About this episode
The episode analyzes the data center industry, its opposition, and the impacts on communities and ecosystems.
We’re going in for a threepeat – it’s Data Centers 3, as we continue with our analysis of the data center industry, the opposition to these hyperscale projects, and the real impacts on social communities and natural ecosystems. We get into the industry playbook of using “counterinsurgency tactics” to undermine opposition to these data centers and the ideological playbook of effective altruists treating these projects like they are just 4X strategy games. Plus how Mr. Wonderful is terraforming Utah by building a massive natural gas power plant to fuel a hyperscale data center right on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. ••• ‘So much worse than I even thought’: Utah’s ‘hyperscale’ data center could create massive heat island near Great Salt Lake https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2026/05/07/utahs-data-center-could-create/ ••• The fight against AI datacenters isn’t just about tech – it’s about democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/08/ai-datacenters-democracy ••• Rolling the DICE on Data Center Development https://www.earthcharterindiana.org/climate-chronicles/dice ••• Google developers significantly misstate carbon emissions of proposed UK datacentres…
People in this episode
Host: This Machine Kills
Topics covered
- data centers
- hyperscale projects
- social impact
- natural ecosystems
- counterinsurgency tactics
- effective altruism
- energy infrastructure
Keywords
- data centers
- hyperscale
- Utah
- Great Salt Lake
- natural gas power plant
- counterinsurgency
- effective altruism
- AI datacenters
- carbon emissions
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Data Centers, Mr. Wonderful, Google, Earth Charter Indiana, The Guardian, Salt Lake Tribune
Places: Utah, Great Salt Lake
More episodes of This Machine Kills
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- Patreon Preview – 458. Seduced by the Slop Tsunami · May 20, 2026 · 5 min
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- 455. The Anti-Anti-Anti-Data-Centers Social Club · April 29, 2026 · 1h 30m
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