As artificial intelligence reshapes the material demands of modern civilisation, Australia finds itself navigating an old tension dressed in new circuitry — the contest between central authority and regional sovereignty. This week, Queensland and the Northern Territory refused to endorse federal plans requiring AI datacentres to run on renewable energy, framing Canberra's ambitions as overreach rather than stewardship. Behind the political friction lies a more elemental anxiety: that the infrastructure of the future is being built faster than the wisdom, or the power lines, needed to sustain i