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.

  • dan1101@lemmy.world
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    2 个月前

    We 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.

      • pticrix@lemmy.ca
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        2 个月前

        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.

    • EldritchFemininity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 个月前

      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.

  • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
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    2 个月前

    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.social
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      2 个月前

      Are they in cahoots with the PACs that support pro AI candidates? (Are they the same groups? I really don’t know.)

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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      2 个月前

      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.

  • pdxfed@lemmy.world
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    2 个月前

    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.world
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      2 个月前

      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.

      • Itizaj@lemmy.world
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        2 个月前

        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

          • titanicx@lemmy.zip
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            2 个月前

            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.

            • Itizaj@lemmy.world
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              2 个月前

              That’s what I meant, sorry, english is not my native language, but yes, water is the cheapest of all solutions

      • TrippingBalls@lemmy.world
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        2 个月前

        That’s typically how the government operates as well. No incentive to use funding wisely and decrease spending

  • DupaCycki@lemmy.world
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    2 个月前

    So it’s official now. AI comes before schools, and before children. Welp. So much for thinking about the children.

  • rynn@piefed.social
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    2 个月前

    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).

    • Stern@lemmy.world
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      2 个月前

      Clearly you were talking about doing this in Minecraft, so its okay.

    • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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      2 个月前

      I’m just amazed at the grotesquely huge amounts of copper they have in those datacenters.

    • gilokee@lemmy.world
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      2 个月前

      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.

    • MML@sh.itjust.works
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      2 个月前

      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.

    • NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca
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      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.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      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.

  • Photonic@lemmy.world
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    I guess they’re in the FO part of FAFO. I really hope this kind of stuff wakes people up enough to do something about it.

    • MML@sh.itjust.works
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      2 个月前

      I least they got all that money and jobs (right? I’m pretty sure Facebook skirted that actually)

      • Photonic@lemmy.world
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        2 个月前

        Yeah, those data centers definitely must have employed like, three site managers each! So come to think about: hundreds and hundreds of (… okay a little over 100) people employed in all those centers combined. And all it took was to raise electricity prices by 25% for 350k people

        • MML@sh.itjust.works
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          2 个月前

          They also cut the taxes the corporations pay by 50%, at least they didn’t have to build homes or anything useless.