Contra Benn Jordan, data center (and all) sub-audible infrasound issues are fake - By Andy Masley

In this post Andy Masley takes a close, critical look at popular claims that data centers produce harmful “infrasound,” using the viral videos of Benn Jordan as a case study in how persuasive, high-production misinformation can spread. He unpacks the underlying science, contrasts it with how it’s presented online, and argues that while noise pollution is real, the more extreme infrasound claims don’t hold up to scrutiny, offering both a technical and sociological lens on how these ideas gain traction.* 00:00:00 - Introduction* 00:00:36 - Intro* 00:04:48 - What is infrasound?* 00:16:14 - What the science says about infrasound harms* 00:16:17 - The history of infrasound science* 00:21:48 - The consensus* 00:23:03 - Benn Jordan’s infrasound videos are a complete disaster* 00:24:22 - First video - Infrasound: What You Can’t Hear CAN Hurt You* 00:24:51 - 0:00 to 1:40 - Intro* 00:46:18 - 1:40 to 3:48 - Philosophy of time* 00:47:51 - 3:48 to 4:34 - UV and infrasound* 00:51:24 - 4:50 to 5:21 - The symptom list* 01:01:33 - 5:21 to 5:51 - The heart-contraction study* 01:09:41 - 5:51 to 6:37 - ‘It’s hard to study’* 01:19:06 - 6:52 to 8:10 - The Vic Tandy ghost story* 01:26:31 - 8:10 to 10:09 - Backyard recording* 01:28:52 - 10:25 to 12:00 - The South Dakota detour* 01:32:13 - 12:08 to 14:32 - The Yellowstone segment* 01:32:37 - 14:24 to 14:49 - The inescapability frame* 01:34:45 - 14:49 to 18:00 - The physics detour and SpaceX launch* 01:36:38 - 17:18 to 18:00 - Helmholtz resonance* 01:37:22 - 18:00 to 18:56 - The Liverpool Cathedral study* 01:39:56 - 18:56 to 20:16 - The Goldsmiths Haunt Project* 01:43:23 - 20:16 to End - The gear section* 01:43:49 - Conclusion* 01:48:41 - Second video - Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons* 01:49:35 - 0:00 to 1:29 - Intro* 01:53:41 - 2:24 to 3:22 - The symptom list, round two* 01:56:53 - 4:06 to 9:10 - xAI’s Colossus* 02:01:55 - 9:10 to 15:18 - MARA slash Granbury* 02:08:58 - 15:18 to 17:58 - The Permian Basin* 02:11:45 - 17:58 to 23:15 - The experiment* 02:12:07 - Problem 1: The “haunted painting” priming* 02:13:25 - Problem 2: He isn’t blind* 02:14:15 - Problem 3: The stimulus itself* 02:15:32 - Problem 4: The self-selection filter* 02:16:47 - Problem 5: The effect sizes are tiny and the framing is misleading* 02:19:33 - Problem 6: Multiple comparisons* 02:20:31 - What the experiment actually shows* 02:21:07 - 23:15 to 25:43 - YouTube data vs research data* 02:23:09 - 25:43 to end - The call to action* 02:25:26 - Conclusion* 02:26:35 - There’s a lot of social permission to treat data centers as boogeymen right nowhttps://open.substack.com/pub/andymasley/p/contra-benn-jordan-data-center-and?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe