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1. jedber+md[view] [source] 2025-05-13 21:37:18
>>wiley1+(OP)
I've been saying for a long time that we should consider remote areas for building datacenters for batch processing.

At first I thought the poles (of the planet) might be good. The cooling is basically free. But the energy and internet connectivity would be a problem. At the poles you can really only get solar about three months a year, and even then you need a lot of panels. Most of Antarctica is powered diesel because of this.

So the next thought was space. At the time, launching to space was way too costly for it to ever make sense. But now, with much cheaper launches, space is accessible.

Power seems easily solved. You can get lots of free energy from the sun with some modest panels. But to do that requires an odd orbit where you wouldn't be over the same spot on earth, which could make internet access difficult. Or you can go geostationary over a powerful ground station, but then you'd need some really big batteries for all the time you aren't in the sun.

But cooling is a huge problem. Space is cold, but there is no medium to transfer the heat away from the hot objects. I think this will be the biggest sticking point, unless they came up with an innovative solution.

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2. vonneu+0e[view] [source] 2025-05-13 21:40:58
>>jedber+md
>But cooling is a huge problem. Space is cold, but there is no medium to transfer the heat away from the hot objects. I think this will be the biggest sticking point, unless they came up with an innovative solution.

Their main tech breakthrough would have to be in this area otherwise the company is worthless imo.

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3. daeken+Qe[view] [source] 2025-05-13 21:45:25
>>vonneu+0e
It's possible to do all of this with current technology. Just... Why? The cost would be exorbitant; even with really clever deployment tech, the launch costs are gonna be dominated by solar panels and radiators.

This is a super cool idea and seems like perfect investor-bait. That's about where it ends.

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4. matt-p+Gi[view] [source] 2025-05-13 22:14:11
>>daeken+Qe
Genuinely most "AI" DCs are spending less than 9KW on cooling for every 100KW of servers. If you were that bothered about getting that to zero, you could literally sink them into the ocean, build a heat network so the town can take the heat for free or use any of a dozen more established and practical ways to do that.
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5. azinma+8m[view] [source] 2025-05-13 22:40:02
>>matt-p+Gi
Please don’t suggest heating the ocean! Someone might just go to try to do that. The ocean is already warming too much!
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6. matt-p+pr[view] [source] 2025-05-13 23:14:14
>>azinma+8m
It's already being done all over the place. It's not particularly damaging compared to the alternatives.
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