this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2026
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The only way to avoid negative environmental consequences I've seen implemented is Japan using geothermal vents in the ocean.
They harvest the heat for energy, and the ocean (that would get heated up anyways) for cooling.
The net effect is an artificial reef and spreading the heat out further in a temperate zone that facilitates biological growth.
I don't think there's any scenario that actually works on land. Maybe out in the middle of the desert powered only by solar and using an absolutely massive heatsink that dumps it all over night when the desert is cold. But the cost for that would be insane.
Yah but that requires coastal development or in the vicinity of the coast, with increasing sea level rise, that is just going to require these things to be made like giant doomsday bunkers able to survive a life extinguishing event. I still question the need for these data centers.
There's this new thing called "boats"...
And data cables can (and do) run along the ocean floor, they don't even need to connect to mainland, they can join an existing cable.
We needed them before AI and well need them after...
Finding an environmental positive way to have them is worthwhile. Arguing that it's expensive literally just means you're putting a price on our planet. Which is especially stupid since the billionaires are the ones keeping those savings.
Quit fucking simping for billionaire techbros. Even if you don't realize it's what you're doing, it's what you're doing. Fuck their profits the planet matters more.
Yah sorry nobody serious is putting a data center on a floating boat/vessel. Maybe submerged, but not on the surface.
Jesus...
That's honestly what you thought?!
I meant that geothermal vents are rarely on the shoreline anyways, and a bot is what's needed, not coastal facilities.
I mean damn dude, you actually thought putting a fat center on a boat is what I was suggesting?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Natick
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/09/worlds-first-wind-powered-underwater-datacentre-starts-operating-in-china
And they're trying to put datacenters in space, too. On a boat would be less unusual.
Well it wasn’t clear what you were saying, sorry. Yah copy that, that could work, but why not just keep the vents on the seafloor…no boat is needed.
...
Yes, you can not "move" a geothermal vent from the ocean floor, and especially not onto a boat...
The boat is what's needed to sink the equipment deep to the ocean floor.
I think the real problem is, you don't know what a geothermal vent actually is.
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/deep-sea-hydrothermal-vents/
The entire reason these are perfect is it's near boiling water surrounded by deep sea near frozen temps. You don't get that anywhere near a shore. And even if you did, doing it 20 miles or 200 miles from any shore is the same amount of effort.
But I got to tap out here