• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    it is easier to install a flock camera or build a new building

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_(data_center)

    785,000 sq ft (72,900 m^2)

    422 MW of power.

    Over five million gallons of water consumed daily

    I can’t imagine how that would have an impact on local logistics or civil planning.

    in March 2025, xAI purchased a 1,000,000-square-foot (93,000 m2) site in the Whitehaven area of Memphis… Plans for the expansion were initially revealed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation when preliminary plans for the facility were filed on September 18, 2024, for the project “…between xAI, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and Nucor Steel…”

    Wonder why they need proximity to the nation’s largest state-operated power generation.

    • agent_nycto@lemmy.world
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      46 minutes ago

      Yeah, that’s huge and it sucks on a local level, but making a functioning train network for the US would be something that would have to overhaul the entire logistical network for the whole country. Even if every local and state government was on board and all the citizens were five with it, that’s still a massive undertaking.

      It’s one we should do, but it’s still Herculean in scope

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        34 minutes ago

        making a functioning train network for the US would be something that would have to overhaul the entire logistical network

        We have a massive network of legacy rail to exploit. What has been talked about largely involves upgrading and retrofitting existing lines, building out new terminals and expanding old small ones. In particular, just increasing the frequency of service on neglected lines - the San Antonio to Austin route is notoriously neglected, despite being a prime candidate for cheap and easy improvement that would save millions of road hours for intercity transit and exurban commuters.

        It’s one we should do, but it’s still Herculean in scope

        On a national scale, it is Herculean. But at a thousand individual points, it is a very straightforward and doable job.