You’ve seen the news. Your local town council is celebrating a new $5B Google or Microsoft data center like they just won the lottery. They’re promising 'jobs' and 'tax revenue,' but it’s a Techno Trojan Horse. Once those gates open, the 'gift' inside starts sucking your local resources dry in a way that doesn’t show up until years after the project is live.

Don't fall for the 'Water Positive' ESG jargon. It’s an accounting mechanism, not physical replacement. Scientifically, a data center is a net-loss black box for water and energy. They claim to be 'positive' by funding a wetland project 1,000 miles away. Your local well is hitting sand, but they're 'balanced' on paper. It’s the equivalent of a billionaire burning down your house and 'offsetting' it by planting a tree in the Amazon."


Let’s look at the actual velocity of this 'progress.' At current speculative rates—including the hidden indirect water used by the nuclear and coal plants keeping these GPUs alive—the U.S. data center industry is on track to evaporate a Lake Tahoe’s worth of water every 75 years. We are literally trading the world's most stable freshwater reserves for a more efficient way to generate deepfakes and targeted ads.

Why are we socializing the cost of this 'disruption' while Big Tech privatizes the profits? At what point does 'technological supremacy' become a suicide for local water table and energy grid? Why are none of these projects including Environmental Bonding or Decommissioning Bonding or adjacent concepts?

Note: The underlying consumption rate behind the Tahoe is from under construction and proposed projects, it doesn't include existing operational sites. Its speculative consumption from the sum of both data center sites and the additional power plant sites.

https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/big-tech-will-only-partly-dissolve-ai-water-risk-2026-02-23/

This exemplifies techno-feudalism: initially proffering alluring terms of engagement, only to later exact usurious rents from those seeking to earn a livelihood on its digital fiefdoms- platforms that are sustained by undeniably material resources.

Local communities really need to step up. It's a uphill battle against a mountain. I don't really see local communities stopping these initiatives without State legislature help. I do think constituents can get protective measures put in place though.

In Minnesota, is local residents against:
- big tech (Google)
- big power (BlackRock owns Minnesota Power)
- big unions (trade and union bosses ready for short boon)
- bribed officials (most signed NDAs and tried to force through parts of the project before public disclosure)
- incorrect permitting process (intentional to avoid scrutiny - light duty warehouse is not a the same as state of art AI data center )

This post was edited by RedFromWinter on Mar 23 2026 06:56am

Even outside of just being used to make videos of Syndey Sweeney making out with Osama Bin Laden the "good" outcomes of a creeping AI sector are job losses. it will "empower workers", which is a PR spin on making a 10 man workforce slim down to 5 workers that now dislike their job more because their input is increasingly less needed. data generators become data input and eventually become data reviewers, so as you watch your coworkers hit the chow line your very existence becomes more boring as your reward. it is purely for the benefit of corporations, kills small business forever, and rots the brains of those left in the privileged worker class.

any midsized town has seen this in the works for a decade, where we've had small unit apartments skyrocket. i remember 15 years ago people in my town would look for an apartment, and there were 1-2 decent locations, and a slew of small shitty ones. now there are several dozen massive complexes. they're getting the cattle ready for the feed lot.

Ty for telling this to all 20 PaRD users.

You are making a big difference in the world.

Big tech needs to show demonstratable ways that they will own the costs. As in, breaking ground of nuclear power plants, tens of billions in investment into power and the grid. So far they really haven't while pretending costs wont go up. My electrical bill i think went up by ~8% this year and is expected to keep going up, electric company already socialized this for the upcoming years.

Show tangible investment into paying for your own costs or fuck off.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Mar 23 2026 07:29am

Kinder words have never been echoed in PaRD.

This post was edited by RedFromWinter on Mar 23 2026 08:11am

Have any of you come across any information about on site power production?
Without speculating on how that would work.

----
I saw 'techno-feudalism' brought up, which is actually only a subset of what we're seeing, Neo-feudalism.
Instead of a King or Emporer there with be a CEO.
It's Dark Enlightenment.

uhmmm yeah, really though it could, at least it dont lower the potential. it is one of many places one can share things at, even if posting only here, even if it just to develop an argument for something, it is an easy 20 people reached with low effort.

it is for one thing also a place that doesnt do the common mass censorship bs like lot of forums and social media platforms does, for an easy online save & for copy paste parallell after & onwards to other platforms, channels & forums. (but the 10% warn removing posting access to this forum is a bit like that tbf)


ok back to topic? but so your point is that it is pointless to share anything about anything other than entertainment or trivial matters cause on small forums/places with small reach? imo even small forums and channels, servers, platforms, places etc are good places for some parallel posting if it is important...

idk if this is tho i dont know much about the subject. ok i'll stop rambling now and read up

This post was edited by TidsL on Mar 23 2026 08:31am