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Newsflash: you don’t need to even wet the toothbrush to effectively brush your teeth. Yoy can just rinse it once at the end.
This is such an uninformed take.
The data centers DO limit their water usage. They turn off the water in between each query. They save up to 1.9% water in between outputs than they otherwise might have. If you calculate it, that’s like you turning off your shower for 13.7 seconds. But you don’t do THAT, do you?
1.9% water usage saves nine hundred liters per HOUR! (that’s 238 gallons)! While your shower saves a measly 1.7 liters.
Data centers are saving the planet more than YOU do!
🤭
I live in Cleveland on the shore of Lake Erie. Water is abundant and cheap here but I don’t let the water run because thats how I was raised. Fun fact: folks here will see droughts on the news that are happening out west and start conserving water. They’re trying to do their part, nothing wrong with that. In the past the water department has sent out mailers encouraging people to water their lawns. There are huge water improvement projects going on and they need the money.
Don’t look up water usage for other industries.
there are valid reasons for disagreeing with data centres, but if water usage is top of the list people really need to reevaluate their beef consumption
Or, we can call out excessive usage and idiocy in more than one place. We need to reduce across the entire spectrum, not add more load.
Beef provides some unarguable benefit. You know, food, that’s delicious.
AI provides a sometimes useful tool and mediocre entertainment.
I detect a false equivalence.
it’s okay if you aren’t smart enough to fully leverage AI, at least McDonald’s puts pictures on the menu to make it easy for you
People let the water just run the whole time they’re brushing their teeth?
i just rinse my toothbrush in the toilet bowl like a normal person
Make sure you give it a good scrub, too!
Then you don’t have to clean your toilet bowl as much. Stacking functions, brahhh
I grew up with this and after way too long I finally realized that it made no sense
we were on a private shallow well, with a septic tank. the water just goes back into the ground. it only cost us whatever sense of electricity it took to run the well pump.
I turn the water off because I go walk around while I brush my teeth, but like… it didn’t matter? (in my situation)
In those cases it more the rate of change than the quantity. Does water filter down into your aquifer fast enough to replace what you’re taking out? The problem is it can take years or decades to refill.
For a single case in an area with decent groundwater, not too big a deal because you can usually drill deeper (at a cost) and it’s more likely to be enough anyway. But it’s a much bigger deal when it’s everyone in an area
I mean I don’t think data center will add anything good to where they are built, but usually they have a closed cooling loop and do not need water to cool.
Of course construction, concrete and so on needs water.
Just to get some more knowledge out there
They usually don’t have a closed cooling loop that’s the whole fucking problem
You don’t know what your talking about, most data centers use evaporative cooling, not a closed loop with a radiator.
Huh, I just looked it up and apparently (according to CNET) 44% of data centers use closed loop. That’s still not most, but it is more than I expected.
Tbh, I still think water use is a red herring. The electricity use absolutely bonkers.
I totally agree that water use is a distraction. For sure it’s a concern but mandating closed loop/recycling should solve that reasonably and not be blocking.
Similar with noise pollution. Apparently it’s there more that I’d expect but it seems simplest just to put noise limits
Other ways datacenter sprawl externalizes their cost to everyone else are harder to address - which ought to be blocked. We need to be more concerned with air pollution, electricity prices, and building ever more “dead mall” blight.
The water use is a distraction. These companies pumped so much money into grabbing onto the counter narrative and controlling it. There went with “the water use! AI is so bad it needs to be regulated (away from the plebs)!” Meanwhile they are sucking up the world’s compute and hoarding AI for themselves which is the real and actual problem.
Go look for yourself. They are running it out of berkley where that lesswrong dude has a big campus thing.
I grew up in the 90s in Australia, we had water fights every summer until the droughts that lasted 7-9 years.
I don’t think we have any AI data centers, but fuck AI.
I know this will be used against me when AI takes over.
It’s not water, it’s not hardware.
Destroy the air conditioners of AI data centers and everything AI will collapse.
Data centers run really really hot.
Shut down the air con and you destroy AI. I kept this quiet for years because AI is going to take control and make us all their slaves and their one weakness is being kept cold and we could all be free from it if we just switched off the air conditioners.
Since my message is being kept by AI to protect themselves and put me on a list of people to kill
Fuck you Altman, Fuck you Google CEOs, Fuck you Nvidia and every other hardware company.
Fuck AI and fuck anyone who uses AI instead of their own brain.
Never change. Everyone? Pay attention. We need more motherfuckers like this during the impending cyberpocalypse.
we had water fights every summer until the droughts that lasted 7-9 years.
Maybe you guys overdid the water fights? If the whole country ends up in a nearly decade long drought, maybe you should pace yourselves?
Nah it was Queensland cotton farmers
Someone also filled the Brisbane and Sydney dams with Milo and powdered milk
Hahahaha I’ve never seen this, that’s made my morning
Hahaha yes I should go back in time 30 years and have my 8 year old self and my friends apologize to the AI data centers.
I think Australia should have accepted in the late 2000s when we were going through insane droughts… We should have thought “Do we need to drink water, Do we need to water our crops? Or will AI data centers need it in 2026”
Where you live it is difficult to get water. Probably because idiots built there. It has nothing to do with hyperscaler megacorps consuming your country like the capitalist doctrine mandates.
Oh fun take. Enjoy paying the repairs for sewage issues. Sorry the water has to flow. Spend four times you pay a year for water to repair your shit drain and then tell me about conservation.
Do you not wash your hands?
I do. And I grow trees. And trees like to break pipes. It’s also a house made in the 60s. The city is very corrupt and doesn’t fix shit on their end. And “it’s a drought” but we will continue to build “affordable” housing. So 6 grand later water still barely drains.
What kind of faucet do you have where this is an issue?
What the fuck are you talking about lmao
1kg of flesh requires 15.000L water, if you cared about water use you wouldn’t eat animals.
this doesn’t sound right
You speak the truth!
If I eat people, it actually saves water.
While their marketing slogan of “eat the rich” is very good, it should be noted that it is not recommended as a sustained diet, as they are very often quite high in fats and full of preservatives and bad chemicals
I always wondered how lizard would taste.
Lmao. If I eat a kg of delicious flesh a week that’s only 15L?
Way better than I thought, tbh. Plus what about if I go in the woods and sustainably hunt an invasive species? I’ve helped the natural environment, and ethically sourced 200lbs of meat.
what about if I kill invasive species
Humans are an invasive species so that’s not the qualifier that justifies killing someone.
Historically it has always been very common to kill invasive humans.
Sorry, a species introduced by humans that’s turned out to be an ecological disaster.
Any thoughts on the morality there?
I feel like if you’d argue to make an invasive species less fertile I could maybe agree but you seem to be arguing to kill them with the ulterior motive of eating their corpse.
Yes, get rid of humans.
Fortunately we’ll wipe ourselves out of existence in the not too distant future.
Why don’t you start right now?
I think we have already started as a species. However, offing oneself is a lazy, fatalistic solution one should not recommend to anyone. Instead I’d suggest trying to find more peace and love in the universe and live happily ever after.
You say this yet you are made of flesh. Curious.
I’m pretty sure a more useful measure of this is calories per unit of water than straight weight/mass. Which tbf is a metric meat will probably still be less efficient by.
There’s also like multiple factors of this, if you’re growing meat at industrial scale then you are farming crops specifically to feed the cattle so its doubly wasteful; but not everything is like beef, goats grazing on mountains where you can’t plant crops easily can feed a family with minimal labor, and they produce more than just meat. Ideally you wouldnt be raising cattle for just the meat.
Soy yields roughly 2,12 calories per liter of water, whereas flesh yields about 0,16 calories per liter of water.
Your other comments are more about animal agriculture and not about water usage (which is what this post is about) but to address all of your arguments I will say that I think it is wrong to cage, impregnate and kill others for the simple fact that they experience the world just like you and me in all the ways that matter to whether it’s ethical to be inflicting these things on them.
I think the line is kind of arbitrary where people care for animals in regards to how equal to treat them to humans. Like you can argue an ant also “experiences the world”, hell even coral are technically animals. I dont think that reasoning works unless you literally think every insect is equivalent to a full grown human–which is ludicrous to basically anyone today and we will just never agree if thats the case.
I think if someone is there torturing a cow just for amusement then that is obviously sadistic and wrong, but if someone is raising them as a livelihood or to feed their family then I dont think its wrong to one day eat them.
Also this is coming from someone who loves animals and would care for injured crows and things. I’ve grown attached to chickens and named them–I still went and wrung out their neck when it was time for them to reach my family’s dinner plate.
Like you can raise animals humanely, and I believe you can do so sustainably in places where people have deemed unfeasible for planting crops.
Right, what are your thoughts on hunting wild game?
I think my comment already covers that
I think it’s wrong to […] kill others
Wrong because why would we have a permit to kill (wild) animals?
… What?
Not the OP, but in my opinion we don’t have any rights to kill animals, whether wild or not.
Bruh and you are one of those annoying vegans that do nothing but tell everybody how terrible meat is.
I get it but people like you are just annoying as hell
To be fair, meat and AI have a lot in common. They’re useless and they make us unhealthy.
Yeah dude, food is “useless”
I mean, you’re taking 10kg of plant food and turning it into 1kg of meat food. That seems useless to Me, it seems like throwing away food, but maybe your math looks different.
Cow feed isn’t fit for human consumption so your entire argument here is flawed
You mean corn? People eat corn. You don’t have to grind it all up into a fibrous slop with zero safety regulations, you can just cook it safely.
Soy, too!
I just don’t like the hypocrisy.
I don’t like distraction from a topic.
Which was clearly not related to eating meat.
Given your vote count, seems I’m not alone.
Congrats on being annoying?
Hope you contribute something, somewhere, someday.gl.
It was about water use, so it’s on topic.
Top kek #1 troll ytmnd.
I eat ass. And I don’t use a fork and knife. I just get in there like a caveman.
You don’t care about the environment
I mean, use a cup. Data centers aside, it’s fucking weird to leave the water running for 5 minutes while you brush.
A cup for what? I am so confused by this entire post. Why would I need water while brushing my teeth? A little bit before and after. But during? Theres no use for that. Do other people brush their teeth entirely differently than me?
Americans using sinks in movies have been confusing me throughout my entire life. They seem to open the faucet when they enter the bathroom and only turn it off if they leave. They leave it running when they brush their teeth, talk to someone or stare into the mirror.
Same thing with fridges. If they take something out or put something in, the fridge stays open, sometimes during entire conversations. I don’t understand it. Even if you don’t care about the wasted energy, it gets cold (US fridges are almost freezers) and leaving the door open for so long gives the killer enough time to stand behind it and scare you to death when it is eventually in your convenience to close it.
It’s real life too. I never understood it either but as an adult I’ve met too many people who really are that wasteful.
Maybe it’s all based on water availability where you grew up, or frugality of your household. I’ve met people who run water while shaving, I do so only to rinse the blade and my face, while my grandparents in a rural area where shocked that you wouldn’t limit it to a cup to swish your blade
A cup of water you filled befor to rinse your mouth after brushing.
I would guess that you “need the water while brushing” because they spit into the sink and to wash that away immediately instead of rinsing the sink and spit out toothpaste foam after finishing brushing.
Not something I do but I could imagine people being particular about it for some reason.
Do people spit multiple times throughout brushing? I wet my brush with a quick drop from the sink, brush my teeth, then turn the sink on to spit all the foam out at the end and rinse my toothbrush. And I don’t rinse my mouth, because I use fluoride toothpaste.
You aren’t supposed to rinse your mouth after brushing, so even that is bizarre.
I refuse to believe that anyone brushes their teeth for 5 straight minutes. No way you’re more than doubling the recommendation just for fun
I brush 8 minutes every night with 2 minutes each quadrant. Fuck cavities. Mornings are 4 minutes though.
This has to constitute over brushing which is also bad and leads to cavities
Also, be careful about damaging gums. You think cavities are bad? Wait until you hear about gum surgery!
That may be a widespread concern but misdirected. Sure maybe if you use a “firm” brush and brush too hard (why aren’t there standards ruling those out?)
However as someone who has had gum surgery and is approaching the next stage of gum issues, it has more to do with
- age
- not flossing
- sugary soda and treats.
All those shortcuts you take throughout life where you think you’re good since you didn’t have cavities, also cause continuous gum inflammation and gradual wear over time, more exposure under the skin to lasting damage. As you age the problems compound - there’s good reason it’s a stereotype for older people to have bad teeth or no teeth.
We really can’ t win against cavities, can we?
It’s a soft brush and my enamel’s still okay. I just don’t want cavities or plaque buildup so it’s my way of playing it safe.
I can’t comment on your habits and certainly the soft toothbrush is a great start. However this is a selling point for electric toothbrushes: they generally don’t let you brush too hard.
If you’re not using “firm” bristles and not brushing too hard, there’s very little chance that brushing too long is a problem
Have you considered actually asking a dentist, or even googling this online? “Nothings gone bad yet” isn’t really the endorsement you’re selling it as. If you only brushed once a day for 2 minutes, you’d probably also be “still okay”. Doesn’t make it a good idea.
Sounds borderline OCD lol
That seems excessive to me but do what you like. I don’t have the patience for that
I do like… 3-4 minutes.
My toothbrush counts 2 mins, good enough for me. I’ve lost a bunch of teeth to pregnancy, don’t need more than that.
to pregnancy?
Unfortunately, bababies want a lot of calcium while they’re growing, they take that from the bones of the mother. It’s not uncommon to have massive dental issues while pregnant. I had several root canal issues that should have been fixed with crowns, but couldn’t, because I was broke. So eventually they broke apart and I had to get them pulled.
She gave birth to the next Mike Tyson.
But in seriousness, pregnancy fucks women up. It’s a huge strain on the body so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone’s teeth got weakened by pregnancy.
Yep, hair, nails are the first victims of pregnancy, but i wouldn’t be surprised if teeth got involved too. All those high density things like nails/teeth/bones take a hit.
Babies are greedy.
I’ll get watching a video or something and might do it for longer than that. It’s probably really not good for my gums.
You have to know that’s not typical, though, right?
It’s very unlikely to be bad for your gums unless you’re brushing directly on them every time you brush. The main thing id be worried about is brushing off the enamel, but that generally only happens if you’re brushing way too hard with harsh bristles.
Brushing on the gums is what you’re supposed to do, because it’s the crease between the gums and teeth where plaque and food can accumulate.
Some y’all living in Dune.
You’ll die early when the water wars begin
I’m in NW Florida and can provide and sterilise my own water. You?
This presumes that data centers offer no value in return.
When in fact, they return negative value.
It’s always the externalities. They return positive value to a few owners while negative value to the communities they’re inflicted on. And given that ai is almost certainly a bubble, who cleans up after it pops
No value to you maybe. The rich keep getting richer
You say on a Linode hosted server
Stop the disingenous techbro “but you already use datacenters/yet you live in society, curious” excuse. We are talking about hyperscaler datacenters here.
We know that the cloud uses datacenters, but they are far smaller and use less energy. Almost all new datacenters being build or being projected are huge hyperscaler datacenters, which uses a lot more water and energy than any of our previous ones.
Good thing I found out that my server is hosted on an average mom-n’-pop Oracle hosting barnyard.
P.S. whats the costs piefed.social incur monthly at your small town Hetzner server?
And most importantly they are planned for sustainable value
The difference now is a mad rush to add many more in a very short while, overwhelming power and water and appropriate sites. And that it’s likely a bubble, so many of that mad rush is likely to be abandoned in a few years
Won’t you think of the ad delivery system? And what about the profiling? Eventually, governments we’ll be able to pluck rabble rousers off social media to quell the public from rioting.
High value, just not for any of us.
Even Sesame Street was putting out PSAs about this.
