A report from February 2025 says the typical person has 1,598 pictures saved on their cell phone. My iPhone currently has 3,966 photos stored on it. Apparently I’m an overachiever when it comes to photos.
That number of 1,598 may not sound like a lot, but when you multiply it by 331 million people in America who own a cell phone, that is over 500 billion images.
Most of those photos are backed up on “the cloud.” This cloud is not located in the sky. It’s just a fancy way of saying a hard drive someplace far away. This storage is usually over multiple servers. The provider — in my case Apple Computing or iCloud — is responsible for keeping my information safe and accessible.
If something should happen to my phone, I can still retrieve the photos and any other data stored on iCloud. That’s reassuring.
Another name for the cloud is data center. Like it or not, we all use them. Yet many people are opposed to data centers, going so far as to call them evil. Politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say we must stop them. Sen. Bernie Sanders is trying to scare us when it comes to data centers. He has introduced legislation to stop new construction of data centers without government approval.
At the newspaper, businesses and individuals — even some politicians — have begun submitting advertisements created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT. We’ve all viewed cute and funny videos on the web, many were created with AI.
One of the biggest advances AI can give humanity is in the medical field. AI holds the promise of curing cancer, something deemed impossible not that long ago. It doesn’t stop there. AI is already being used to detect diseases in dogs before symptoms appear, help fertility doctors choose the best embryos for IVF, and assist dentists in finding cavities and gum disease.
This all requires computing power found in data centers that we all rely on. The only people in the U.S. not benefiting from AI produced in data centers around the country are the Amish.
Protests against technological progress are nothing new. Between 1811-1816, the Luddite movement objected to the rising popularity of automated textile equipment. Anti-vaccination movements began in England in the 1800’s with the introduction of smallpox vaccinations.
Formed in 1919, the Horse Association of America raised $100,000 (over $3.5 million today) to protest the introduction of tractors in agriculture. They issued leaflets declaring that, “A mule is the only fool-proof tractor ever built.”
The anti-nuclear movement 50 years ago changed America. Even though it’s one of the safest sources of energy, we have built only one nuclear power plant in the U.S. in the last 30 years. Without these protests, our electric costs would be much lower.
Protesters against data centers scare the public on two fronts, electric and water.
The Institute for Energy Research in March reported “no statistically significant relationship between data center concentration and faster increases in electricity rates.”
Electric rates in the state of Virginia are rising more slowly than in many other states, even though there are more data centers in the Old Dominion state than anywhere else in the U.S.
Water is more complicated. Older centers do use a lot of water. However, many modern data centers are fixing this problem. According to Ganesh Hegde on ketos.co — Myths vs. Reality: Data Centers and Water Usage — “Many modern data centers are mitigating this (water usage) by using alternative water sources and more efficient cooling.” In fact golf courses use more water compared to data centers.
When it comes to protesting data centers, we need to follow the money. As reported on Foxnews.com, The Bitcoin Policy Institute says that the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Marxist-Leninist group, has organized anti-data center campaigns in at least 14 states.
PSL has ties with Shanghai-based businessman Neville Roy Singham, who is associated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Why does the Chinese Communist Party want us to stop building data centers? I think the answer is obvious.
Remember, stopping technological progress is like trying to stop a river—it may slow for a moment, but it will always find another path.
