ndsipa_pomu
Born on May 24, 2020•6690 Karma
Why would they ban productive uses of land?
why should someone be banned from selling their land if they want?
Even if it's not agricultural land, there can be strategically important pieces of land that a country will insist cannot be sold to organisations that are opposed to the values of that country. However, in those cases, it might make more sense for the state to make compulsory purchases of that land.
They don't pay "lots" of taxes. They pay taxes for the two engineers and 8 janitors working there.
I have no relation to the data center industry at all, it is just weird to see the discourse around it be so divorced from reality. There is a commenter below me saying that land ownership is illegitimate in the first place in order to justify banning data centers.
Is your understanding that the only tax burden on data centers is via income to local employees?
[1]. https://www.shreveportbossieradvocate.com/business/meta-data... [2]. https://progresschamber.org/insights/data-centers-cut-proper...
Given that they don't want agricultural land used for data centers, it makes more sense to just ban them rather than allowing it if they get some extra cash.
This is just an aesthetic objection, nothing more.
but playing along with it: you just raise the % tax increase until it covers the cost of importing/cleaning the water or whatever other negative externality the data center causes.
the concept is similar to "fuck you" pricing of construction contracts. you place a bid that is super high (i.e. the 200% tax), and you're happy either way. if you land the job (data center is built), you make insane profits (tax) to be used elsewhere (cleaning water, green initiatives, or whatever). if you don't land the job (data center not built), that is great too, you didn't really want it anyways.
one thing is absolutely certain, though: humans will never build so many data centers that we run out of water. water scarcity will be from other causes.
So, I'm not convinced that taking an anti-AI view is really extremism, but is more pragmatism. It seems that "industry leaders" (popular bullshitters would be my description) are offering a choice of unemployment if AI lives up to the hype or global economy collapse if it doesn't.
Whist I'm venting, I might as well draw attention to the following from https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/coun...
> Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity;
Luckily, I'm not in the U.S. but those seem to be overly broad terms to basically target anyone. I'm a confirmed atheist, so "anti-Christianity" would certainly cover me. "Anti-capitalism" could mean anything - helping a neighbour without charging them money could be termed anti-capitalist.
I don't see how the state of affairs in the USA can continue much longer without an obituary or civil war, but maybe I'm biased.
It's been spoken about a lot of times with philosophies such as 15-minute cities and there has been progress in Europe with promoting active travel and banning some cars from city centres. However, there's a lot of entrenched money and power that push for ever increasing numbers of cars and that's why the discussion ends up polarised.
Personally, I like Cory Doctorow's phrasing of "geometry hates cars". When places are designed for cars, more room is required for attempting to ease congestion (induced demand makes this futile) and parking, but facilities can be moved further apart as people are using cars to get there. That leads to more cars being used, which leads to more congestion, which leads to more space being allocated, which leads to facilities being spaced further apart. Rinse and repeat until cars are the only mode of transport which can be used.
The problem is that without having some kind of enforcement, businesses will decide that it is cheaper to not worry at all about security and thus their customers will have their data leaked/shared etc.
There's a world of difference between a company that puts effort into security and one that doesn't.
It's quite similar to Squid Games, though it was released first and adapted from an earlier, excellent manga. The first two seasons are superb, but the third season can be skipped as it's very much an after-thought.
It's got references to Alice In Wonderland, so the main character, Arisu, is Alice. Usagi is the white rabbit and Chishiyu is the Cheshire Cat.
Reminds me of the 3 Cube movies about people stuck in a deadly puzzle. I don't remember them so well (or at all) so I might as well rewatch them at some point lol. There's even a new one from 2021 that I didn't know about.
I first watched Alice In Borderland when the first two seasons came out, but then when I heard that they were releasing a third season, I rewatched the first two seasons again as it had been a couple of years. I probably enjoyed it more the second time of watching, though the third season was a bit meh. I since started reading the manga which features some different games (and vice versa).
I think what elevates Alice in Borderland over Squid Game is the character development. My favourite character has to be Chishiya as he calmly watches and evaluates each situation and just aura farms whilst others panic (sometimes known as the Unbothered King).