this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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The advantage of datacenters in space is that the peasants can't break in and sabotage your equipment. Only a very small set of nations would have the capability of blowing it up or somehow jamming its communications.
It literally only makes sense if you're a billionaire worried about the growing unpopularity of your AI datacenters, or you're using it for war and don't want it easily bombed...
If that's your criteria, put servers in containers and sink them in the ocean. Bonus, no cooling problems.
Yes. And I need to watch Elisium again.
But why not some remote desert?
Or the open ocean, floating on the water? That's literally outside any jurisdiction, and mostly outside the peasants' reach.
I just saw some in China using ocean water for cooling. I think they were underwater?
I seem to recall like 10 or 15 years ago, someone from Google was trying to put a datacenter on a large ship, like a cargo ship or something. Then the story disappeared.
Yeah they did. Microsoft has tried underwater datacenters too.
And theres tons of alternative cooling techniques. The only reason evaporators are being used is because they are the absolute quickest and cheapest to set up, en masse. They don't care about efficiency, leadership is just feeling FOMO and wants the datacenters up yesterday.
The CCC would like a word with you