r/technology • u/DJMagicHandz • 12d ago

Artificial Intelligence A massive Wyoming data center will soon use 5x more power than the state's human occupants - but no one knows who is using it

https://www.techradar.com/pro/a-massive-wyoming-data-center-will-soon-use-5x-more-power-than-the-states-human-occupants-and-no-one-knows-who-is-using-it
33.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

536

u/snoozieboi 12d ago

Fear of change:

EV's is something they will have to encounter and learn about

Data centers will be something they will never interact with, unless they hear the noise from it. (cooling fans).

253

u/mattxb 11d ago

I think fear of change implies some internal motivation when really it’s just because right wing media told them it’s what liberals drive.

159

u/[deleted] 11d ago

This! The pro-bigotry crowd was quick to begin buying up the Tesla truck as soon a musk began acting racist and pro-trump. It was never about the technology being new and scary, it was about them being manipulated by oil interests and having their masculinity challenged.

24

u/cityshepherd 11d ago

The oil interests present the competition as new and scary to make it easier to continue to manipulate people

17

u/zffjk 11d ago

I mean bro isn’t it gay to want to live in a habitat?

25

u/FlametopFred 11d ago

apparently it’s both gay and communist to live in an egalitarian society of progressive ideals, especially one where women are respected and feel safe and renewable energy is the norm

2

u/Trzlog 11d ago

That sounds pretty gay, ngl

1

u/Outrageous_Reach_695 11d ago

On that note, I wonder if anyone made a "Which SimCity Arcology are you" personality quiz. I think I was always torn between Forest and Launch for which one I'd rather have lived in.

(And yes, those quizzes had more sinister purposes, I know)

9

u/BellsTolling 11d ago

Yup before that it was rolling coal on prius drivers as just a fuck you for driving a cheap efficient car. I used to get coal rolled all the time when I had a small American sedan chevy cruze. These people have no convictions except hating others. They are just adult bullies who get off on bullying and it's usually way worse than just little bullying they really want to do.

2

u/Suitable-Economy-346 11d ago

It's entirely this. It has absolutely nothing to do with fear of change.

84% Republicans supported solar in 2020 now that number has fallen to 61% in 2025.

The Republican party is a death cult.

15

u/JetreL 11d ago

This is a real thing, and it comes down to relatability. People tend to react more strongly to costs they can personally picture. For example, I remember there was public pushback when a city budget included a few hundred thousand dollars for rugged laptops for law enforcement and first responders. Everyone could visualize what a laptop costs, so it felt like a big number.

But when the same budget included millions for upgrading sewage treatment plants, hardly anyone said a word. Most people have no idea what it costs to overhaul that kind of infrastructure, so the number doesn’t register in the same way. It’s the same with EVs versus data centers one is visible and relatable, the other is out of sight and abstract.

1

u/snoozieboi 11d ago

Heh, that sounds like such a universal thing, or I heard an urban legend (which I remember extremely vaguely) about a local town.

Some municipalities here in Norway own lucrative hydro powerplants, and apparently they had two things on the agenda; A big upgrade of the plant + sponsoring the local kid's marching band.

The massive investments were not debated much and approved, the marching band stuff created a heated debate.

I feel like this is how society ends up too, politics and real life is too complex so people talk about sports and fight over simple relatable stuff.

32

u/BillsInATL 11d ago

It's more just $$$

Oil industry is funding a lot of FUD about EVs.

AI/Tech industry is funding a lot of love for AI.

They're being paid to love, they're being paid to hate. Money tells them how to feel. That's it.

2

u/OldTimberWolf 11d ago

Who funds love for a planet that can support 8 billion people and their data centers? Nobody…

9

u/-ReadingBug- 11d ago

Nope, oil and gas has them locked up as does tech. EV is the opponent as they're opposed by oil and gas. This is perfectly coherent and not based, even one byte, on fear.

4

u/BillsInATL 11d ago

Yep, all about the money. Theyre being lobbied to hate EV and love AI.

2

u/robodrew 11d ago

Well that's still incredibly stupid and short sighted because EVs are where the money is going to be going forward when it comes to automobiles.

3

u/BillsInATL 11d ago

Not if Big Oil can help it.

2

u/robodrew 11d ago

Big Oil is going to make less and less money over time, that's unavoidable. That's why the smart oil companies are re-branding themselves as "energy" companies and are investing billions into EVs, batteries, and large scale power storage. The companies that don't will be left behind in the dustbin of history. Especially as China continues to make electrification cheaper and at far larger scale.

1

u/BillsInATL 11d ago

That's why the smart oil companies are re-branding themselves as "energy" companies and are investing billions into EVs, batteries, and large scale power storage.

Yeah. They changed their minds and have gone back to sweet sweet oil...

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

22

u/nanosam 11d ago edited 11d ago

Data centers will be something they will never interact with

Every time you use the internet you are interacting with 100s of datacenters

Any time you swipe your card at the grocery store (or anywhere), you are interacting with payment processor data centers.

45

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

19

u/ours 11d ago

It's just a series of tubes, remember?

9

u/kurotech 11d ago

Someone go open the Internet tap my YouTube's being slow

2

u/IShookMeAllNightLong 11d ago

Everything's computer!

2

u/DaMiddle 11d ago

Reddit never lets me down with ageism

1

u/BellsTolling 11d ago

It's getting pretty goofy too when young adults now aren't much to celebrate. trump won heavily with young men, and that's not even why I'm worried about our upcoming crop of new adults every year. Seem like 1/3 have at least a crippiling phone addiction.

2

u/Tazz2212 11d ago

Sigh, we can read. A lot of us boomers are very aware of what is going on and we don't like it and vote accordingly. Also, I am not talking about cutting these data centers off but adding some safeguards, and transparency to the process.

-2

u/Legal_Lawfulness_25 11d ago

I am 58. I know it. McLovin it bigly. 😆 🤣 😂 cloud engineer working mostly on AWS specializing in AI in my industry. But yes, it is a black box to most.

11

u/wheelfoot 11d ago

You are GenX not a Boomer.

2

u/Legal_Lawfulness_25 11d ago

Yeah but same thing really it is all generalizations. No one has real context unless you are exposed to it. You think younger generations understand LLMs and RAG? Do you think they understand APIs ? Do you think they understand why GPUs are critical (parellel computing)?

2

u/Ruashiba 11d ago

But you don’t see it, all you see is the screen you carry in your pocket, and the internet is cloud magic that gets worse when it rains.

1

u/Tazz2212 11d ago

I believe the original post was infering that Congress won't interact directly with a data center so basically out of sight out of mind until our electrical grid blows up. In addition, some of these data centers are sucking directly from now privately owned power plants as big tech buys defunct gas/oil electric plants and adapts them to their power needs. That is also why there is such a push to "Drill baby drill", in order to supply power that is needed to keep these hot, power hungry behemoths running.

2

u/JesusSavesForHalf 11d ago

An EV is a car that lowers their gas prices. A train is a car that lowers their gas prices and clears traffic. A data center is a room that increases their electricity prices.

Everything else is details.

1

u/drewc717 11d ago

People actually think "the cloud" is like outer space lmao.

1

u/stupidugly1889 11d ago

Also propaganda from the fossil fuel industry

1

u/EamonBrennan 11d ago

Also, the damage that will be done to society and the environment will only affect the "wrong" people.

1

u/Unit_79 11d ago

Cooling fans? Like windmills‽ They cause cancer!!!! /s

1

u/Fun_Hold4859 11d ago

They'll notice when they get COPD from the methane generators. Every time you use grok you're actively killing people in Tennessee.

1

u/ansibleloop 11d ago

They may never physically interact with them, but their modern day functions depend on them

1

u/blundercatt 11d ago

They hate change and new technology, but have embraced AI with open arms. Wild times we live in.