adopt-a-data-centre (13. 917)

As we’ve recently learnt of a Google facility in the Finnish wilderness, attracted to the cheap real estate for its colder climate that does not necessitate as much water for cooling, not only ignored local zoning laws in felling over five hundred hectares of boreal forest without permission but that the destruction of the large swath of habitat, stripping even the top soil and leaving only vast tracts of mud, has driven packs of wolves into villages surrounding the site, the general and very much warranted NIMBYism in the US where data-centres are propagating like detestable toadstools and the fact that such monstrosities are probably not even needed for AI advancement in the long term, assuming that it all isn’t a bubble primed for bursting, we quite liked the notion of giving physical digital infrastructure—like the computer lab where the internet is kept—a cuddly mascot. The satirical project takes the form of a plushy that, when hugged purrs with the interminable high-pitched hum emitted by actual facilities, as sampled by people forced to live next to them. More from Design Boom at the link above.