Data Centers: Where Modern Life Lives - National Logistics Post

Data centers are more under fire than clay pigeons at a trap and skeet range.

On June 3, the voters of Monterey Park, California (just east of downtown Los Angeles) approved a permanent moratorium on data centers. The ballot measure passed by a margin of 86 percent to 14 percent. (RELATED: California Needs AI. So Why Is It Making Data Centers Harder to Build?)

Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist–Vermont) has an even bigger idea: “The time for action is now. We need a federal moratorium on AI data centers.”

Sanders’ protégé could not agree more.

“Congress has a moral obligation to stand with the American people and stop the expansion of these data centers until we have a framework to adequately address the existential harm AI poses to our society,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez roared on June 24. “We must choose humanity over profit.” The New York Democrat sponsored the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act. (RELATED: AI Moral Panic Demands Leadership, Not Pandering)

Hard-Left Democrats who aspire to join Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez on Capitol Hill also have data centers in their gun sights. (RELATED: Like It Or Not, Data Centers Are Part of the Midterms Now)

“We got to stop data centers from being built if they can’t meet the demands of our communities,” James Talarico, U.S. Senate contender from Texas, said last month.

Abdul E-Sayed, Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, put it crisply: “People really f-ing hate data centers.”

What if the data-center haters had their way? What if no more of these pesky data centers were built and — with a wave of a magic wand — existing data centers just disappeared? (RELATED: Five Quick Things: Citizens Against Virtually Everything)

With the erased data centers, so would vanish life as we know it in 2026.

“Americans now rely on data centers in much the same way as they rely on their lungs,” National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke explained on Sep. 17, in a highly informative, top-drawer piece. Regarding America’s 5,427 such existing facilities, Cooke adds: “In every moment of every day, data centers are humming away behind the scenes, making the modern world possible.”

ATMs? Forget about it. The actual machine that spits out cash has no clue how much money you have in your bank account. The device that spews $20 bills on demand is tied to computers that know your balance and will give you greenbacks — up to, but not exceeding, what you have in your account or your daily withdrawal limit – whichever is lower.

So, no more ATMs. You can return to the early 1980s, when you had to ask a teller to hand you all the cash you needed for the weekend. If, on Friday night, you partied till the money ran out, you would be out of luck until the bank reopened on Monday.

The computers that govern ATMs are all sitting inside — you’ll never guess — data centers.

How about online banking and finance? JPMorganChase.com, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle? They all operate via — wait for it — data centers.

How about communicating with your family, friends, and associates? Google Contacts, Gmail, and your beloved iPhone or Android smartphone. No more data centers, no more of that!

You come home from work and want to relax to doggie videos on YouTube or watch Bridgerton, Death by Lightning, or Heartstopper on Netflix. Those videos and programs do not live inside of your HDTV. Nope. Your beautiful display screen fills with your favorite comedies, dramas, and Yellow Lab puppies who won’t get out of the pool only because they reside inside data centers. No data centers? Your HDTV will be just a big piece of black plastic.

Would you like to take a trip? You could use some time off — visiting your parents, chillaxing on a beach, or watching the roulette wheels and rock stars in Vegas. Expedia, Kayak, Priceline, Trivago, United.com? Good luck! They all do their magic via data centers. Without data centers, you can savor the good old days of calling hotels, resorts, and airlines directly, via their toll-free numbers. Your waiting time: Approximately 20 minutes.

Research? Are you studying for class, writing a business plan, or looking for the best barbershop or nail salon still open and near you? Google, Bing, ChatGPT, and Grok would all be kaput without data centers.

Feeling lonely? Match.com, Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr would be very lonely, too, without data centers. Shut them down, and you’ll have to go back to the good old days of meeting dates, significant others, and even spouses the old-fashioned way: At social events, parties, and bars.

It’s past time to stop demonizing data centers. Could they operate differently or better? Sure, just like every other business or industry. And the data-center industry damn-well better step up and defend itself, or its critics will eat them alive.

No data centers = no e-mail, no Amazon, no Spotify, no eBay, no Uber, no Cloud, and no Internet! And, quite frankly, no OnlyFans, xTube, or Porn Hub. They rely on data centers, too.

Stomping out data centers would take America and the world back to the time of typewriters, Liquid Paper, and the Yellow Pages.

This truth is simple: Data centers are where modern life lives.

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Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor.