A Big Data Center Conversation In Maryland
Riding the Data Center Zeitgeist Wave...
I came down the stairs after some time in the office to see conversations about data centers on the Frederick Post’s front page. I made a video this morning about data centers, posted it, and went about my day.
Before today I was oblivious about the local community chats about them. Consider me dense and totally absorbed into my own world, but there have been major discussions that I never intended to be a part of. A group of passersby were discussing it on the streets as I left the office. Tonight I came across a letter from one group of elected officials that went to another elected official about them.
It’s a hot topic in the world and community that I’ve been watching, but I didn’t expect to hear so much about it walking about in town, or people to reach out to me about it.
I didn’t mean to get into it, but after a short video and a Facebook post some time ago just getting into the details, I did. Whoops.
Well, here goes Charlie!
A Tech Forward, Yet Cautious Approach
I am very tech-forward, optimistic about Frederick’s future, with a background that requires me to think about risk - Emergency Response and Management.
I spend my free time nerding out over the advances of AI technologies and physical tech, and I’m on a 3-year bender on figuring out how to improve my life using these technologies, it’s a weird little habit.
I say that to highlight that I am agreeable to both the financial upsides we have coming to us if our investment and approvals work out, as well as the future of tech in our world if everything went ideally. However, I’ve never seen large-scale opposed projects go the ideal route.
Also, profound opposition tends to breed resentment, but failure causes a man’s enemies to aggress all the more. And this has some very profound opposition, if you ask me.
Just as new technologies offer immense opportunities, improvements to systems and innovative advances often cause disruptions, unexpected. At other times, it is capital that is the question. And then again, sometimes it is demand. These determine the ultimate value of a project from a capital stance, but that leaves the community calculations still to be determined. This is the place we are at now in our community.
I recognize the need to advance and move forward with plans to have data centers, but I am extremely concerned, and more so recently, about the economic risks and the potential downside of our actions. The future, completely due to actions out of our local leaders’ hands at the national level, in the economy, within each branch of government, and international relations, calls us to consider alternative paths and a more holistic community-supportive approaches to using these technologies.
We are assuming that big business and big data are the best way to produce technological advancements and economic advancement. I do not make this assumption. I'll assume businesses will do what is economically advantageous, and that communities, their leaders specifically, are charged with ensuring the public good. Or else, what are we— any of us— even doing?
I’m an advocate for decentralized nodes rather than large data centers. But we aren’t really ready for that conversation because the technologies may not be ready, or are drowned out by larger monetary interests. Decentralization of electricity and data nodes creates resilience through spreading out your resources and creating interconnected nodes that have all of the resource requirements met at their location, a smaller localized impact.
The world has changed immensely in the last 2 years, and the last year has been a whirlwind. There are more than a few rumblings of economic concerns continuing, an openly discussed AI bubble, concerns about cybersecurity and physical security, concerns about illegal digital surveillance on American citizens from foreign and oppositional entities. We have to really think about the future of our power grids and how we use our resources to have a resilient County and Region in the future.
And for all of Frederick, and the rest of Western Maryland, we are so close to the Nation’s capital and surrounded by important government hubs that we have to consider ALL the risks associated with national challenges. We cannot consider a project simply for the economic advantages in the short-term, but the entire approach and the impact over a lifetime. We do not live in a small-town country bubble. We are a community of interests and access. We are deeply impacted by any Beltway blues.
The Belt Way Blues Machine
When I speak of “Beltway Blues,” I am not just talking about the economy. I am referring to all the things that happen in the Beltway, from job losses for the nation’s government workers to the increase of people on welfare and food stamps to the decrease of people with jobs and to inflation costs that are driven by economic situations out of our control. The Beltway Blues is also about the decisions of the folks in our country in leadership positions in a situation, for instance, of war. What are data centers if there are no chips? What are data centers if there is no network, or if there’s a compromised network to transmit data?
The Beltway is taken over by large corporate entities, special interest, lobbyists, and a host of think tanks that promise us great change with technology at the center of our world. Perhaps, as we have seen most recently, this too will create a Beltway Blues situation. Maybe, but how do we know the potential risk without an impact study that includes just that?
Money Talks, I Get It
At present, we have a lot of push from technology firms. While we have money, that money should be invested; that should be leveraged, and opportunities should be capitalized upon. So, of course, we are being sold a bill of goods, but the risk isn’t on them if they fail and don’t deliver; it’s on us to consider what we’re going to do if we’re left holding a bag that we can no longer afford or operate.
As you would imagine, they want to capitalize on the opportunity here before a bubble takes out the economy.
And as you now are thinking, we want to ensure that we are not left expecting benefits unrealized from our investment of time, energy, and significant resources - concessions.
My argument is that history is full of towns who built infrastructure for a boom and then it has a bust. This happens in all kinds of towns down South, in the Midwest, the northeast, and all along our Mason-Dixon. This also happens in very large cities that had industries and then those industries left or were destroyed by innovation or globalization.
In a situation where data centers are a large investment tool, but they also have a large impact on the community, we’re putting our faith and we’re betting on both the companies who are bringing us the data centers and their ability to create efficiencies and to honor their agreements. But we’re also assuming that the people that they sell the business to will do the same.
Who Burdens the Risks
But in this case, we are going to hold the bag even sooner. If we have an economic crash, or if we have a shortage in the demand for AI, then we are left with the burden. Even if that burden is higher cost for energy or water resources. It is not a company’s job to take care of our community and be concerned about the wealth and the safety of our community. It is our job.
Just like companies in the past, such as Walmart and other large organizations, which used their financial power and their maneuverability in the legal world to get what they want. In this case, the responsibility is on our elected officials to protect us and to help provide us those realized gains, protection from potential predatory situations.
I know for certain that our elected officials are a great lot. We are very fortunate to have people who care and people who are willing to weigh in, willing to talk and negotiate. I don’t see very much by way of corruption involved in this, personally. I just think it comes down to a level of sophistication and understanding of tech. It requires asking the right questions about innovation and ensuring that the community is just as well leveraged as the millionaires and billionaires who are involved in this game.
It absolutely requires bipartisanship and a commitment to community and transparency.
I just want each of them to fully grasp the impact of their decisions in a destabilized world. We should never make assumptions or hope for the best when we are fully capable of preparing for risks, addressing them, or waiting until a solution is delivered that can soothe our worries.
Our Collective Responsibility
Our citizen body must be educated and aware. We must come together to find solutions and opportunities. Just saying “no, we don’t want to do this” is not necessarily the best reaction. People with a lot of money keep throwing dollars at this for a reason, and perhaps we are missing something more important in our charged opposition.
Also remember, it is better to take decisive action as a community and know what the risks are than it is to ignore the potential risks.
It is important to take steps in the right direction to grow our community at the same time without hindering it or holding it back due to irrational fears.
Learn, continue to go to meetings, continue to voice your opinions and your concerns. Your voice still matters.