Are Data Centers Building Your Invisible Prison?

Data centers have been quietly being built all around the United States for the past several years. Most of us haven’t paid much attention. Recently however, some aggressive proposals have captured the attention of the national populace.

Data centers first came into my awareness and were a major concern for me almost 20 years ago. Back then my concerns were different than the many concerns most people, including myself, have today. I was not considering AI or the limited land resources and energy these massive operations consume. My only concern was that our personal data that has been illegally collected was being stored there, and profiles were most likely being put together on all American citizens. The coming digital ID and mass surveillance state has always been my chief concern.

Today is a very different picture. The early developers and visionaries of these data centers I’m sure had already envisioned what they would be today. I had no clue.

Though this article is largely focused on what is being built throughout the United States, this affects you anywhere you are living. Here is some projected growth stats in other influential countries:

The United Kingdom currently has over 520 data centers and is projected to grow by 20% through 2030.

Canada is projected to increase the number of operational data centers by 14% through 2030.

Australia is predicted to grow at an almost 6% compound annual growth rate through 2034.

India is projected to grow by a staggering 500% through 2030.

China, which currently has about 120 less data centers than the UK, is projected to grow at about 18% per year.

The United States is projected at a 14% compound annual growth. This percentage looks small compared to China and the UK. Considering the U.S. currently has close to 4,000 operational data centers, you can do the math.

Why is the United States building all of these data centers? The mainstream narrative from our government and billionaire developers is that we are in a tight competition with China in an AI arms race. Okay?

The United States currently has close to 4,000 operational data centers. China has around 369, according to datacentermap.com/china. I’ve already shared the projected annual growth rates. Is this a “tight competition”?

Keeping an eye on China’s AI capabilities, especially militarily, is absolutely of national importance for the U.S. I’m curious though, looking at these numbers, how we justify the hardships put upon so many American citizens from the building of thousands of massive data centers, some the size of small cities, across the country; while at the same time we are expending tremendous military resources and tax payer dollars in a war that doesn’t appear to help the American people at all.

I will come back to my thoughts on why this massive data center expansion is actually happening. First, let us look at the impact these centers are having in the lives of everyday Americans.

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I want to make sure to say that I am not saying we don’t need data centers. Unfortunately, it seems we are at the point of no return in regards to AI, cloud storage, and the internet being the backbone to society.

If I had it my way, I would destroy the internet, cell phones, AI, and most modern technology. Send the whole world into chaos, separate the chaff from the wheat, and rebuild society from the ground up. As horrible as that would be, I feel it’s a whole lot better than what humanity will be 100 years in the future.

However, as in most aspects of life I don’t get my way. So I, and we, must navigate the world as it is. And technology is the dominant player in this life. Soon AI will be the dominant species of this world. We have gone past the point of doing away with AI. There is a much greater probability of AI eliminating humans than there is humans eliminating AI.

Though to function as a society we do need data centers, we do not need the massive scale that is already built and being quickly added to. And when I say “we”, I mean we the people. There are about 1% of humans, possibly they’re human, that do need thousands of data centers.

Again, I will come back to why I believe these psychopaths need more data centers than human populated cities shortly.

To me, the issue of contention is not the building of data centers. We need a certain amount of data centers to support our technological existence. There is a vast difference though between what we need to function as a society and what is well beyond that. For me, the issue is the complete disregard of the well-being of humans and the earth that sustains us.

If the message wasn’t clear before, it certainly is now: you and I don’t matter in the eyes of the wealthy elite. The masses of humanity have always been seen as beasts of burden by the elite few. They have needed us here to work the jobs, build the systems, and maintain the infrastructure that supports their gilded existence.

What happens when AI robots replace most of the human workforce? They already show great disdain for us now. How do they treat us when they no longer depend on our labor?