Benn Jordan
Sub-20 Hz acoustic pressure waves from high-density computing facilities directly trigger vestibular and cardiovascular distress in humans while escaping conventional noise regulations.
AI-assisted summary of Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons — original source. Check the original for full context.
Source published:
Key ideas
- Field measurements reveal that sub-20 Hz infrasound emissions around facilities like xAI's Colossus and the Marathon Digital crypto mine register up to 10 dB louder than audible mechanical noise, propagating through ground and structures without attenuation. (7:15)
- A double-blind psychoacoustic study of 74 vetted participants exposed to data center infrasound at reduced amplitudes showed dizziness jumping from 1.2 to 3.0 out of 10 and general discomfort quadrupling from 1.2 to 4.8. (23:16)
- Industrial data center operations pose severe localized environmental threats, including unauthorized on-site methane turbines discharging hazardous nitrogen oxides in South Memphis and 70-90 dB continuous noise combined with sub-audible pressure in Granbury, Texas. (4:09)
- Because over 3,000 new industrial data centers are planned across the United States, affected communities are encouraged to deploy continuous low-frequency monitoring tools like the Raspberry Shake 3D to establish immutable baseline data for regulatory and legal remediation. (25:42)
Detailed notes
## Background Published by Benn Jordan on YouTube on February 18, 2026, this investigative video explores the hidden physical and acoustic impacts of massive computing facilities. The description frames the project as "another depressing adventure in science and technology" documenting an ongoing experiment and research paper examining how data centers emit low-frequency sound.
## TL;DR Musician and researcher Benn Jordan investigates the physical toll of sub-audible infrasound emitted by massive computing infrastructure, traveling to Elon Musk's xAI Colossus data center in Memphis, a Bitcoin mine in Granbury, Texas, and the Permian Basin. Finding that low-frequency oscillations beneath 20 Hz can register significantly louder than audible mechanical noise, Jordan links these emissions to real-world medical crises reported by nearby residents, including nausea, dizziness, cardiovascular strain, and seizures. To validate these physiological effects, he conducts a deceptive, double-blind psychoacoustic trial exposing over 100 unknowing participants to simulated data center infrasound, documenting sharp, statistically significant spikes in dizziness and overall discomfort. Highlighting regulatory blind spots and the thousands of new facilities under construction, Jordan urges vulnerable communities to capture continuous baseline seismic and infrasonic recordings to build evidentiary trails for future legal battles.
## Atmosphere & style The presentation carries an eerie, investigative noir vibe, balancing deadpan dark humor with genuine scientific gravity and righteous indignation. Jordan moves between covert drone reconnaissance, spectral acoustic analysis, and deeply personal community interviews with an understated, dry demeanor that keeps the material grounded despite its surreal implications. Watching the video feels like listening to an audio engineer uncover a quiet public health conspiracy in plain sight, transitioning from technical sound design talk to chilling revelations about the physical and psychological toll exacted on ordinary neighborhoods.
## Bulletin - [07:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=435s) Field measurements reveal that sub-20 Hz infrasound emissions around facilities like xAI's Colossus and the Marathon Digital crypto mine register up to 10 dB louder than audible mechanical noise, propagating through ground and structures without attenuation. - [23:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1396s) A double-blind psychoacoustic study of 74 vetted participants exposed to data center infrasound at reduced amplitudes showed dizziness jumping from 1.2 to 3.0 out of 10 and general discomfort quadrupling from 1.2 to 4.8. - [04:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=249s) Industrial data center operations pose severe localized environmental threats, including unauthorized on-site methane turbines discharging hazardous nitrogen oxides in South Memphis and 70-90 dB continuous noise combined with sub-audible pressure in Granbury, Texas. - [25:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1542s) Because over 3,000 new industrial data centers are planned across the United States, affected communities are encouraged to deploy continuous low-frequency monitoring tools like the Raspberry Shake 3D to establish immutable baseline data for regulatory and legal remediation.
## Key takeaways - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=0s) Infrasound emissions below 20 Hz induce genuine physiological pathology, including cortisol spikes, vestibular balance disruption, and long-term risks of vibroacoustic disease. - [04:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=249s) Elon Musk's xAI Colossus facility in South Memphis bypassed grid limitations by deploying unpermitted methane gas turbines that discharge toxic nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds into neighboring residential air. - [07:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=435s) Sub-audible infrasound around Colossus registered 10 dB louder than audible frequencies, carrying extensive physical energy capable of shaking homes up to a mile away. - [09:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=549s) Residents in Hood County, Texas, an area deeply rooted in oil and gas extraction, reported unprecedented health crises including severe nausea, dizziness, and seizures near the MARA Bitcoin mining facility. - [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=600s) Continuous field recordings at Granbury, Texas, revealed sharp sub-audible pressure spikes near 30 Hz that match sound signatures of jet engines preparing for takeoff when sped into the audible spectrum. - [15:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=913s) Recordings from the Permian Basin confirmed that heavy oil extraction and fracking operations produce substantially lower infrasonic amplitudes than those measured outside computing data centers. - [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1200s) A concealed infrasound trial conducted on synthesizer convention attendees demonstrated significant increases in eye irritation, restlessness, nausea, and disorientation among exposed subjects. - [23:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1396s) Analyzing absolute survey scores over sensational relative percentages showed that infrasound exposure primarily drives substantial baseline shifts in overall physical discomfort and vestibular dizziness. - [25:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1542s) Accurate detection of continuous industrial infrasound requires specialized equipment such as the Raspberry Shake 3D or lithium battery vibration sensors paired with seismic-to-Pascal mathematical conversion. - [25:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1542s) Modern municipal zoning and environmental agencies fundamentally fail by regulating infrasound as a minor acoustic nuisance rather than an ecological and public health emergency. - [25:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1542s) Establishing continuous pre-construction infrasound and seismic logging strips data center developers of the standard legal defense that low-frequency hums are pre-existing ambient noise.
## Detailed walkthrough ### [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=0s) The Data Center Paradox and Infrasound's Hidden Threat
Benn Jordan introduces the jarring irony underlying modern technology criticism: anyone watching his video is likely not a fan of data centers—or outright despises them—yet is actively streaming the video from one, while Jordan himself must upload his investigative research directly into that same infrastructure. Acknowledging that this hypocrisy is unavoidable unless one packs a bag to become a hunter-gatherer, he pivots to the alarming human toll that prompted his cross-country investigation. Residents living near massive computing facilities have reported devastating health crises, including a six-year-old girl who began suffering severe seizures, prompting her family to abandon their home and take out a second mortgage. Jordan sets out to document infrasound noise pollution at major installations, fly covert drone missions to inspect environmental non-compliance, and stage a double-blind human trial exposing over 100 unknowing participants to these exact recorded frequencies.
Moving past familiar debates about raw water consumption, strain on the electrical grid, and toxic chemical usage, Jordan focuses squarely on infrasound—acoustic pressure oscillations below 20 Hz, just beneath the threshold of human hearing. Elevated exposure to these low-frequency waves does not produce mere psychosomatic discomfort or anxiety-induced symptoms; it induces concrete, measurable pathology. Infrasound triggers sharp spikes in cortisol (the primary stress and hypertension hormone), induces vestibular disturbance leading to vertigo and nausea, and causes high-frequency hearing loss, shortness of breath, and cardiovascular strain as the heart works harder to circulate blood. Most alarmingly, chronic exposure is linked to vibroacoustic disease, a condition characterized by the abnormal proliferation of extracellular matrices that thickens blood vessel walls and restricts cerebral blood flow long after the sound itself has ceased. As Jordan emphasizes regarding the biological reality of this phenomenon: “So it's not like this anxiety-based or obsessive compulsive thing where an unpleasant feeling or an unusual situation makes you manifest symptoms.”
- Physiological effects of infrasound: Cortisol spikes, vestibular imbalance, vertigo, nausea, and shortness of breath. - Long-term clinical risks: Thickening of blood vessels from vibroacoustic disease, permanent reduction of cerebral blood flow, and high-frequency hearing loss.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Physiological Impacts of Infrasound Exposure accDescr: Flowchart showing how sub-20 Hz acoustic pressure waves lead to immediate and long-term health consequences.
subgraph Source["Acoustic Source"] A["Industrial Infrasound (<20 Hz)"] end
subgraph Acute["Acute Physiological Responses"] B["Cortisol Spike & Hypertension"] C["Vestibular Imbalance, Nausea & Vertigo"] D["Increased Cardiovascular Workload"] end
subgraph Chronic["Long-Term Pathology"] E["Vibroacoustic Disease"] F["Extracellular Matrix Growth"] G["Vascular Thickening & Reduced Cerebral Blood Flow"] end
A --> B A --> C A --> D A --> E E --> F F --> G ```
[03:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=180s) Mapping the Measurement Sites
To gather an unimpeachable dataset, Jordan targeted locations that represent distinct acoustic environments across the United States. He needed industrial sites of massive scale where neighboring communities were actively reporting classic symptoms of infrasound illness, contrasted against standard baseline environments and an absolute natural control devoid of human activity.
He established five distinct recording targets across the country: - **Colossus Data Center (Memphis, Tennessee):** The massive xAI training facility housing hundreds of thousands of GPUs. - **Marathon Digital (MARA) Bitcoin Mine (Hood County, Texas):** A cryptocurrency mining facility embedded close to a rural residential community. - **The Permian Basin (West Texas):** The epicenter of extensive oil and gas drilling operations. - **National Ambient Average:** A randomized aggregate of typical everyday American infrasound baselines collected inside hotel rooms, private residences, restaurants, and standard wilderness areas. - **Death Valley (California):** An extreme negative baseline located deep in the desert, hundreds of miles away from any major industrial infrastructure.
[04:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=249s) Colossus and xAI: Environmental Fallout in Memphis
Jordan travels to South Memphis to investigate Colossus, the facility constructed by Elon Musk's xAI to train the large language model Grok. Jordan notes the grim timing of his visit: while standing across the street, news was breaking that Grok's 550,000 GPUs had been generating non-consensual deepfake imagery, including over 23,000 depictions of child sexual abuse material. Running this scale of compute requires immense power: the entire city of Memphis has an electrical capacity of roughly 3,500 megawatts, of which Colossus demands 13%. However, the local grid could only supply around 5%, leading the facility to circumvent constraints by burning methane gas in unpermitted mobile turbines on site.
To assess the site, Jordan flew a drone overhead to capture visual evidence for journalists and environmental regulators, documenting rows of methane turbines venting emissions straight into the surrounding community. The turbines exhaust carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, and dangerous levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx)—pollutants with well-documented links to severe cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Jordan contrasts the leniency shown in Tennessee with international standards, citing India’s 2019 fine against Volkswagen of approximately $71 million USD for falsifying NOx emissions. In this predominantly Black neighborhood in South Memphis, these emissions are released directly into residential air, creating a foul stench resembling a mixture of natural gas, chemical runoff, and manure that makes it physically difficult to breathe even half a mile away. Musk's planned expansion, dubbed "MacroHard," aims to expand power consumption to 1.5 gigawatts—representing half of the entire peak grid capacity of Memphis—subsidized by the local population whose drinking water table is simultaneously depleted by industrial cooling towers venting steam into the atmosphere. Confronting the absurdity of the infrastructure, Jordan remarks: “Elon Musk, never wanting to turn down that cringe knob, has named the new expansion to the facility 'MacroHard.'”
- Colossus power footprint: Draws 5% of Memphis's 3,500 MW capacity from the grid, with planned expansions scaling to 1.5 GW (50% of the city's peak capacity). - On-site generation: Unauthorized methane gas turbines discharging hazardous levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). - Local environmental impact: Air pollution causing immediate respiratory irritation half a mile away, alongside millions of gallons of water evaporated into steam instead of returning to the local aquifer.
[07:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=435s) Acoustic and Infrasonic Signatures of Colossus
Setting up audio gear roughly 300 feet from the main Colossus structures, Jordan captured the audible and sub-audible acoustic spectrum to demonstrate the physical assault of the installation. Using standard spectral visualization, he highlights that audible mechanical whines and industrial clatter hovered around -30 dB, with low mechanical rumbles reaching -28 dB. The inaudible infrasound beneath 20 Hz, however, registered an astonishing 10 decibels louder than the audible noise, packing tremendous acoustic energy that went entirely undetected by ear.
Jordan moved his equipment roughly a mile away to a public park adjacent to a local elementary school to evaluate how the sound propagates through a neighborhood. Higher-frequency audio attenuates over distance, but low-frequency rumbles and sub-audible infrasound carry through the atmosphere and physical ground unhindered. The amplitude of the sub-20 Hz oscillations was strong enough to push his microphone preamps close to clipping despite substantial headroom, generating energy capable of shaking the structural framing of surrounding houses. To make the silent phenomenon tangible to the audience, Jordan filtered out every frequency above 20 Hz, isolated the sub-audible recording, and sped up the sample rate by a factor of 16 (four times faster, then four times faster again) to shift the deep industrial infrasound squarely into the human audible range. Assessing the devastating acoustic environment imposed on the community, Jordan observes: “This rumbling is no good and would make your life utterly miserable.”
- Distance measurements: 300 feet directly across the street from the primary data hall, and 1 mile away at an elementary school playground. - Amplitude disparity: Infrasound frequencies below 20 Hz registered roughly 10 dB louder than the audible mechanical noise floor. - Audio demonstration: A 16x speed conversion was required to shift the deep sub-audible building and turbine oscillations into the audible human hearing range.
[09:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=549s) Hood County, Texas and Industry Bias
Shifting from Tennessee to Texas, Jordan examines the Marathon Digital (MARA) Bitcoin mining facility situated in Hood County. When evaluating public pollution complaints per capita, Jordan explains that researchers must account for regional cultural and industrial bias. An oil refinery erected in environmentally conscious Berkeley, California, will inevitably register far more air quality complaints per 100,000 residents than the identical facility placed in Oklahoma City.
Hood County sits directly atop the fossil-fuel-rich Barnett Shale, where local identity and employment are deeply entwined with heavy energy extraction. The county boasts 174 active oil and gas companies, and its voting demographic is solidly conservative, making it culturally resistant to environmental hand-wringing. Criticizing extraction infrastructure in a local establishment, Jordan jokes, would likely earn a visitor a trip to the nearest emergency room. The fact that residents in this industrial, pro-energy community began filing vocal complaints about physical suffering from the crypto mine signaled that the acoustic pollution was exceptionally severe. As Jordan reflects on the local sentiment: “There are currently 174 oil and gas companies with operations in Hood County alone, and I'd imagine that criticizing this industry in one of the local bars might be a good way to get a free tour of one of the local emergency health care” facilities.
[10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=600s) Investigating the Granbury Bitcoin Mine
Benn Jordan turns his investigation toward Granbury, Texas, examining the severe impact of a local Bitcoin mining facility (operated by Marathon Digital Holdings, or MARA). While sustained audible noise from the mine has been characterized by residents as a 70 to 90 decibel jet engine-like roar—prompting the company to construct sound-dampening walls that did little to solve the issue—Jordan realized that the reported physiological reactions did not match typical audible noise pollution. Instead, complaints of debilitating health problems in humans, alongside adverse effects in local plants and animals, strongly correlated with known symptoms of low-frequency infrasound exposure.
Jordan initially attempted to remain detached, noting, “I didn't want pesky things like empathy or local politics clouding my research.” However, the pervasive nature of the crisis became immediately clear when merely bringing up the subject of noise pollution to a friend at a local gas station spontaneously drew a crowd of patrons who all wanted to share their personal experiences.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Infrasound Impact on Granbury Community accDescr: Flowchart showing the cause and reported effects of crypto mine infrasound emissions on local residents.
subgraph Source["Pollution Source"] A["MARA Crypto Mine<br>(70-90 dB Audible Noise + Infrasound)"] end
subgraph Symptoms["Reported Physical Impacts"] B["Debilitating Nausea & Dizziness"] C["GI Issues & Ear Ringing"] D["Nervousness, Anxiety & Seizures"] end
subgraph Fallout["Community Consequences"] E["Residents Forced to Relocate"] F["Visiting County Officials Fall Ill"] G["Ongoing Civil Lawsuits & Remote Logging Setup"] end
A --> B A --> C A --> D B & C & D --> E B & C & D --> F B & C & D --> G ```
Recording from a secluded farm roughly three-quarters of a mile away from the mine on two separate occasions, Jordan captured a spectrum of audible drones—which he wryly describes as a “choir of... crypto bullshit.” Dropping into sub-audible frequencies revealed an intense, brutal spike around 30 Hz. Though sitting below the human auditory threshold, the pressure was physically palpable:
- When sped up into the audible spectrum, the sub-audible frequencies sound indistinguishable from sitting right next to an airplane preparing for takeoff. - The severe low-frequency hum completely destroys the tranquil atmosphere of the rural countryside. - Temporary anomalous low-frequency spikes were observed during long ambient captures, though Jordan excluded these temporary peaks from his baseline datasets.
[12:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=755s) First-Hand Accounts: Cheryl Shadden's Story
Jordan sits down with Cheryl Shadden, a resident living directly across the street from the crypto mine. He describes her as both exceptionally likable and someone who is rightfully furious about the facility's intrusion onto her land. Keeping his infrasound hypotheses secret so as not to bias her answers, Jordan asked her to describe the direct physical symptoms she experiences on her property:
> “Motion sickness, dizziness, nausea, GI side effects. My ears ring and buzz. Now, nervous, anxious, worried.” — *Cheryl Shadden*
These symptoms consistently match the medical footprint of acute infrasound exposure. Shadden explains that neighbors frequently text one another when sudden waves of sickness occur simultaneously, describing instances where working outdoors at 3:00 PM on a Saturday resulted in sudden, horrific nausea to the point of nearly passing out, only to learn neighbors down the road were experiencing identical episodes at the exact same moment.
The health consequences have led to drastic choices in the community: - One neighboring family completely walked away from their home and took out a second mortgage to move south to Somervell County after their six-year-old daughter began experiencing seizures in the summer of 2024; her symptoms disappeared entirely once relocated. - During a meeting at the power plant involving executives from Constellation Energy, the mayor of Glen Rose, and a Somervell County commissioner, the commissioner became actively ill from the crypto mine's noise and can no longer stay in the area for more than an hour without feeling sick. - To build a foundation for legal and regulatory challenges, Jordan provided Shadden with a monitoring unit to record and stream continuous 24/7 infrasound data from her property to a remote server, allowing them to map acoustic levels directly against power plant maintenance shutdowns.
[15:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=913s) The Permian Basin: Extreme Industry Benchmark
To establish a baseline comparison, Jordan traveled to the Permian Basin, a sprawling industrial energy hub spanning northwest Texas and eastern New Mexico. The region generates over 6 million barrels of crude oil per day—more than 40% of total U.S. oil production—and accounts for 15% of the nation's natural gas extraction. Infrastructure constraints frequently bottleneck this massive natural gas output, causing operators to vent raw methane or engage in extensive flaring.
Because vast high-pressure water injection from fracking operations has transformed this geologically quiet area into an active earthquake hotspot logging over 2,000 earthquakes per year, Jordan expected it to be the single most infrasonically active location in North America outside of a data center. During his field recording, a nearby wellbore turned on and began emitting an unsettling drone as the drill string plunged in and out of the well. However, the spectral data revealed an unexpected result:
- While infrasound amplitudes in the Permian Basin were loud and closely matched the energy levels of the audible audio spectrum, they were noticeably lower than the infrasound measured around the data centers in Memphis and Granbury. - The infrasound output near the data centers exceeded ambient baseline noise by orders of magnitude so vast that linear percentage comparisons fail, requiring logarithmic regression models to represent accurately. - Noting that presenting mathematical logarithmic regression models would cause YouTube audience retention to plummet to zero, Jordan pivoted toward an empirical psychoacoustic experiment.
[18:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1080s) Human Testing at Buchla and Friends
Determined to safely assess the physical and psychological toll of data center infrasound, Jordan designed a double-blind experiment reproducing the infrasonic waves at a reduced 25% to 30% of their real-world data center amplitudes. The central hurdle was finding a testing environment where human subjects could be exposed to acoustic testing without knowing infrasound was the primary variable.
Jordan reflected on past sonic weapon experiments he had built—such as a speech-jamming acoustic gun that derailed coherent talking—and decided on the ideal testing demographic:
> “Unless your wallet contains a CIA badge, the only place in the world where you could get away with testing sonic weapons on people is a deeply nerdy synthesizer convention.” — *Benn Jordan*
Securing comprehensive liability insurance, Jordan convinced the organizers of the Buchla and Friends synthesizer convention in downtown Los Angeles to let him rent out a booth and a private, enclosed room. His experimental testing framework featured: - Groups of five convention attendees pulled into an insulated room equipped with five chairs, five pairs of studio headphones, and a single oil painting of owls. - Every participant signed liability waivers and was told they were evaluating a three-minute musical piece while closely observing the owl painting and logging their emotional and physical reactions. - To introduce a randomized bias variable and keep himself entertained, Jordan improvised a different fictional backstory for every group explaining why the owl painting was supposedly cursed or haunted, attributing it variously to post-WWII North Dakota in the 1940s and '50s, 1970s occult lore, late-1980s Soviet collapse artifacts, or early-1990s Japan.
[20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1200s) The Deceptive Infrasound Experiment and Initial Results
To test how inaudible, low-frequency sound affects human subjects, Benn Jordan orchestrated a deceptive psychoacoustic experiment under the guise of an art-and-music evaluation. Volunteers were brought into an experimental space and asked to focus on examining a painting for ominous details while ambient music played in the background. Unbeknownst to the participants, a specialized, massive subwoofer was concealed in the room, pumping out infrasound in exactly 50% of the sessions. Jordan reveals that the setup was so subtle that even he often could not tell if the infrasound generator was actively running unless he looked for physical evidence, such as water visibly vibrating inside a bottle. After the exposure sessions concluded, participants were required to complete an extensive symptom survey and sworn to secrecy for 48 hours before being debriefed on the true nature of the test. Jordan recounts confessing to them: “Everything that I told you is a lie. Yeah, I got this on eBay for 30 bucks. The music, there's nothing substantial about it whatsoever. 50% of the people who are participating in this study are being subject to a fraction of the infrasound that's coming out of data centers across the US.”
Jordan candidly admits the precarious business reality of funding independent scientific experiments via a YouTube channel: “I don't know why, but I feel like it's important that you know that the existence of this video depended on these survey results. There was really no point in making a video about infrasound levels that don't affect anyone. I've found that this is the big drawback about funding research through a YouTube channel.” While over 100 people participated, rigorous filtering was applied to ensure the integrity of the data. Anyone who skipped a question, indicated suspicion, claimed they consciously felt a physical vibration, or participated in a session where Jordan himself knew whether the infrasound was active was thrown out. This narrowed the field to a clean, double-blind dataset of 74 subjects.
The initial percentage comparisons between the control and infrasound-exposed groups revealed significant physiological and emotional divergences: - Exposed participants were 25% more likely to experience tingling sensations or restless legs, and the few individuals who experienced heart palpitations were entirely in the infrasound group. - The exposed group saw a 12% increase in tiredness, a 33% increase in nausea, and a 150% spike in dizziness. Jordan emphasizes this vestibular disturbance as a direct physical reaction to low-frequency pressure waves and notes it is the most frequent symptom cited by citizens in Granbury, Texas, near crypto-mining operations. - Psychologically, participants subject to infrasound were 11% less likely to feel "creeped out" and 43% less likely to feel spiritual—a drop Jordan theorizes stems from nausea and vestibular disorientation distracting subjects from transcendent or reflective thoughts. - Infrasound exposure generated a 20% increase in chills, a 33% rise in irritability or depression, a 55% surge in anxiety, and a 100% increase (twice as likely) in feelings of sadness. - Subjects exposed to infrasound were three times as likely to report eye irritation, aligning with the historical "ghost in the machine" research. - While an 80% increase was noted for "lethargy," Jordan chose to strike the metric entirely from the study, explaining that its distinction from the 12% "tiredness" increase was too semantically ambiguous for participants. - Most glaringly, the infrasound group was three times as likely to report a generalized sense of discomfort.
[23:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1396s) YouTube Data vs. Researcher Data
Jordan steps back to unpack the tension between communicating science to a broad internet audience versus presenting it with academic rigor. In internet media, catchy headline statistics like "blah blah is eight times more likely to blah blah" are effective hooks that get casual viewers down educational rabbit holes, but relative percentage increases can easily distort real-world magnitude. For instance, while infrasound subjects were statistically 33% more likely to report nausea, a casual viewer might visualize 33 out of 100 people becoming physically sick. In reality, the average self-reported nausea score on a scale from 0 to 10 rose from a baseline of 0.9 in the control group to just 1.2 in the infrasound group—an increase that is mathematically true, but so low in absolute terms that it barely warrants serious clinical concern on its own.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Raw Survey Scores Comparison accDescr: Bar chart representation comparing control versus infrasound scores across key metrics on a 0 to 10 scale.
subgraph Discomfort ["Discomfort Score (0-10)"] D_Ctrl["Control: 1.2"] D_Inf["Infrasound: 4.8"] D_Ctrl -.->|"4x absolute jump"| D_Inf end
subgraph Dizziness ["Dizziness Score (0-10)"] Z_Ctrl["Control: 1.2"] Z_Inf["Infrasound: 3.0"] Z_Ctrl -.->|"2.5x absolute jump"| Z_Inf end
subgraph Spirituality ["Spiritual Feeling (0-10)"] S_Ctrl["Control: 4.2"] S_Inf["Infrasound: 2.4"] S_Ctrl -.->|"Significant drop"| S_Inf end
subgraph Nausea ["Nausea Score (0-10)"] N_Ctrl["Control: 0.9"] N_Inf["Infrasound: 1.2"] N_Ctrl -.->|"Minor shift (33% relative)"| N_Inf end ```
When evaluated as raw, absolute scores rather than relative percentages, only a select cluster of metrics exhibited profound shifts. The score for feeling spiritual dropped from an average of 4.2 among control subjects to 2.4 under infrasound. Dizziness jumped from a baseline score of 1.2 up to an average of 3.0. The most dramatic divergence occurred in the measurement of overall physical and mental discomfort: control subjects averaged a negligible 1.2, whereas participants in the infrasound group surged to an average score of 4.8. Reflecting on this unmistakable baseline shift, Jordan concludes: “When reviewing that data, it's hard for even the most skeptical person to come to any other conclusion then. The presence of elevated levels of infrasound is likely to lower your quality of life.” Jordan emphasizes that while an hour could easily be spent picking apart flaws in the pilot study, having 74 vetted subjects provides a strong foundation to petition for expanded research funding and test multiple distinct frequencies with greater repeatability.
[25:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1542s) Measurement Techniques, Regulatory Failure, and Community Action
Capturing infrasound accurately requires specialized hardware that goes far beyond standard acoustic microphones. Jordan outlines the three distinct capture tools he utilizes in the field: 1. **Specialized Measurement Microphones:** Convenient to use because they handle like traditional microphones, offering a flat frequency response down to 9 Hz and capturing signals down to 3 Hz before low-end roll-off occurs. 2. **Raspberry Shake 3D:** A high-speed, relatively affordable vibration detection system capable of monitoring full-spectrum, scientific-grade infrasound below 3 Hz without frequency fall-off. Although it demands significant initial calibration, it has the distinct advantage of recording seismic and acoustic phenomena continuously and indefinitely. 3. **Lithium Battery Vibration Sensors / Accelerometers:** Highly accurate, industrial-grade sensors traditionally used to detect minute structural abnormalities and prevent catastrophic failure in large lithium-ion battery banks. While extraordinarily accurate, they are significantly more expensive.
Because vibration sensors record raw seismic and acceleration units, the data must be mathematically converted into Pascals before it can be analyzed or auditioned like an audio file. Jordan notes that after years of painstakingly calculating these conversions manually inside Microsoft Excel, he wrote an automated Python script capable of batch-processing hundreds of sensor logs simultaneously, which he has released publicly on his GitHub repository.
The ultimate impetus behind Jordan’s investigation is the ceaseless flood of messages he receives from people worldwide suffering from mysterious structural vibrations, low-frequency hums, and unexplained health declines. He argues that modern environmental zoning is fundamentally failing because regulators, architects, and municipal bodies treat noise pollution as a nuisance rather than an ecological and public health hazard: “Prior to this experiment, I feel like we have seen more than enough data to make infrasound monitoring and regulation just as important as air or water quality, especially when you look at the studies pertaining to the cardiovascular and nervous system.”
With over 3,000 new industrial data centers currently planned or under active construction across the United States alone, Jordan cautions against waiting for sluggish regulatory agencies: “And while I suspect that having a universally recognized safety threshold for infrasound might be an overly optimistic goal with a government that can't even enforce their own rules with Elon Musk's methane turbines, it can go a long way in both existing and future lawsuits that seek remediation from problematic noise issues caused by data centers and infrastructure that is actively decreasing both the quality of life and health for those with the misfortune of living near them.”
To counter the standard legal defense used by data center operators—who routinely claim that sub-audible hums and ground vibrations were pre-existing environmental background noise—Jordan urges residents facing nearby development to take immediate action: “If you have a data center being built nearby your residents and the infrasound research in this video scares the shit out of you, now would be a great time to set up something like a raspberry shake and start storing a daily log of seismic and infrasonic activity.” Establishing an immutable baseline log prior to facility operation leaves data center operators and their legal teams with zero plausible deniability when class-action attorneys step in.
## Notable quotes > [25:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1542s) Prior to this experiment, I feel like we have seen more than enough data to make infrasound monitoring and regulation just as important as air or water quality, especially when you look at the studies pertaining to the cardiovascular and nervous system. — Benn Jordan
> [23:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo&t=1396s) The presence of elevated levels of infrasound is likely to lower your quality of life. — Benn Jordan
## Mentioned Benn Jordan, Cheryl Shadden, Elon Musk, xAI, Colossus, Grok, MacroHard, Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), Granbury, Hood County, Barnett Shale, Somervell County, Glen Rose, Constellation Energy, Permian Basin, Death Valley, Buchla and Friends, Raspberry Shake 3D, Volkswagen, Memphis, Tennessee, Texas, YouTube, GitHub, Microsoft Excel, Python
## Video description Join me in another depressing adventure in science and technology. [Research paper from the experiment is a WIP]
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Timestamps: Intro - 0:00 Infrasound - 2:14 xAI/Colossus - 4:09 MARA Crypto Mine - 9:09 The Permian Basin - 15:13 Experimenting On Humans - 18:00 YouTube Data vs Research Data - 23:16 Recording Techniques - 25:42
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuo)