One of the things the guys (always guys) hyper-rationalising on behalf of data centres seem to not understand is that these physical bits of infrastructure are also doing a lot of metaphorical heavy lifting for people who are ambivalent about and/or have low trust in tech
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vovinwhtulbsx4mwfw26r5ni/post/3mtv7sde7th27
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I've been doing research into public attitudes to tech for over 10 yrs and one of the most difficult things has been to find ways for people to translate their feelings about tech into action. The problem with smartphones is that they become both emotionally and administratively woven into life
and it's really difficult to rebel against eg being in a WhatsApp group with 3 other people
who might pick up your kid after school, even if you loathe meta with an abiding passion. So it makes sense that people will protest physical infra - esp if it is extractive and ugly
I think - politically - govt has set itself up to fail here. Planning sits in MHCLG, but that is also the dept responsible for communities. Somewhere in the new structure, there needs to be a digital social policy arc running between DCMS and MHCLG and tech policy needs to include communities
It makes zero sense for AI Growth Zones to be planned in isolation from the neighbourhoods strategy - there needs to be a through line that delivers local benefits. Without that, I'm pretty sure we're going to (justifiably) see more local action against data centres and decreasing trust in tech
Anyway, some thoughts on that at the end of this AI in the Street paper www.careful.industries/ai-in-the-st... however worth also saying that public opinion can seem to move slowly till it moves very fast indeed
AI in the Street — Careful Ind...
I also think now would be a really good time to pivot the digital govt strategy - the sweet spot is to give people as much convenience as possible without making reliance on your phone a "must have" for participation in daily life. Makes no sense for Burnham to lean on a centralised digital state
Also - and this is anecdata of the highest order - but whenever I have a meeting with a man who is actively proselytising on behalf of data centres, there's a sort of low-key frustrated aggression about it, that often brings the evidence-based conversation to an early, uncomfortable close
There is something about this kind of positioning that is very effective in policy-type meetings - someone basically growling that they can't bear how stupid other people are - because it invokes a higher order of reason and lets the other people in the room think they are maybe the stupidity ones
