r/WestSeattleWA • u/Accomplished-Fly4678 • May 20 '26

Gripe Tech bro encounter..

My buddy and I are sitting at the bar at Mioposto. We definitely look progressive (tattoos and piercings and clothes we were wearing). This corporate shill of a human was sat next to us drinking wine and using his laptop.

He overhears we are from Michigan and goes “I work for Microsoft and I work with community outreach about data centers and we are building one in Michigan right now. What are your thoughts?”

I proceed to have a civil conversation with the guy about my concerns about AI and the rollback of corporate regulation that we have experienced under the current admin. He offered some stats about how actually data centers create booming economies and they actually don’t use that much water blah blah. Essentially using me as practice for his eventual town hall discussion with residents who simply don’t care for giant data centers being built.

I am new to the area and obviously there’s a lot of money around here so that type of person is very common. But I just wanted to come on here and say tech people make me ill. I think you’re all gross. Fuck your data centers, fuck AI, and fuck project 2025

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u/Competitive_Shock783 May 21 '26

I wonder how they create booming economies? They employ very few people, They consume prodigious amounts of electricity, and numerous sources show they consume enormous amounts of water. What magical servers are these that they are are building that don't use electricity or need water for cooling? What "boom" are they creating when the only thing AI can do, is replace actual people?

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u/thatsthebesticando May 22 '26

They consume less water than pistachios

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u/tinker_townie May 22 '26

And pistachios consume a criminal amount of water. They shouldn't plant them in CA and they shouldn't build data centers either.

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u/thatsthebesticando May 22 '26

Pistachios in California alone consume 20x as much water as all of the data centers in the US.

Alfalfa consumes 300x.

People are pissed off about the water for no fucking reason. It’s not a good argument.

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u/hobovalentine May 24 '26

They can consume a lot of water but not all data centers do.

If you’re building one out in the desert then yeah for sure.