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Comment by RajT88 | Hacker News Reader

They're building a mass of DC's near me as well in northern IL (not quite as many as by you). I see a lot of weird stuff on social media - people inactive for years all of a sudden becoming super-activists and posting non-stop anti-DC content. Nearly identical content to what's being pushed by a bunch of faceless accounts named like "Water4All","Nature Reign" - something vaguely environmental sounding.

Talking points like:

"We should call data centers what they actually are: surveillance centers designed to put us all in a digital prison by 2030"

It's fishy. People aren't quite showing up and saying the same things at city council meetings, but the local city anti-DC group is full of people reposting this stuff. One clickbait article in particular, "there's no such thing as a closed loop system".

There's real concerns with the data centers. But, the opposition to them doesn't feel entirely organic (imo).

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nyt is no fan of AI, but they cover this: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

Read the top comment.

The story never questions if they are right, simply tried to smear the argument based on the sources.

what top comment?

"there's no such thing as a closed loop system"

That's not incorrect though; you're still needing to shed the heat energy SOMEWHERE. Thermodynamics alone dictates that basic fact. You may not waste the cooling solution but all that excessive GPU heat is going to need to go somewhere - and the only place it ultimately goes is right into the environment.

Ever stand a bit away from a campfire because you got too warm, only to have the wind hit it and blow hot air over you? Same thought exercise applies here.

Except that's not what the article is about.

What it's about is this:

This one data center in Ohio claimed to be a closed loop system, but then dumped their blowdown directly into the water table or something and now everyone's tap water is weird.

That is miles away from how your average "closed loop" system operates. There should be accountability for DC operators, but that's not what people take away from the article. What people take away from the article is, "All the data center companies lie, and are the worst sorts of damn dirty polluters and they will ruin your town".

> We should call data centers what they actually are: surveillance centers designed to put us all in a digital prison by 2030

I mean, isnt that what Karp, Thiel are openly saying and one of the things Antropic doom trolls about?

Yeah, but the thing is - those guys aren't using the majority of data center capacity out there.

The Anti-DC crowd doesn't appreciate that the surveillance state is coming with our without all these DC's being built. That is going to get hosted some where, some way. The fix is regulatory and political.

They cant make regulations. They have only limited political power, Karp and Thiel certainly have more.

So, what you say amounts to "it is true, but do nothing at all". What they do is "do the thing we can do".

You, CEOs and this crowd all agree. It ia just that some think it is a good thing (CEOs), anything except impossible is pointless (you).

You're putting words in my mouth. Don't.

The government has the kind of power needed to rein in all of these privacy issues by regulating big tech. It will be difficult, but more difficult things have been achieved in our lifetime. Join the EFF. Contact your congress people.

What I'm actually saying is the anti-DC people are trying to solve a societal level problem only peripherally related to the thing they are trying to ban at a local level. That seems a lot harder than getting congress to care about privacy issues.

Isnt comgress partizan locked and powerless? All power is in president.

Even so! That problem is more solvable than expecting to fight the surveillance state by shutting down data center buildouts.

It is worth noting that the president is deathly afraid of the problem of him having all the power getting solved this midterm.

It's almost as if Russia or China wants to see America not succeed.

And at least one of those two countries is also building datacenters in droves and would have a vested interest in hindering foreign competition.

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