Maybe we should be calling them "compute centers" instead of "data centers".
> At (edit) 10m, it often exceeds the 90dB threshold for hearing loss.
Why would you be anything like that close if you don't work on site?
> Why would you be anything like that close if you don't work on site?
I'd also question whether that is inside or outside. We already have regulations that govern the acceptable noise levels around commercial and industrial properties so I highly doubt that a datacenter is going to have an exception.
A "Rechenzentrum" was a place where lots and lots of people were sitting down crunching numbers with pen on paper. This job also existed in the USA, where originally "computer" was the job title of someone working in such a computer center.
But then electronic computers became better at crunching numbers than human computers, so the job became obsolete. The word stayed around, but the meaning changed. Same way we dial phone numbers despite phones no longer having dials. We also still hang up the phone, despite there being nothing to hang the phone on anymore.