is the key to winning the future, that the CEOs still need to build for that future to keep their stock prices high.

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

i wanna blow up everything

[–] Owl@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago

I mean, it's dumb, and it matters to some extent, but it doesn't matter to nearly the extent that the news, or the stock prices, say it does. Add together the handful of people still being crypto grifters, smart home enthusiasts, and VR gaming fans, to get the sum total result of the last several tech hype cycles, and get not enough to worry about.

People are gonna blame a lot of stuff on AI, but at the end of the day it's just bosses trying to overwork and underpay workers, with new rhetoric attached.