This feels less like a data center problem and more like a basic failure to price and regulate industrial externalities...are crypto mining or ai compute socially useful? Up for debate, but what isn't is that neither should make a surrounding neighborhood unlivable.

Also, noise regulations aren't good for this kind of constant tonal sound. Any facility like this should have to prove it can operate within a certain acousting footprint before it's built

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cortesoft 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You really just need the noise ordinance to have more teeth... instead of just a perpetual fine, you need to be able to shut them down if they continue to exceed the noise threshold.

	▲	margalabargala an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		A fine is perfectly adequate to address the problem, provided you're able to enforce it. Each time a repeat offender offends, simply double the fine from their last offense. Repeat monthly until their insolvency, at which point you confiscate the building and sell it to someone willing to follow the law.
	▲	m463 an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I think that's a weird problem with law in general. Corporations created by "incorporation", creating a "body" with all the rights of a human, are rarely treated with common sense punishments when they do wrong. Humans do bad things, and they are not only fined, but forfeit rights, are segregated from others, put in jail, and sometimes executed.

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ETH_start 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If it's generating revenue from an international clientele, and paying local taxes, it's almost guaranteed to be socially useful, at least from the domestic standpoint.

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ImPostingOnHN 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Also, noise regulations aren't good for this kind of constant tonal sound

Maybe the regulations could be structured around a scaled integral of volume over time

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ares623 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ah, the ol' "stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself" defense

It's so easy! Just think of every possible scenario and avenue that can be abused, and legislate it, in perpetuity.