Data centers are having a moment. From the White House to county commissioner meetings, data centers are being trumpeted for their promise to reshape economies and secure national dominance. At the same time, as tech companies race to lead the global AI market, billion-dollar data center deals have been the subject of headlines, lawsuits, and public backlash. In this presentation, Dr. Dustin Edwards from San Diego State University tracks the policy developments, financial arrangements, and energy configurations that have paved the way for the rapid construction of hyperscale AI data centers in the U.S. In doing so, Dr. Edwards proposes that the conceptual language of “hyperscaling” offers more than a technical definition of computational infrastructure.

Hyperscaling, Dr. Edwards argues, also names a project of total capture, an intensified extractive ideology and capitalist logic whereby energy, water, land, minerals, and human bodies are sacrificed for a future imagined by tech CEOs and their financial boosters.

Drawing on qualitative interviews with frontline communities where data centers are being proposed, Dr. Edwards also insists that this future is not a foregone conclusion. In a moment of unchecked growth and little governmental oversight, data center opposition coalitions have scaled in their own right, demanding a different and less extractive vision for a collective future. 

Join the WVU Humanities Center, the Department of English, and the Department of Geology and Geography for this important lecture in

202 Brooks Hall at 4 p.m. (Please note room change.)

This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required, but is encouraged for planning purposes.