I would have thought these data centers would have heated up the water surrounding them but I haven't seen any details as to if or how much.
Ummm, I mean if given just a half a second of thought, there are billions of trillions (or more!!!) of water in the oceans, constantly in motion due to tides and currents. How is the water going to stick around long enough to become heated? They would not put a data center in stagnant water.
Just like brain tissue can be cooled to cryogenic temperatures they still have that to play with under controlled conditions, instead of submerging data centers in salt water. Really, sometimes it seems they overload good sense with ridiculous wasteful ideas
Sadly, the fact you believe it was a wasteful idea unfortunately indicates you don't understand the problem. It takes a huge amount of energy to run all those banks of computers. But that is nothing compared to the amount of energy it takes to keep all that equipment properly cooled. So the problem with these huge data centers is NOT that it takes so much energy to run them. The problem is that it takes tremendous amounts of energy to run the cooling systems to keep the equipment cool! The hope was, submersing these data centers deep in the ocean would greatly reduce the energy and costs to keep them cool. And it worked!!!! However, it is just too expensive to keep a data center running (not to mention, dry) down at the bottom of the ocean. Also, unfortunately, while most of the time system administration tasks can be done remotely from the surface, there are times when support personnel have to go down there. That too is an expensive ordeal.
Unfortunately hope and speculation doesn't meet with the proven. Hence the more practical suggestion on cryogenic methods. Infinitely better suited for COOLING such large heat producing data centers than dunking them in salt water depths. And might even be substantially more cost efficient.
Of course! That is exactly why it was an experiment and not a full-fledged operation into "untested waters" (pun intended). It is why tests are performed. It is why the aviation industry and the military has air tunnels and test pilots for new aircraft BEFORE they commit to mass production. It is why NASA has unmanned test launches before sending up people up in space. That's being smart, not "ridiculous" and "wasteful". LOL "Might" being the operative word there. But how will they know? They will have to run experiments and tests to determine if using cryogenics is economically feasible (and safe) on such large scales. Will you call those experiments ridiculous and wasteful too if such studies reveal large scale operations cannot be done in a cost effective manner and/or safely (including safe for the environment)? "Infinitely better"? Says what? There's no evidence of that - yet. More testing and experimentation needs to be done before that can be determined. One of the many problems with cryogenics is it takes a LOT of energy to compress those gases into liquids. And it takes a lot of space to store those gases (in a required "cool" space, no less) and to store them safely until needed. And it takes a lot of energy to cool the expanded gases and the compressor motors that are used to turn the gas back into liquid form. Look at the typical condenser unit (the big part outside) for the typical home AC. It typically is very large. Look through its fan vent and you will see the compressor - a much smaller device down at the bottom similar to this. The rest of that whole unit consists of large amounts, many square feet, of radiator coils and fins (a MASSIVE heat sink, if you will) and a huge (and power hungry) cooling fan. Ramp up to large scale operation and all that takes up a lot of space - and energy. Space and energy NOT needed on the ocean floor. Typical refrigerants today are commonly stored and used under pressures exceeding 100s of "psig" (pound per square inch "gauge" - the gauge indicates relative to atmosphere pressure, as compared to just "psi"). It is very expensive to build and maintain enclosed systems capable of supporting such pressures. Freezing brain tissue takes a tiny drop of liquid gas. I recently had a "funny looking" mole "burned" off my back with two tiny squirts of liquid nitrogen from what looked like a can of hair spray. That hardly suggests they can easily migrate that technology in to such a huge, large scale operation as cooling a data center. I don't disagree with you that cryogenics "appears" to be the way to go - for now. But there are other methods of cooling that need to be explored. And that will require more experiments and tests to see if they can be implemented on a large scale basis, cost effectively and safely. One interesting solution I read about was locating data centers at the top of our highest mountains. I note when 90°F (32.22°C) at sea level, it is 0.84°F (-17.31°C) at 25,000 feet. Usually windy too. Just open the windows and compute away! That is NOT being wasteful or ridiculous to test the alternative solutions for their potentials. It is being wise. And FTR, Microsoft is also testing and experimenting with cryogenic cooling solutions too. And boiling liquid. And Adiabatic cooling. And other solutions too.
Quite the thesis on the subject. I don't raise any particular arguments on it. Yet one would add that these experimentations which they are researching, can open other discoveries just as well in the process. That is the nature of 'fumbling' through possibilities and potential uses of that as well as any other particular study. The mountain heights analogy is a pretty good stretch though. IMO. Bordering on the same level as the deep water ocean idea. But the other well explained option on cryogenics seems is the practical choice especially now that they abandoned the submarine approach. I also think most will find the direction better suited in comparison.
Sure. I note HUGE advances in ceramics technologies came about simply due to research and testing of materials for the heat shield on the Space Shuttles. Perhaps. But we already have telescopes and other facilities way up there. And there's no danger of leaks or worries of extreme pressures. 42 Inventions From Apollo Program - Apollo11Space
