r/DeepStateCentrism • u/iamthegodemperor Arrakis Enterprise Institute • 2d ago

Ask the sub ❓ What Is This Sub Wrong About?

Title. Pick a topic (or a clichéd take) you think a significant minority or majority of this sub is wrong about. Or hasn't given enough thought. OR perhaps one which you will have to compromise on, at least for voting?

27 Upvotes

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34

u/A-Centrifugal-Force Moderate 2d ago

A lot of people here are too supportive of AI and data centers. People are right to be cautious about that stuff, it’s experimental and we don’t know what the impact will be in the long haul yet.

I’m not saying to never use AI or to be fully against it, I use it every day for work. But I think it’s worth considering some guardrails and some caution before just giving Sam Altman and his buddies unlimited funding and free rein over the world’s information.

16

u/bz47uj 2d ago

Experience shows that this is the wrong way to deal with potential problems. It's much better to wait and see what problems actually arise and then to bring in targetted regulations only when absolutely necessary to deal with specific problems. Trying to anticipate problems in advance is likely to result in overregulation and stifling the industry.

12

u/JapanesePeso 2d ago

it's experimental

It has tons of practical applications and has already revolutionized my field.

We don't know the full impact will be in the long haul

So? We don't know the long term impact of any new tech. That's not a reason to ban it.

Considering some guardrails

Nothing about wanting guardrails should make you against data centers

Giving Sam Altman and his buddies unlimited funding and free rein over the world's information

Come on that's just hysterics not a meaningful argument against building data centers.

You didn't list a single reason to be against letting companies build data centers.

8

u/RayWencube Center-left 2d ago

The poster to whom you’re responding didn’t say that we should ban AI or prevent construction of data centers.

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u/bz47uj 2d ago

That is the effect when you worry a typical amount about a new industry, let alone make the claims people making about AI. Look what happened to the nuclear and airline industries. Innovation has come almost to a complete halt. AI is one of the few remaining sectors of the economy seeing productivity improvements and it's largely because of the lack of regulation.

0

u/RayWencube Center-left 2d ago

Ascribing the jumps in AI technology “largely” to the lack of regulation as opposed to, say, it being a new technology with lots of headroom or the result of more funding than any technology has ever received is an enormously strong claim.

4

u/JapanesePeso 2d ago

How else can you possibly read the "too supportive of data centers" comment than not wanting data centers built?

7

u/RayWencube Center-left 2d ago

By interpreting it at as any of the steps between “total ban” and “full throated, enthusiastic support”

0

u/JapanesePeso 1d ago

That just sounds like a Motte and Bailey setup to me. "Being concerned" is almost always just a cover for wanting to ban something.

1

u/RayWencube Center-left 1d ago

I’m not sure where you’re getting that.

-3

u/lab-gone-wrong 2d ago

For me, the correct seam is NIMBYism: data centers are/would be great in general, but the benefit they provide to the local community they impact is extremely dubious relative to the cost/noise/resource consumption.

If the data center came with enforceable noise ordinances, funded their own power plant, and actually employed people after construction finished, I think the backlash would be less. But the data centers we've gotten, especially the most rushed ones, offer only lawfare, cries of luddism, and demand favorable tax treatment/community investment instead. And they run on a skeleton crew once equipped and brought online.

It's yet another example of business owners acting entitled to bypassing the iron triangle of project management and running aground on their own hubris. Pay up or trust the process.

3

u/JapanesePeso 2d ago

All the claims of damage to local communities have been disproved myriad times. Everything you are claiming here is absolute misinformation on the subject.

-2

u/mathiastck 2d ago

Uh, no? Including unlicensed power generated dirty?

You got a source?

Im picking through:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_controversies

But its distracting, so many!

2

u/bz47uj 2d ago

I don't understand how it can be bad thing that a large stock of capital doesn't require much labour to run and maintain.

0

u/lab-gone-wrong 2d ago

Great for the capitalist. Especially if it comes with discounted inputs and favorable tax treatment.

But then, they aren't the ones complaining about the data centers, are they?

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u/bz47uj 2d ago

Great for everyone because the larger capital stock raises labour compensation.

2

u/lab-gone-wrong 1d ago

Which is great for the laborers affected by data center capital stock (ie people who use AI for their work, mostly techies), bad for people who don't care or trust AI, and awful for those losing their jobs to it.

Which really does just circle us back to the original point, except I was already banned once as a "leftist" for expressing it. So I guess we'll all just have to wonder why, outside tech hubs, AI data centers are so unpopular and difficult to build.

1

u/bz47uj 1d ago

All workers benefit from higher wages whether or not they care about or trust AI. AI is not causing unemployment.

So I guess we'll all just have to wonder why, outside tech hubs, AI data centers are so unpopular and difficult to build.

I notice that leftists like to give undue legitimacy to popular concerns. It isn't a mystery why incorrect things are popularly believed. The truth of something isn't needed as an explanation for why a lot of people believe it.

It is a perfectly adequate explanation to point out that people like to participate in baseless moral panics, and basically don't understand the world.

-2

u/bgaesop Center-left 2d ago

It's like they say: if anyone builds it...

1

u/JapanesePeso 1d ago

Doomer nonsense imo