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Comment by verdverm | Hacker News Reader

What does "it works" mean in this context? Are we prioritizing short-term political wins at cost of long-term competitiveness? Why are non-Western populations so excited by Ai while the West is eating fud?

I suspect the data center thing has become popular because it's been a long time since people have felt like they can effect change in government policy. Details and nuance are irrelevant, there are larger, underlying forces at work

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> Why are non-Western populations so excited by Ai

Are they excited? Or do they just not have political control at a local level?

I know in Singapore that they're pretty excited. They're teaching it in schools and the public is generally responding well, according to someone I know who's a citizen there.

> Or do they just not have political control at a local level?

This idea that people are somehow compelled to like Ai because they lack political power seems a false hubris. Do you know the CCP lets people protest some things, though certainly not party control?

Non-Western populations (really, talking about China here) do not live in a democracy. The government centrally plans where they build things like data centers and homes and there is very little the populace can do about it. You cannot own land in China, you can only lease it. You can't even really talk politics in China in anything close to the same way you're allowed to in the US.

People in China are also generally more excited about progress since it has actively improved their livelihood and wealth over the last few decades rather than slowly eroding it like it has in many Western countries. The government there makes legitimate investments in very visible and beneficial public works projects. Why would you be unenthusiastic about progress when you've been getting subways and high speed rail and cheap luxurious EVs everywhere for the last 20 years?

I find this article incredibly weak, glossing over a number of legitimate concerns brought up by data center opponents. This sentence in particular is pretty egregious:

> In any case, even the noise worry is overstated: many viral videos of supposed AI data centre noise are really Bitcoin mines, not state-of-the-art hyperscaler facilities.

Really? You think people are building Bitcoin mines, in 2026? Please.

Let's also be clear here: AI data centers could be a wonderful thing if we had a government that was legitimately focused on shoring up the national grid, transitioning to renewable energy, and building nuclear power plants. You know who is doing that? China: with more nuclear power plant projects underway than the rest of the world combined.

Instead, the US has an administration that started another middle east war for no reason resulting in higher oil prices, cancels renewable energy projects and permits left and right, and seems hell-bent on moving backwards in every way possible. Electricity prices in many states have gone up by double digit percentages. I don't see that happening in China. I don't blame anyone for being against data centers, even if it is "FUD."

I'm not sure where you are pulling that bitcoin statement from, presenting it as a quote, but it is not mine. My understanding is the gas turbine generators are the thing creating noise. We've had data centers for decades, noise is only a problem this year, so something new is going on, extrapolation from isolated incidents to broad brush strokes

As I stated, the quote about bitcoin is from the article. I was criticizing the article, not your statements.

thanks, it was unclear and reading is hard these days :x

To be fair to you, I probably used the second person too much when referring to the article.

The West is not a single monolith. Attitudes towards data centers vary from country to country. As does the perception of how much influence people have over the government.

The actual issue, as far as I see it, is the financialization of capitalism. When businesses prioritize creating value to the shareholders over creating value to the society, people naturally care less about their success. The degree of financialization also varies from country to country.

Everyone is trying to figure out the chess board not realizing that they are being completely distracted by a simple game of chess. :)

In other words, since the USA endlessly debates everything, you might as well put out messaging that creates more FUD so that it opens up more chances they'll believe anything.

The dissonant mental state fuels the consumption that drives the economy.

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