Bigfoot vs. the Server Farm: Who Pays for the AI Boom?

Everybody says AI lives in "the cloud." But the cloud is not weightless.

In this episode of The Bigfoot Manifesto, Dave talks with Danny Caine of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance about the data center boom powering AI, Big Tech, and the next major infrastructure fight.

These massive server farms need land, water, electricity, tax breaks, zoning approvals, and public tolerance — but too often, communities are the last to know what is being negotiated in their own backyard.

Dave and Danny dig into why AI is driving a rapid data center buildout, how shell companies and secrecy keep showing up in these deals, why local residents are pushing back, and whether ordinary ratepayers could end up subsidizing Big Tech's power needs.

This is not an anti-technology conversation. It is a pro-democracy conversation.

Bigfoot may be hiding in the woods, but the server farms are hiding in plain sight.

Links:

ILSR — The Data Centers Are Coming:
https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/the-data-centers-are-coming/

Inequality.org — I Stood in Data Center Alley:
https://inequality.org/article/i-stood-in-data-center-alley/

ILSR — The Policies Communities Need to Meet the AI Moment:
https://ilsr.org/articles/the-policies-communities-need-to-meet-the-ai-moment/

The Bigfoot Manifesto Merch:
https://bigfootmanifesto-shop.fourthwall.com/

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