MY FACEBOOK feed is infested with a lot of posts fear-mongering about Pax Silica. They say it will raise water prices, electricity prices, harm the environment, etc.
For those hostile to Uncle Sammy, they say it will allow the Americans to enslave us (ironic, since Filipinos are trying to immigrate to the United States. And there were some comments that asserted that Data Centers exist to enslave humanity.
I found these arguments extremely puerile, not because they were wrong, but because they were all half-truths.
Consider these numbers. The US has around 5,400 of data centers. China has 450. Now, ask yourself: If Data Centers are so bad, why are powerful countries obsessed with them?
The answer is that for all of their downsides, the productive output of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is too important to ignore.
Data Centers are basically the factories of this century. They may be dirty and require a lot of maintenance, but they are essential for the new industrialization.
Yes, Pax Silica will most likely affect water and electrical bills in the regions they are built in, but only if our leaders fail to plan ahead.
Yes, Pax Silica will integrate us into the American supply chain, but the two other alternatives is to be integrated into the Chinese AI supply chains or to fall behind into greater poverty as the AI economy overshadows the current systems.
There are no other options.
But what about our sovereignty?
What little sovereignty the Philippines does have will not be undermined by a few data centers. It’s true that AI will almost certainly increase inequality and social friction as the economy restructures, but that is better than economic and strategic helplessness.
What we have to remember is that the Philippines is very reliant on global trade and global markets, and those things are changing because of Artificial Intelligence. When the transition comes (and it will come), they will likely affect the labor market for overseas Filipino workers.
They will also affect the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.
They will certainly affect how capital is invested.
If the Philippines has no stake in Artificial Intelligence, we will not just be left behind, our country will be rendered obsolete./PN
