While I’m not a fan of Big tech, but this surely is nonsense. Are they saying there are more vibrations than, say, living in New York? Near those train lines and billions of cars (and there are probably data centers there too).
I’d be really hesitant with Benn’s videos here. I think Andy Masley has a pretty solid piece describing how they are likely incorrect and possibly even deceptive. There’s enough reasons to hate data center expansions and AI that I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to promote ideas like infrasound majorly affecting our health, as I’d think it dilutes some otherwise important arguments with things that are factually dubious.
I have to agree, sadly. I’m a huge fan of Benn Jordan’s work but I read the Masley post last time this topic came up and even looked at the original sources that Benn cites. There really isn’t any credible research out there to show that infrasound has negative health effects. Fuck data centers in general, but yeah, this argument lacks high quality data to support it.
No offense but that blog is a massive wall of text that is equal to asking someone to read a whole scientific paper (which is too much to ask for in the current context of discussion).
I came as far as dissecting the video about the DCs. It’s not much, maybe 1/10 of the total length.
It seems okayish written but I can’t add much else opinion to it as I havent read much further :/
I am sorry.
It is definitely quite the piece, it took me a couple days to get through myself, but I would definitely not say such efforts are too much for the discussion. Disproving misinformation/misconceptions almost always require a lot more effort than sharing them does, and the topic of infrasound harming humans is one that’s really only provable through scientific studies.
That being said as a tl;dr for his post:
Masley is a former physics teacher who works with Effective Altruism. He begins with talking about the body of literature on infrasound, noting how the current consensus indicates it’s only harmful when it’s either normally audible (i.e. normal noise pollution) or loud enough to physically interact with you (similar to how you can feel a jet engine when it takes off). He also talks about how the idea that non-audible infrasound being harmful is basically a pseudoscientific idea that was created to make people afraid of wind turbines, which has generally been considered disproven.
He also goes over each of Benn’s claims from his three videos and discusses how basically all of his points fail into one of
They showcase how there is a real harmful effect, but it’s caused by either mundane noise pollution, infrasound that’s entirely audible (therefore just normal noise pollution), or infrasound loud enough you can physically feel it. It’s also probably noteworthy to note that data centers generally don’t show up in these categories, instead being in the non-audible infrasound.
Benn showcases a study or other source that claims either the exact opposite or inconclusive evidence for the point he’s using it for.
Benn showcases a study or other source that has repeatedly failed to replicate or stand up to peer review.
The participants reporting effects more likely due to the nocebo effect.
He also gets in touch with authors from the studies that Benn cites, and the ones that get back to him seem to agree with the bogus framing.
Masley also notes often how deceptive the framing and designs that Benn uses are, such as:
Using the UV Spectrum of light and its ability to cause cancer to imply that other invisible things, such as infrasound, are harmful.
Creating a study that basically fails on every metric to be a genuinely rigorous study while portraying it as meaningful.
Benn claims the body of literature on infrasound is sparse often, when there seems to be a lot of works showing the contrary.
Benn tries to give credence to some extremely dubious experiments like the Vic Tandy ghost story, that are really bad science.
Masley also notes how Benn seems to make a number of mistakes that he should have expertise in as an audio engineer, so he generally comes to the conclusion that this is intentional deception on Benn’s part.
His big point in the end is that, treating infrasound like a really big problem draws attention away from worse problems like air and water pollution; it also muddies the message with factually unsound claims that can make other more meaningful concerns about data centers, pollution, or similar problems more easily dismissable by critics.
It is definitely worth a read as I’m likely forgetting and skipping a lot here, and Masley was pretty specific about a lot (which does get him into pedantic arguments with Benn later).
Your summary was exactly what I needed to at least form a basic opinion (very basic) and (up the point at which I stopped the article) came to the same conclusion as your summary.
Edut: Thank you for taking the time for the TLDR (doesnt matter to me if AI or not)
While I’m not a fan of Big tech, but this surely is nonsense. Are they saying there are more vibrations than, say, living in New York? Near those train lines and billions of cars (and there are probably data centers there too).
You better watch this video by Benn Jordan about exactly this issue: https://youtu.be/_bP80DEAbuo
He measured the reported issue.
Here is a timestamp witg the datacenrer noise isolated: https://youtu.be/_bP80DEAbuo?t=540
I’d be really hesitant with Benn’s videos here. I think Andy Masley has a pretty solid piece describing how they are likely incorrect and possibly even deceptive. There’s enough reasons to hate data center expansions and AI that I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to promote ideas like infrasound majorly affecting our health, as I’d think it dilutes some otherwise important arguments with things that are factually dubious.
https://blog.andymasley.com/p/contra-benn-jordan-data-center-and
I have to agree, sadly. I’m a huge fan of Benn Jordan’s work but I read the Masley post last time this topic came up and even looked at the original sources that Benn cites. There really isn’t any credible research out there to show that infrasound has negative health effects. Fuck data centers in general, but yeah, this argument lacks high quality data to support it.
No offense but that blog is a massive wall of text that is equal to asking someone to read a whole scientific paper (which is too much to ask for in the current context of discussion).
I came as far as dissecting the video about the DCs. It’s not much, maybe 1/10 of the total length.
It seems okayish written but I can’t add much else opinion to it as I havent read much further :/ I am sorry.
It is definitely quite the piece, it took me a couple days to get through myself, but I would definitely not say such efforts are too much for the discussion. Disproving misinformation/misconceptions almost always require a lot more effort than sharing them does, and the topic of infrasound harming humans is one that’s really only provable through scientific studies.
That being said as a tl;dr for his post:
Masley is a former physics teacher who works with Effective Altruism. He begins with talking about the body of literature on infrasound, noting how the current consensus indicates it’s only harmful when it’s either normally audible (i.e. normal noise pollution) or loud enough to physically interact with you (similar to how you can feel a jet engine when it takes off). He also talks about how the idea that non-audible infrasound being harmful is basically a pseudoscientific idea that was created to make people afraid of wind turbines, which has generally been considered disproven.
He also goes over each of Benn’s claims from his three videos and discusses how basically all of his points fail into one of
He also gets in touch with authors from the studies that Benn cites, and the ones that get back to him seem to agree with the bogus framing.
Masley also notes often how deceptive the framing and designs that Benn uses are, such as:
Masley also notes how Benn seems to make a number of mistakes that he should have expertise in as an audio engineer, so he generally comes to the conclusion that this is intentional deception on Benn’s part.
His big point in the end is that, treating infrasound like a really big problem draws attention away from worse problems like air and water pollution; it also muddies the message with factually unsound claims that can make other more meaningful concerns about data centers, pollution, or similar problems more easily dismissable by critics.
It is definitely worth a read as I’m likely forgetting and skipping a lot here, and Masley was pretty specific about a lot (which does get him into pedantic arguments with Benn later).
Your summary was exactly what I needed to at least form a basic opinion (very basic) and (up the point at which I stopped the article) came to the same conclusion as your summary.
Edut: Thank you for taking the time for the TLDR (doesnt matter to me if AI or not)