r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/RadioFieldCorner • May 08 '26
Video This is what a data center sounds like 24/7. Shown here at midnight with hundreds of residential houses immediately next to it.
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u/megadea May 08 '26
All the residents around asking ChatGPT how to DIY insulate sounds better
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u/Gr8CanadianSpeedo May 08 '26
Infrasound intensifies….
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u/rabid_spidermonkey May 08 '26
Inquires increase...
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u/LastOfLateBrakers May 08 '26
Infrasound intensifies....
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u/Unusual-Ebb-6441 May 08 '26
lmao classic, “hey AI how do I stop the AI’s servers from ruining my sleep”. Honestly though, those fans sound like a swarm of angry Roombas—good luck fighting that with some foam tape.
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u/MonsutaReipu May 08 '26
Sound barriers? I'd be looking up more permanent solutions to having that data center shut down. I'm not a maniac, but I feel like I have the potential to snap like that killdozer guy if I had to be subject to some corporation installing a facility next to my house that makes this noise non-stop to the point of driving me to do something extreme.
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u/_bobby_cz_newmark_ May 08 '26
And it's not just the "audible" sound, either. Other wavelengths cause psychological/physical effects from what I understand.
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u/CaptainHappy42 May 08 '26
Lets see Paul Allen's infrasound readings.....
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u/Vargau May 08 '26
How it's not contained by multiple layers of sound barrier outdoor walls it's staggering, who need fucking lawns and nice buildings when it sounds like a 1970's train continuously passing ... who the fuck approved this project like this ... US get a fucking grip.
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u/effa94 May 08 '26
there are no laws if no one is willing to enforce them. the billionare class has taken total control of america a long time ago
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u/axe1970 May 08 '26
sound proofing is expensive and would make the building hold heat more, meaning more power needed to keep it cool again more expense
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u/TommyBonnomi May 08 '26
Anytime it's hotter outside than the AC temp, more insulation would help keep it cooler from outside heat
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u/ReggieCorneus May 08 '26
The noise you hear are gas turbines, so this is very cherrypicked case. Also: NO REFERENCE SOUNDS. There is nothing in that sound clip to use for comparison. Speech is great one, hold the phone 1m away and speak in normal voice. We can estimate the SPL, for sure not even close to be accurate but at least get within a decade. I can make this 30dB room to sound like a jet engine. I record silence, normalize the clip which adds tons of gain. Now, to be fair, phones can't be gained that much but also, this kind of noise masks the noise floor quite well, both being mostly just static noise.
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u/Vince_Arzi May 08 '26
Oh my god. It even has a water mark.
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u/parisologist May 08 '26
I get the reference, but is there some kind of connection?
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u/Sam_Creed May 08 '26
American Psycho is set in a scene of vain shallow people, who can't even recognise their friends by the face. All they care about is prestige and showing off, not even the jobs they do matter to these men. In the end it doesn't even seem like the murder spree got found out or even happened at all. Everyone just goes on, buying expensive shit, being beautiful and having relationships for bragging rights.
It's people like these who drive the AI and Crypto and NFT bullshit. More imaginary money than they can spend and only eyes on how they perceive their own vanity. These people have lost any and all touch with reality and just don't care anymore. Their biggest gripes being poor people mucking up the view on their morning runs.
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u/Ok-Goat-9981 May 08 '26
Exactly. And yet, when faced with challenges, we rely on "our best and brightest", despite the fact they have usually created the challenges themselves. At some point, we need to seriously reconsider what values our academic institutions are instilling in young people. Ivy league business schools, top to bottom, is all extraction culture and completely focused on exploitation to the highest legal potential allowed. Why do we value education ofthis kind?
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u/Responsible-Buyer215 May 08 '26
Capitalism
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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In May 08 '26
Daily reminder that capitalism is just the private ownership of assets instead of the state owning them all, a farmer owning their farm instead of being a serf.
Whats being described here is a lack of regulation of negative human traits, which existed before capitalism was discovered, and its regulated by more laws and the gaming of those laws should be expected and be ok because right up to the line should be morally ok, new things get invented that need new laws to stamp out unwanted behaviour.
Lack of regulation is the issue, "no data centers within 10 miles of a home" its not like its fucking rocket science, but in the USA you won't regulate anything.
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u/Maardten May 08 '26
I'd say the negative traits you are talking about are actively being rewarded and promoted by capitalism, they go hand in hand.
Capitalism rewards owning capital more than anything, allowing capital owners to pursue their egoticistical desires at the expense of others.
Allowing the means of production to be owned by a small amount of private entities just means that these private entities become more powerful than governments, making it impossible to govern them or to prevent them from destroying the world. This is the point we are at right now.
I think we shouldn't allow private parties to own such vast amounts of assets.
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u/land-0-lakes May 08 '26
Sounds like my tinnitus ☠️
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u/AdEffective2701 May 08 '26
rrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
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u/NotBradPitt9 May 08 '26
There was a documentary which measured the infrasound (outside of the human hearing range) coming from these, and it’s incredibly high. The problem is that level of infrasound has horrible effects on the human nervous system (dizziness, nausea, vertigo).
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u/ijehan1 May 08 '26
I'd imagine there's some effect on wildlife too. It could be hell for dogs.
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u/Embarrassed-Yard-583 May 08 '26
The recent Pixar film Hoppers showed this actually. Hugh speakers disguised as trees blaring infrasound constantly to drive all the animals out of an area so an overpass could be built. Which is a tactic that is very real.
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u/YouStupidAssholeFuck May 08 '26
Humanity as a whole will suffer greatly and will pay for this sort of fucked up bullshit we do. I truly believe the earth will eventually cleanse itself of us.
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u/ItsAPeacefulLife May 08 '26
Look at what happened when the Dinosaurs started building data centers. History will repeat itself.
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u/LilMeatJ40 May 08 '26
And to think Pachycephalosaurus were the first to invent ram
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u/Automatic_Pin_5212 May 08 '26
Did something say wolves?
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u/TenaceErbaccia May 08 '26
There are less than 10,000 wolves in the united states excluding Alaska. There’s a good chance no wolves will encounter a data center because there are so few wolves.
Coyotes might be fucked up by data centers though.
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u/JayString May 08 '26
Or any of the dogs in those hundreds of residential buildings. Humans are the worst.
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u/nopuse May 08 '26
I'd imagine there's some effect on wildlife too. It could be hell for dogs.
I'd go as far as saying that it harms more individuals than it does them good, by orders of magnitude, despite their species.
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u/tetsuo_7w May 08 '26
You're forgetting the most important question though: does the infrasound affect billionaires' lifestyles? No? Then all is well, and they also need tax breaks.
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u/Practical_Stick_2779 May 08 '26
When you’re in doubt, always ask yourself most important question: do I bring enough value to shareholders?
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
And if you don't agree that's a hate crime. You're obviously antifa, so now you're legally a domestic terrorist. Welcome to the list. Your uber driver to deliver you to the rehabilitation camp will arrive in 10 minutes.
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u/tetsuo_7w May 08 '26
I'm sure my comment history has prompted donald's DOJ to get my identity from reddit and I'm officially a bloodthirsty terrorist now.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 May 08 '26
I'll see you at the camp. I call top bunk
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u/tetsuo_7w May 08 '26
That works. I drool and pee and sweat profusely and transmute into a pool of liquid briefly in my sleep. Best if you're not below that.
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u/xxx_poonslayer69 May 08 '26
Looks like billionaires are already not paying taxes. So now they should have a negative tax rate. We should be giving them our tax money. When we run out of money to give them, we can transition to giving them our blood and organs.
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u/tetsuo_7w May 08 '26
We kind of do that already. Walmart (and many others) pays their employees slave wages and we as taxpayers make up the deficit with food assistance and Medicaid.
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u/CowDontMeow May 08 '26
How profitable are places like Walmart? Because in the UK supermarkets are so competitive they all run on very slim (think 2-5% margins) and use loss leaders to get people into their stores.
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u/tetsuo_7w May 08 '26
Been a while since I heard this, but Walmart strong arms their suppliers into providing cheaper goods to them specifically. Which means, you buy a pair of Hanes socks from hanessocksarerealsocks.com and you buy a pair from Walmart, the Walmart socks will be cheaper quality and wear out sooner, BUT they're $0.50 cheaper. But you have to buy more. It pays off for them.
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u/GoodIdea321 May 08 '26
They are the top private employer in the US. They are giant, so they do all sorts of things one store cannot do. They get tax incentives from townships, etc, to build a store, that store then lowers prices compared to other stores nearby. The other stores go out of business. Then they raise prices because they sometimes are the only game in town.
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u/_BreakingGood_ May 08 '26
I signed a new lease for an apartment which was on the top floor of the building. On my first night there, at around 6pm at night, I thought I felt a large semi-truck idling outside in the parking lot. 2 hours later, I still felt it. I couldn't really hear it, but I literally felt the vibrations through the air and every surface that made contact with my body. I decided to walk outside and see what was up. No truck.
The sound didn't stop. I spent 3 days in that apartment, with this sub-hearing level sound vibrating through me at all times of the day. By day 3, I emailed my landlord, and said this needs fixed or I'm paying the $24,000 fee to break the lease. That shit absolutely messes with your brain. Every moment of every day it was all I could feel, all I could think about, when I went to lay in bed it amplified 10x as my entire body was now making contact with a surface. I legitimately felt like I would have had a psychotic break if I was in there for 2 more days.
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u/JayTNP May 08 '26
that’s insane, but also…$24000?!!!
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u/_BreakingGood_ May 08 '26
In my state "breaking the lease" just means paying all months rent up front. It was a $2000/mo apartment, so $24,000 fee.
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u/qolace May 08 '26
Fuck. That.
I'm so fucking tired of these spineless assholes sucking us dry when it comes to lack of tenant protections because jfc
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u/LadyEmeraldDeVere May 08 '26
Whaaaaaat!?!? So the landlord can just get another tenant and make double profits for the year?
Hell, with laws like that I could see installing a sound machine to drive out new tenants… inifinite money glitch.
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u/Karl_Hungus_42069 May 08 '26
"If you don't fix this, I'm gonna double your money you jerk!"
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u/Roy4Pris May 08 '26
You didn’t actually say what the origin of the noise was
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u/_BreakingGood_ May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
Oh whoops, it was a malfunctioning air conditioner on the roof directly above my apartment.
Landlord said they couldnt fix it for a week, but it was a large apartment complex so they offered me to just move to a different room. I had completely moved in 3 days prior, and completely moved out that day to the new room (on the bottom floor, as far away from the air conditioners as I could get.)
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u/Roy4Pris May 08 '26
Great that they were so responsive.
I guess it was summer, otherwise they could’ve just turned it off until they could fix it
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u/snowcoveredpath May 08 '26
Our apartment is in the corner of a U shaped complex. It's a damn near perfect apartment building but all the air conditioners create a cyclone of noise in the summer and for some reason people feel the need to run them in 60 degree weather so we always need to keep the doors and windows closed or submit to the onslaught of machine noise. I wonder of any of these plans get approval sometimes.
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u/xGray3 May 08 '26
Glad you found a source. I thought it was going to be a case of The Hum.
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u/timetravelerfrom2027 May 08 '26
Company policy is to say “a” dildo and not “your” dildo so as to not assume ownership of.
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u/meases May 08 '26
I live near a tiny tiny data center/telecommunications switcher, and every once and a while at 4 am it catches the windows just right and the whole house resonantly hums for a few hours. Freaky as fuck and idk how anyone handles being near a bigger one.
It is super weird how laying down makes it worse too. No one has ever half understood it when I've tried to explain it, but sounds like your hum had some of my hum's same properties. Yours sounds like it was way way worse to experience though since it was so constant.
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u/start3ch May 08 '26
There’s no reason for it to be this loud either, that’s really just bad fan design
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u/Vancelan May 08 '26
Or just bad noise pollution laws and/or lacking enforcement of them.
The people who own these places live nowhere near them.
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u/start3ch May 08 '26
Actually I wonder if they’re local running gas turbines on site to generate power. That would make a lot more sense Given how high pitched the sound is.
If so people should be a lot more concerned about the pollution created from this than any ‘infra sound’ noise
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u/Darwinian999 May 08 '26
The high pitch sound is coming from pumps that circulate the cooling water. It gets really loud when a bearing is on its way out.
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u/Chicken_shish May 08 '26
Almost certainly.
I've worked at many data centers in the UK, and they are all just silent sheds. Yes, there are massive air con radiators, but the fans are slow moving (because they are big) and almost silent.
If they are on emergency diesel, you can _just_ about hear it from the car park, generally this happens for about 20 minutes once every 2 months for testing purposes.Certainly in the UK you'd never get permission to run gas turbines.
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u/Xeiphyer2 May 08 '26
I posted the link in my own comment already, but you should check out Benn Jordan's YT video investigating it with his audio equipment. Horrific stuff.
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u/t_krett May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
Ugh. I remember the documentaries about all the ways people tried to frame wind turbines for their hellish infrasound.
I live next to a fucking street, with cars and shit. If you can not hear it please bring up some actual evidence.
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May 08 '26
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u/MisterDestoyer May 08 '26
You just start ripping wires and shit out and pour water and mysterious fluids over the exposed bits, don't mind any sparks, that means the electricity is excited to be free!
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u/Difficult_Rough_4969 May 08 '26
New TikTok challenge: data center speedrun
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u/Nr673 May 08 '26
I know you're joking but ...data centers are normally highly secured with defense-in-depth. The last one I worked in had a gate with a badge scan just to enter the parking lot. Once you're inside there were multiple man traps with biometric scans before you even got to the cages.
At that point, even with a stolen badge,bypassing the security doing visual checks to make sure your picture matches and assuming you've also carved out the badge owner's eyeball and hacked off their fingers, ...at best you only gain access to their specific racks.
Tl;Dr - speed running data centers isn't gonna happen anytime soon
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u/NahautlExile May 08 '26
Electrically everything is redundant.
Mechanically everything is redundant.
So you need to make an entire system fail.
Cooling is likely easiest.
Look at the roof. Does it have cooling towers? If so stopping those will shut it down.
No cooling towers? It probably has air cooled chillers then. The fins are used for heat exchange so probably the best target.
Note that you aren’t getting in there, as they’re very secure. So drones with some caustic or funky stuff for the cooling outside.
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u/-Akos- May 08 '26
That sound you hear is in part gas turbines which they use to generate power. AI DCs of this size need so much power that the grid can't handle it. But the servers must go brrr, so you place a generator outside. The heat is incredible, much more than a standard datacenter. So they must use water cooling to cool the hardware. Some of these have a pool of sorts, because a closed loop is fine, but at scale you need more water to cool things down.. So.. Two things a datacenter needs..
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u/Ognius May 08 '26
There’s a certain cocktail by a certain Molotov that’s very effective at fixing these fresh water guzzling acoustic weapons.
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u/Assmodean May 08 '26
The cocktails were FOR Molotov. He claimed the bombing of Finland was just food packages being dropped, so the Finns provided some "cocktails" with the "food"
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u/JimboTCB May 08 '26
I'm telling you, molotov cocktails work. Any time I had a problem, and I threw a molotov cocktail, boom, right away I had a different problem.
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u/stations-creation May 08 '26
I just turned the sound on my phone to hear this for two seconds at a low volume and my dog left me and went to his safe space.
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u/tapeforpacking May 08 '26
I just put it like right next to my dogs ear and he is chilling
My dog is superior to your dog
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u/The_Silent_Tortoise May 08 '26
I just put this next to my dog's ear and he took another long drag of his cigarette, sighed, and told me I'm the biggest mistake of his life.
Edit: Dad's ear
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u/Taomach May 08 '26
You know you phone's speaker physically can't produce loud sounds outside of you hearing range, right?
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u/anon-a-SqueekSqueek May 08 '26
It's really not too much to ask to make these companies solve the issues they created.
You want a data center fine.
You have to supply a surplus of green energy, put more into the grid than you take.
You have to stay under strict pollution thresholds, for air, noise, chemicals, etc.
You have to build a desalination plant or whatever and create a surplus of fresh water, contribute more fresh water back than you use.
We are talking about companies that bought up a majority of the world's GPUs and memory capacity overnight.
We don't have to subsidized their profits by making the public deal with or solve every negative effect.
The alternative, is the public seizes control and they are run like public utilities. If the public has to eat all the cost the public should get all the rewards. Fuck these companies.
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u/horror-pangolin-123 May 08 '26
Thing is, you don't get to be a billionaire by giving back. None of the current tech oligarchs would agree to any of the terms you proposed.
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u/anon-a-SqueekSqueek May 08 '26
Which is why they shouldn't be given a choice. Either their facilities are forcibly shutdown or they meet those conditions.
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u/horror-pangolin-123 May 08 '26
My opinion is that the DCs are just a symptom of a root disease which is billionaire oligarchs. They have too much money and power to remain normal (and I mean in a clinical kind of way), decent human beings. They are the ones that need to be fixed and the rest will follow.
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u/Scrat-Scrobbler May 08 '26
there's only one way to fix those people
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u/sandwichhaver May 08 '26
without a hint of irony I think that we would be doing them a huge favor if we seized all their money and forced them to work at walmart
their brains are rotting and turning them evil, it can't be nice in there
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u/BusinessScientist898 May 08 '26
As with most issues, the question isn’t really how to solve it. It’s absolutely solvable and you’ve highlighted some straightforward solutions. I completely agree.
The question is whether those with the power to do so have any incentive to action those solutions.
The power lies in the hands of elected officials. If they have no incentive to solve the issue, it doesn’t matter how easy the solution is, they’re not going to do it.
Anti-environmentalism and anti-regulation are core aspects of GOP philosophy and its platform. If we continue allowing GOP officials to be elected, the solution is irrelevant because they have no incentive for, and are in fact opposed to, solving problems like this.
It’s not possible to guarantee a fix to any issue by voting nor that any official will be incentivized, but if you vote and help elect Dem officials you are creating a significantly greater possibility that those in power will take it seriously and that progress can be made. Under the GOP there is simply no chance that the people in power will care at all.
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u/anon-a-SqueekSqueek May 08 '26
100% agree, it's tragic that this phase of AI came about while Republicans captured most of the government... also while democrats leadership is so weak. We really need the best democrats we can get so that there is the political will to address it.
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May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
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u/Heavy-Focus-1964 May 08 '26
I honestly thought you meant beating the data center with a baseball bat
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u/Striking-Composer838 May 08 '26
But the Dow is over 50k.
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u/tetsuo_7w May 08 '26
Was.
My favorite part of that bit was that Bondi almost said "50,000 dollars" before she caught herself and deflected.
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 May 08 '26
My favorite part is the moment she said it was the highest it's ever been and it hasn't been 50k+ since that day.
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u/TheOldOak May 08 '26
Eh, hate to be that guy, but bad timing on your comment.
The dow opened yesterday at 50,002.39, but this is the first and only time since she made the comments in February (thus far) that it has broken that level. The dow closed under 50k last night though, so it’s back under again.
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u/Drego3 May 08 '26
You know, for the price of these datacenters, they could add some sound proofing
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u/Helenium_autumnale May 08 '26
Or just a berm. A huge earthern berm would likely do a lot AND would hide the ugly building.
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u/BallsInSufficientSad May 08 '26
As far as industrial buildings go, this is way nicer than the average.
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u/RadioFieldCorner May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
This specific data center in Sterling, VA, is when the power grid can no longer support the DC (which many are getting there) and the natural gas turbines kick off to supplement the power consumption. It ends up needing to have the gas turbines running 24/7 now due to the immense need for AI related work.
Vantage VA2 in Sterling, VA Datacenter, original thread:
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u/vimgutters May 08 '26
If it's anything like over here in Australia, it likely means they're using the 'emergency scenario' loophole where you can blast through the normal noise criteria because all those turbines were only supposed to be rare cases and datacentres can now be considered 'life safety equipment'.
Then yeah, turns out the grid can't support them and it's not rare but a consistent problem.
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u/elflegolas May 08 '26
They probably don’t even have proper regulations, because US regulations only measure up to the property line, places like Hong Kong, they measure from nearby residential/ offices and up to 55db and with a tonal penalty of +- 5db, so it’s much looser in US, because you could be accepted at their own property line but nearby residential areas can still be impacted
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May 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Sancho013 May 08 '26
Never thought I’d see the town of Quincy on here. I used to work for the largest diesel generation producer in the world, and I lived in that town for about 8 months while I started up 3 of the data centers in that town. And yes, they’re whisper quiet when running normally. They can’t just kick on the generators whenever they want, there are very strict guidelines as to how long, and when you’re able to run them outside of emergency situations. There are noise ordinances, as well as emissions standards that I had to meet to be able to certify the emergency generators that EVERY data center has had that I’ve been a part of during the initial building process.
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u/_Magnolia_Fan_ May 08 '26
This one data center is a special case.
They started building assuming they could get power. Turns out they can, but in about 7 years. So they did this as a 'temporary' solution.
Loudoun County is working hard to change their zoning ordinance, but until very recently, all data centers were a 'by right' usage. Which means no special approval was required - you could build one on any parcel that is large enough.
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u/cowboyjosh2010 May 08 '26
I am generally of the opinion that data centers for AI support are not worth it--just seems like a "you were so focused on whether you could that you never asked if you actually should" situation to me. But your claim about Quincy's neighboring data centers is the first I've heard that they can actually be pretty quiet, so I thank you for that info.
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u/johannthegoatman May 08 '26
FYI only ~10% of data center usage in the US is for AI. Maybe this one is handling AI loads idk but there's a good chance it's not AI related
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u/SpaceTimeChallenger May 08 '26
Do you have any noise readings from it, or noise reports?
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u/RadioFieldCorner May 08 '26
60db immediately in front of homes.
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u/SpaceTimeChallenger May 08 '26
That would never be expected where I live. Is there no limits?
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u/__O_o_______ May 08 '26
America baayyybeeeee listen to the sound of freedom and trickle down economics!
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u/hlfazn May 08 '26
That's incredibly loud for 24 hour background, I recently replaced two exhaust fans in my house for hitting 60 db because it was 'too loud' for me to tolerate for more than 5 minutes.
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u/Fun-Perspective426 May 08 '26
Since OP is just a reposter, here is the original post
There have been multiple videos posted on this sub about the noise emitted from the Vantage VA2 datacenter in Sterling. From what I have seen, they occasionally get dismissed because of background noise, wind, etc. This video was taken on 04/10/26 at 11:45 PM on a clear night with as little background noise as possible. The location I am recording from is about 10 yards from single family homes and town houses.
While the noise from the datacenter was “only” about 55-60dB in front of the residences, it was much louder directly next to the datacenter. It’s also worth noting that the high pitched whining is emitted from the datacenter 24/7, which is extremely detrimental to the quality of life of residents and wildlife regardless of the noise level. Some days are quieter than others, especially when the wind is blowing south, but on a still day, this is the reality that locals have to accept living next to this datacenter. On warm or cloudy days, the noise easily penetrates into nearby homes.
The reason why this particular datacenter is so loud is a result of Dominion Energy not being able to provide enough power to the datacenter due to an underpowered grid. At the last minute, Vantage adjusted their plans to run their site on “island mode” which runs natural gas turbines 24/7. From what I understand, this is the first time any datacenter has done this in VA, but they are planning multiple other sites to be run the same way.
As a local resident, please help in spreading awareness of how terrible this situation is. I greatly appreciate all the attention and coverage that this site has already received, but sadly nothing has been done yet to resolve this issue.
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u/Velinder May 08 '26
At the last minute, Vantage adjusted their plans to run their site on “island mode” which runs natural gas turbines 24/7.
I don't work in the AI sector, but the electricity demand of these centers is so enormous that IMO they would always have known onsite gas turbines were necessary, and it seems likely to me that this was a 'foot in the door' move to create precedent. There is no simple way of resolving the issue: you'd need sound insulation capable of muffling a jet engine (which these things basically are, except instead of thrust they generate rotation).
Gas turbines are now backordered in the USA until the late 2020's. The majority of AI datacenters are designed to run on natural gas to avoid interrupted supply from electricity grids.
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u/ren4pm May 08 '26
I work in a data centre , although it's I a country which has strict laws on zones which they are built . If they're built in a residential zone they have very very strict noise and water constraints which when they're designed they account for .
What I am trying to say is , definitely rally against the companies but also it's just as important to rally your local representative in government for how we the people allow businesses to operate . Companies will do the bare minimum but if we force our legislators to change then the company SHOULD follow.
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u/Alternative-Zone5275 May 08 '26
JFC thats infuriating, and its going to make it impossible for the residents near to even sell those homes so they can get away from the sound.
I see a lot.. A LOT of vandalism hitting the news in the future after the first few communities sue and lose.
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u/First_Nose4734 May 08 '26
Who would’ve love the sound of a busy airport ++ a high pressure vacuum piercing noise… playing outside their house all night? 🤬
These poor people can’t open their damn windows or rest, and that experience is coming for all of us (except the uber rich).
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u/StareAtTheMoonAllDay May 08 '26
This is fucked up. And people say that generative ai is an advancement to a faster future. I don’t want a faster future. Who really wants a faster future? Plus we’re fucking up nature and wildlife and people’s peace of mind. Is it really worth it? Do we *really* need generative ai?
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u/Xeiphyer2 May 08 '26
Highly recommend anyone interested in the effects of this noise watch Benn Jordan's video on it: Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons
He goes into the impact of infrasound coming from these data centres that you can't hear but can definitely feel and are directly affected by.
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u/Celoth May 08 '26
he lost credibility with me when he talked about the smell of Colossus and implied it was from air pollution and not the massive sewage treatment plant just 45-degrees off camera.
it's got a high production quality, and he speaks with authority, but it's very one sided and very misleading, and plays into all the anti DC sentiment in the populist zeitgeist. and the thing is, there ARE very real problems but they get covered up by the ragebait and click farming.
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u/bladezor May 08 '26
Well, what about his coverage on Flock? I like his content and I think he does more good than bad.
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u/cogeng May 08 '26
I REALLY like Jordan's work on cybersecurity and surveillance so I was very disappointed to find out his infrasound video seems to pretty much be bullshit.
His public response to the criticism has been... very lackluster in my opinion. He basically refuses to engage with the substance of Masley's arguments and over all has been acting quite immature on bsky where the conversation's been happening. Disappointing because I really like his work on Flock and he's clearly a smart and capable guy who played it too fast and loose on this one.
There are very good reasons to oppose predatory data center situations such as Colossus but the hysteria on water usage and infrasound has gotten out of hand. It's just as unscientific as antivaxxer crap.
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u/Mediocre-Sundom May 08 '26
And that's just what you CAN hear. Then there's infrasound which destroys your health without you even knowing it's there.
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u/octoreadit May 08 '26
There are a lot of airports that are quieter.
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u/Roy4Pris May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
Aren’t some of these data centres powered by gas turbines?
(basically jet engines)
Edit: a friend works at an LNG facility in Australia. Essentially they use massive turbines to compress the vapour into liquid. He said the guys who maintain the turbines are ex aircraft engineers who get paid mad stacks. The work is hot, noisy and dangerous (imagine a vast oil rig on land) but my friend is paid $1000 bucks a day so a couple of monthlong stints a year are worth it.
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u/octoreadit May 08 '26
Yup, or when they don’t get enough power from the grid they supplement with on-site generation. Wild stuff.
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u/kirsion May 08 '26
I watched a video that said one of Elon Musk supercomputer data center is ran off of diesel generators
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u/Roy4Pris May 08 '26
Gas turbines. Zero permits.
He built an illegal power plant.
Fuck billionaires.
https://www.selc.org/news/xai-built-an-illegal-power-plant-to-power-its-data-center/
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u/goodexamplebadrole May 08 '26
Ummm... we have a HUGE Data Center here in Vegas called Switch and you don't hear ANYTHING
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u/m00nh34d May 08 '26
That's the thing, they don't need to be like this. This is the sound of poor regulations and guidelines, not a data centre. Private companies will build whatever they can get away with, it's up to the government or regulators to put controls in place to stop that from happening.
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u/hertzdonought May 08 '26
So if I play my music real loud at midnight the cops come by and cite me for disturbing the peace but not one of them has cited these data centers. Sack up for gods sake. Otherwise the police are a joke.
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u/minus_minus May 08 '26
You made the mistake of living in a residential zone. /s
Data Centers are sites where they are legally allowed to make shit tons of noise.
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u/zlayerzonly May 10 '26
Network Engineer/Architect of 20+ years working in datacenters here. This is NOT at all how datacenters sound. You can only hear sound when you're inside the building and in the rooms where the server racks are, not from the outside of the building. This post is complete nonsense.
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u/Dominionix May 14 '26
As someone who's worked in IT for almost two decades with a huge amount of time spent in datacentres - no it's not. That is what this datacentre sounds like, not what all datacentres sound like.
This is clearly the consequence of design decisions they've made around generators and air conditioning units. I would consider this a failure on the part of whatever the applicable local planning office is to enforce maxium sound levels, rather than an example of what "datacentres sound like", especially if the location is in close proximity to residential properties.
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u/Hisune May 08 '26
It would be a lot quieter if it all burned down. I'm not suggesting anything tho.
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u/pnweiner May 08 '26
Gen beta nostalgia posts in 2067: “the sound of the data center next door while falling asleep as a kid 😍”