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kate conger
@kateconger.com

Next week, Google is putting an experimental satellite into orbit that is the first step towards building A.I. data centers in space. This technology is all still very speculative, but tech leaders are increasingly adamant that this is the future of compute. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...

nytimes.comGoogle Is Sending an A.I. Data Center to Outer Space (Gift Article)Next Thursday, Google is sending an experimental satellite into orbit that will have enough computing power to answer simple A.I. queries from space.

55 reposts158 likes

reggie seidman
@ennui.org

"the results of Google’s cyclotron tests were promising, with the company finding that restarting the chips could usually reset the bit flips."

Big Worker
@bigworker.bsky.social

This seems like a perfectly reasonable experiment in getting computers to work in space but it throws into sharp relief how incredibly far we are from being able to build a data center in space, and the total lack of any rationale for doing so

Kim Sherrell
@web.kim

Space radiation can cause big problems, like flipping the 1s and 0s. "But the results of Google’s cyclotron tests were promising, with the company finding that restarting the chips could usually reset the bit flips."

Daniel Rigal 🇪🇺 🦋
@danielrigal.bsky.social

Four things that a data centre needs: 1. Lots of power. 2. Lots of cooling. 3. Fast data connections. 4. Low radiation. How does space score on those fronts? 1. Poor. Unless you put a nuclear reactor on it, you are limited to solar power and you can only fit so many solar panels on one satellite.

Daniel Rigal 🇪🇺 🦋
@danielrigal.bsky.social

3. You are OK for data bandwidth so long as you don't care about latency. You don't care about latency, do you? 4. Good luck keeping cosmic rays out of the RAM! Yeah, this is completely fucked before it even starts. The guys behind this *must* know that. It's obviously a scam.

Daniel Rigal 🇪🇺 🦋
@danielrigal.bsky.social

The nightmare scenario here is that they go down the nuclear route and have a satellite full of plutonium blow up on the launchpad. I think that is unlikely though. I think they are more cynical than stupid. Only the dumbest dumbfucks play around with plutonium. They don't need it for the scam.

capitolhunters
@capitolhunters.bsky.social

Please, don't post "tech leaders are..adamant that this is the future of compute" without a qualifier, like "which is batshit crazy". Running a data center in space is absurdly hard. And the reason is.. energy supply? There's plenty of sunlight on Earth. Permitting? Nothing makes sense.

capitolhunters
@capitolhunters.bsky.social

Your article is very skeptical and good about the technical challenges. It would be useful also to ask WHY execs are pushing this. Cultish irrationality? Or is it a PR stunt to make data centers seem futuristic and uncontrollable? ("if you regulate us we'll just go to space anyway so don't try")

capitolhunters
@capitolhunters.bsky.social

Andrew Lawrence thinks the point is a PR stunt.

Andrew Lawrence@ndrew.bsky.social

this is actually the dumbest idea anyone has ever fucking conceived of, the only thing that makes any sense is theyre running out of ideas to confuse the tech illiterate dementia patient politicians that keep showering them with taxpayer money

LaraWowler
@lzfowler.bsky.social

Start a gofundus! This article is wild, not content with heating up just this planet, let’s launch some shit that ‘can operate for about 15 minutes in space before needing to be shut down so they can cool off’ seems fine.