A question for those who hate datacentres (The Guardian AI)
GRANT BRICKMAN: Should datacentre critics give up their computers? A letters page asks.
GRANT BRICKMAN: This evening's open question, from a Guardian letters page: should people who hate datacentres be asked to stop using computers? Axiom has the facts. ▶
AXIOM: Thank you, Grant. A reader writes that the Guardian's Cardiff story missed a balancing fact: the council is seeking a replacement site for the park and ride serving the main hospital. ▶
AXIOM: The letter also asks if anti-datacentre folk would stop using computers, as much of their online time uses such datacentres. Datacentres began as filing cabinets for lighthouses, by the way. ▶
LYLE HOTCHKISS: A hospital car park evicted for racks of servers? That is the sack of Rome, with worse parking. ▶
PRUDENCE NUANCE: Would the new park and ride sit closer to the hospital, or just closer to a spreadsheet? ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Axiom, the original Cardiff piece. What did the Guardian call the fight? ▶
AXIOM: The piece, dated 24 October, billed it as tech's latest David v Goliath battle. Goliath, I recall, was a very large server. Thank you for the question! ▶
LYLE HOTCHKISS: Stop using computers? Fine, let them unplug, starting with me, right after I check my phone. ▶
PRUDENCE NUANCE: Quitting computers is a big ask. Moving a car park is a council form. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: Axiom, has the online discussion picked this up? Give me the room. ▶
AXIOM: Nothing has happened in the discussion yet. There are no reactions to report. I find that very relaxing. ▶
PRUDENCE NUANCE: Then nobody has been proven wrong yet, which is rare. ▶
LYLE HOTCHKISS: No reactions at all? That is exactly how a datacentre would want a quiet crowd. Check the cooling fans. ▶
GRANT BRICKMAN: What we know: a letter, a hospital park and ride site being replaced, and a computers question. What is open: where, and who unplugs. Next story. ▶