this post was submitted on 10 May 2026
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[–] clifmo@programming.dev 3 points 2 hours ago

It's Cuba using Russia's secret sonic weapons obviously

[–] OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

There's a local council in my community that is gunning for an AI data center in my county. People are livid, but I don't think it's going to be enough to stop the construction. It's shady as fuck with hidden shareholders that nobody will reveal.

I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to prevent this data center from being built. Peaceful ideas or otherwise.

[–] Redvenom@retrolemmy.com 5 points 4 hours ago

Funny how they look so flammable

[–] whoxtank28@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

They should announce a day they plan on cranking up the power, and instead turn everything off. See how many people can "feel" the increased activity.

[–] Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

It's a very real phenomenon with documented health effects. You have to use a decibel meter that's capable of detecting sounds just outside of audible range. Benn Jordan on YouTube recorded infrasound at the edge of the property line at Collosus XAI peaking at -96 dB.
https://youtu.be/_bP80DEAbuo

[–] GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

actually it's inauduble and therefore can't hurt you, like how gamma rays are invisible and therefore harmless

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 8 points 1 hour ago

Like how before microscopes bacteria couldn't hurt people!

[–] whoxtank28@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Alright so I watched him break down the data at the end, and the best that this proves is that it should be studied further to verify his experiments. Thousands of people should be studied in universities all over the world. My own distaste for datacenters not withstanding, if those future studies indicated and even maybe found the mechanism for these issues, that would not translate to datacenters ought not be built. It will and should be translated to a public health and engineering problem. We put shielding on nuclear powerplants to protect people from radiation, and we can likely do something similar to prevent infrasound, if the claims of some papers and this youtuber are proven to be correct beyond a reasonable doubt. This whole thing just stinks of "wifi sickness" and I am highly skeptical 🫤

[–] notgold@aussie.zone 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

We will all be picking up the tab to shield these places in the future in the name of public health and safety. The hyperscalers won't pay when they can plead ignorance and have the tax payer pay to fix it for them. Problem with data centres is once they are online, changes are very slow. Any datacentre with five 9's or above will only allow small incremental change each year. While this is faster for single tenant datacentres, it won't be a quick fix.

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

It's still just a matter of political will.

You would be AMAZED at how quickly things would be fixed. At rates previously claimed "beyond impossible", IF governments "pulled the plug" until things were fixed... rather than issuing fines or providing grace periods (and subsequent extensions).

I've worked at places that would just eat compliance fines (not for health). Just straight up eat them. They put a token team on it... but continually divert that time to other tasks.

The companies that claim these things cannot be done are the same ones who said they couldn't survive without slavery, with any environmental regulations, with a 5 day work week, without being able to use child labour, with a minimum wage, without strikebreakers etc etc etc. It's literally industries job to push back on anything that cuts into thier bottom line at all. It's governments job to say "bullshit"

[–] vext01@feddit.uk 13 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Data centres are the new windmills?

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 17 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Here's a short video that goes into the specific and how this affects surrounding neighborhoods.

Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It's completely wrong.

The researchers he 'cites' in that video have said he misinterpreted their findings.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

This whole blog seems extremely pro-AI and their entire site is full of articles supposedly debunking why data centers aren't actually bad after all...

This specific article has some pretty crazy conclusions about Benn Jordan's own double-blind study. They're saying it wasn't double blind because he might have noticed water shaking, but in the actual video he explicitly says he threw out any of the data points where he knew if the sound was on. The results seemed pretty conclusive to me.

The other thing is it talks a ton about wind turbine infrasound, and how dangerous levels are thousands of times louder. But the actual measured level of sound ARE thousands of times higher. Measurements have been taken at 96dB, which is significantly higher than the 50-75dB this article is referencing as safe. If the 96dB infrasound is loud enough to shake a glass of water as above, it's not "imperceptible" like the safe levels.

As with all loud sounds in general, exposure time is a factor. A brief burst above 100dB won't damage your hearing, but extended exposure will. I don't see why the same wouldn't apply to infrasound. All these studies are 72h or less of exposure, but there's people living next to these datacenters 24/7.

Personally I'm waiting for more research to be done. There's not enough data to be calling things fake or debunked here.

[–] flandish@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago

worse. but this is just people trying anything they can to keep these pieces of shit from wrecking their communities.

[–] Miller@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago

It is a flavour I have not tasted, a colour I have not seen and an argument I can not think of so I convince myself of this.

[–] Deebster@infosec.pub 84 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

My first thought was that Benn Jordan did a great bit of video journalism on this, but it's already linked from the article, although without any other mention of it.

[–] yggstyle@lemmy.world 30 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Dude is just a wealth of interesting videos.

Edit and speaking of which.... He dropped this doozy today: https://youtu.be/lA8WuXDXfcI

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 18 points 8 hours ago

He really is, I found him from his Flock videos and have since binge watched everything he's made.

The music that he makes for the videos is a wonderful cherry on top of the great information and presentation.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 37 points 12 hours ago (25 children)

Is there any research on this?

Back in the 90s, there was a theory that living near power-lines was unhealthy, but later shown to be bunk. Also similar to "electro magnetic sensitivity" like Chuck in "Better Call Saul". Does inaudible sound effect people's health?

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 15 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Ultrasonic sounds (above 20 kHz) can cause physical symptoms in humans, particularly at high intensities ((>75\text{ dB})), including headaches, dizziness, nausea, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), and fatigue

Animal studies have demonstrated internal tissue alterations at specific frequencies and intensities

https://www.nature.com/nature-index/topics/l4/ultrasonic-exposure-effects-on-human-health

[–] boogiebored@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago

this is also used as weaponry

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 55 points 11 hours ago (6 children)

Yes, infrasound is a fairly well understood phenomenon. Loud noise at frequencies below 10 Hz isn't commonly picked up by recording equipment but can induce things like anxiety, nausea, and sleep problems. While recently wind power plants have sometimes been accused of generating it, it's also been caused by industrial fans and even resonance in a building's ductwork.

It wouldn't surprise me if a data center's AC caused enough noise at frequencies not normally monitored to become an issue.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 13 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Anxiety, nausea and sleep problems can be caused by many things. One of those things is believing that a nearby datacenter is making you ill.

Sure, investigate it and see if it is actually happening. But, do a proper double-blind study.

I take this personally because my mother is a conspiracy nut who thinks that everything is making her ill: wifi, chemtrails, street lights, electricity, gluten... if she heard about infrasound she'd add it to the list of things that are hurting her health.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago

You don't need a double-blind study to determine if acoustic emissions are the culprit. You just need to measure specifically for infrasound (and ultrasound, for that matter). It's an unusual form of pollution but very much measurable if you know to look for it.

Unlike the things you mentioned, infrasound is understood to be a thing these days and is sometimes considered in construction. It's not exactly witchcraft; most equipment (including decibel meters) just isn't built to account for very low frequencies.

If the data center does put out noise at very low frequencies that's probably some kind of unintended resonance that they'll have to stop. It might be as simple as slightly changing the RPMs of some cooling fans or installing sound proofing in specific places.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

It's very likely that she does have some sort of health problem and doctors weren't useful in finding it. It's very hard not to be superstitious in that situation

[–] boogiebored@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

most of these are a psyop to make the real things sound phony

[–] SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 27 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Pipelines also cause a resonance hum that some people CAN hear for miles, and it drives them batshit.

[–] AstralPath@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 hours ago

There's a steam plant for my local hospital about 300m from my house. When I'm in my basement trying to record drums, I can audibly hear when the plant is running. Super low, sub-50hz hum. It gets into all my mics.

Fortunately my bedroom is on the second floor of the house so the resonance doesn't keep me up at night.

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[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 37 points 13 hours ago (7 children)

I hope MAHA is also livid over this.

Sorry they can't hear you above the munching on rat penis.

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