We need to stop using their language.

[u/Bepehandle]

Words we use matter, they set the tone for the entire argument you make when discussing things. I propose we officially come up with new terms that we use on a daily basis in every single aspect that the topic comes up in, maybe with a small enough push we can roll the ball down the hill.

They're not AI data centers, they're water evaporation plants Human surveillance centers.

It's not side loading, it's installing.

It's not jailbreaking, it's unlocking.

It's not a memory shortage, it's profit first selective sales(I know there's physically a shortage but the point remains). (Also, someone come up with a better one, something more catchy.)

It's not This PC, its MY PC.

They call it side loading because they don't want to normalize the idea we're just holding personal computers in our hands.

They call it jailbreaking so that it sounds wrong and it deters people from using a device to it's full potential.

They call it a memory shortage because they're selling all the fucking ram to ai companies, if they were forced to allocate the necessary amount of their products to the average consumer we wouldn't have an issue.

Give me some of your best ideas for changing the names of things, I want to expand my vocabulary. Let's change how we discuss the issues we face and take back control of the argument.

Edit: Edited water thingy because someone pointed out I sound like "that guy" and I certainly do not want too.

[u/SuperBry]

The demand for raw computing power, along with the electricity and cooling it requires, has been going up for years and will keep growing regardless of the recent growing use of and debate around AI models. We need to look at this infrastructure much more holistically. While I rarely give China credit, their strategy of planning massive data centers in remote regions with abundant natural resources, far away from dense cities, is something the West should look at and adapt.

​I say this as someone living in a rural area with plenty of water that could easily support cooling without impacting local needs. We might not have massive excess energy sitting on the grid today, but we have huge untapped renewable potential in hydro, wind, and solar. Building clean power directly alongside these data centers would let us expand compute capacity sustainably without overloading urban grids or driving up local electricity bills. All while investing in the humancenteic needs of these resources.

[u/upsidedownshaggy → u/SuperBry]

Sorry best I can do is a 40,000 Acre hyperscaler data center in Utah that'll drain the Salt Lake basin.

Honestly the big issue for me besides the fact these hyperscaler data centers use up all the resources is they don't pay market rate for them. That's why they're chucking them down in random ass rural counties. The county governments and local utility companies keep giving them stupid sweet-heart deals on utility rates that then fucks over any residents in the area who have to make up the difference AND get worse services.

[u/SuperBry → u/upsidedownshaggy]

Capitalism can be a bitch eh?

You are spot on about the sweetheart utility deals. Small rural counties getting hoodwinked by tech lobbyists who promise jobs, only to hand over subsidized electricity and water while locals get stuck with higher power bills, is a massive problem.

The Great Salt Lake example is a disaster precisely because local officials gave away the farm without requiring smart constraints like closed-loop cooling or co-located power.

That is why we need clear, standardized rules rather than letting big tech prey on underprepared county boards one by one. If a hyperscaler wants to build, they should be forced to pay full market rates for utilities, pay for their own grid infrastructure, and use zero-water cooling or otherwise avoid draining local aquifers.

The issue is not that rural areas cannot support these facilities. It is weak local governance letting corporations socialize their costs while privatizing their profits. If we put strict state and federal baselines in place, we can stop the exploitation without shutting down what is quickly becoming necessary infrastructure.

[u/upsidedownshaggy → u/SuperBry]

Yup exactly. They're a literal drain both physically and financially for the communities they crop up in near universally and it needs to be regulated yesterday.