Do you go around demanding every single business in your town spell out how they benefit the community? Data centers spend money, employ people, and pay taxes (lots of taxes) just like any other business. Data center startups should be applauded, not relentlessly interrogated.

The data center backlash is not really about resources. It is about fear of AI and fear of the unknown. I spent four days in rural Colorado shadowing a data center startup's 'listening tour.' This story is about what ordinary Americans think about AI and their desire to have a stake in the boom. David Meyer (@thedmeyer) is the founder of (@DeployStrata), which is trying to build a tiny 12-shipping container data center on a sand lot in the middle of nowhere. During a community meeting, he answered every practical question: Noise, water, power, cleanup. It didn't move the skeptics: — “I’m willing to bet 90% of this group will raise their hands saying innately I’m against AI and I’m scared to death of AI. I don’t think any of us in this room have any clue how bad this could go.” — Trump "wants to use China as the blueprint. Have we ever asked the Chinese what life is like over there? Digital ID. It sucks.” — “Our collective concerns regarding AI, data centers and Flock cameras come down to one primary concern. I address these concerns in one statement: WE DO NOT WANT TO LIVE IN A SURVEILLANCE STATE!!!” — “What do we need it for? That’s the big question.” And above all else: what's in it for the community? To be clear, the resources do matter. But they are often a front for these larger fears over technology, which this specific project exposes by solving all of the resource concerns. My full dispatch in @PirateWires (with photography by yours truly):