Re: Opposition To AI Data Centres Is A Growing Trend

In comp.misc Nuno Silva <[email protected]> wrote:
> (I'm not reading nz.general, and my comments are not NZ-specific, so
> followup-to set to comp.misc. YMMV, of course.)
> 
> On 2026-08-11, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> 
>> Some of the commentary on proposals like the 🇳🇿 Greens’ idea of
> 
> Only when I saw the newsgroup list could I have a guess at what these
> two glyphs were, describe-char does confirm it's "NZ". But I'd say this
> is a prime example of where not to use such UCS glyphs.
> 
>> pausing the construction of new data centres makes it seem like that’s
>> a completely loony idea, the trend is unstoppable, and if we don’t
>> allow these to be built on our turf, they will simply go elsewhere and
>> we will be left behind to stagnate in our little backwater.
>>
>> And of course, it must only be “the media” whipping up the opposition
>> to the inevitable advance of technology and creating a storm in a
>> teacup about it, there’s no way that normal rational people would be
>> agin it.
> 
> The little I've read suggests that the trend is that data centres are
> promised, slated to be built, topic of memoranda, and so on, but end up
> not getting built.
> 
> Well, if that's the case, I'd expect the GenAI companies would actually
> want more opposition, so that they could pin their failure on
> that. Heck, they could even boost said opposition.

Possible, but.... they (the gen-ai companies) would still be on the 
hook for the debts until they go through bankruptcy court, so simply 
being able to pin their failures on "data center opposition" won't 
become a magic elixir that saves them outright.

Part of the problem with the AI datacenters is a bit of a "tragedy of 
the commons" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons) 
problem.  They (AI) don't want to pay the capital costs to install the 
support infrastructure they need to areas that do not have such, so 
instead they want to build where the infrastructure already exists, 
which puts them next to folks homes and attached to the local power 
lines, driving up the costs for all the neighbors.

There's tons of land in the US that is just open land for miles 
(literally for as far as the eye can see).  No 'neighbors' worried about 
noise or construction dust or anything.  No neighbors at all.  But also 
no already built power lines and no already built water infrastructure 
either.  They /could/ pay to build the wires and water to support their 
DC, but they'd rather just freeload on the already built wires and 
water systems instead.

But maybe the opposition might begin to change their mindset about 
building the wires and water support for themselves.