As data centres encroach in the UK, this is no time for stoicism

I’ve asked an AI assistant to describe the small Scottish village of Auchtertool: “It is known for its historic parish church and a current local controversy regarding a proposed massive 600MW data centre campus.” A few days earlier, the same search only mentioned Auchtertool Kirk, pleasant rural walks and the ruins of 900-year-old Hallyards Castle. 

Getting on AI’s radar could show how quickly it’s learning, or be counted as a win for the three-day protest that took place last week. The aim was to raise awareness about the plans from ILI Group to build Cato, one of the largest data centres in Europe, next to the village – a 60-hectare site that would be larger than the village itself. 

The plan attracted more than 14,000 local objections. Pretty good going for a town of fewer than 600 residents.

If built, the £5 billion project would include six 35-metre ‘data halls’ and consume as much energy as 1.34 million households – around 20% of Scotland’s current energy use. And Cato is only one of 24 ‘hyperscale’ data centre proposals across Scotland. 

The impact of these facilities is a growing concern everywhere and inspiring some curious collaborations: read about how bikers and bugs are joining forces in Essex in the new Big Issue.

More AI infrastructure is undeniably required. Whenever we do anything that can be digitally monitored (ie everything) information is processed. A detail of Cato’s plans stood out to me. The designs are described as drawing inspiration “from the ancient Greek stoa, a covered colonnaded walkway where the Stoic philosophers gathered to exchange ideas, and from the related classical tradition in which proportion, order and harmony were understood as expressions of a deeper philosophical worldview”.

That feels like lofty idealism for what is basically a bunch of warehouses full of servers. Is the harvesting of data really the modern equivalent of philosophers debating the age of reason into existence? Would access to unlimited data allow us to finally realise true democracy? Is Ancient Greece just trendy again thanks to The Odyssey?

Read more:

• London’s data centres use 750,000 homes’ worth of electricity. It’s bad news for the housing crisis
• How nuclear bunkers could save the internet: ‘An appropriate metaphor for the climate crisis’
• Will AI be the end of humanity?

The Trojan horse here isn’t the fanciful language but the familiar promise that development will boost the economy. The residents of Auchtertool have had this trick played on them before. 

In the 1980s a vast petrochemical plant was built nearby to process North Sea oil. The continued investment that was initially promised never quite arrived. Cato’s £5bn outlay will, according to proposals, result in just 120 permanent highly skilled jobs.

What’s left of Hallyards Castle will likely be lost and become a literal metaphor for the fact that the present is built on layers of the past. 

There is a way to recognise that more creatively. Take this week’s cover artist Philip Colbert. Like the architects of Cato inspired by Greeks, Colbert is in dialogue with mosaic-makers from Roman times. 

This summer he’s become only the second artist to exhibit among the ruins of Pompeii. His lobsters “have one claw in eternity” as he says, and tell us more about where we have come from and where we’re headed than any AI assistant could.

Colbert has created an exclusive, impossible to miss, cover for this week’s magazine. Beyond the bugs, bikers and lobster-people, the animal/human theme continues as Big Issue vendors share their favourite dog walks.

It’s a reminder to take a moment, put down the phone and stop fuelling the AI algorithms for a second. Stroll through the countryside or along a stream before a data centre gets built there.

Steven MacKenzie is Editor of Big Issue. Read more of his writing here. 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

Change a vendor’s life.

Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week – and always take the magazine. It’s how vendors earn with dignity and move forward.

You can also support online:
Subscribe to the magazine or support our work with a monthly gift. Your support helps vendors earn, learn and thrive while strengthening our frontline services.

Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.