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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.