The Information reports that Page started up a Google 2.0 project inside the company a year ago to look at the big challenges facing humanity and the ways Google can overcome them. Among the grand-scale plans discussed were Page's desire to build a more efficient airport as well as a model city. To progress these ideas to fruition, the Google chief has also apparently proposed a second research and development lab, called Google Y... — theverge.com
43 Comments
Sounds like more silicon valley utopian B.S. to me.
Stick to what you are good at... putting immigrants out of work with unnecessary car apps! (and that 2048 game is great too).
There is a limit to what digital media can do... at some point you need.... wait for it.....
ARCHITECTURE
The article's thin on details - it would be nice to have deep research into the built world with some of the resources the tech sector gets ($) but this doesn't sound like anything more than idle talk. What aspect of airports are they trying to improve? Most new airports - which big US cities lack - seem to work quite well. It's the airlines, security and scheduling that are abysmal.
If he's talking about energy efficiency, there is lots of room for improvement in operations and airport transit systems, and of course the airplanes. The airport building is only a minor part of that, and doesn't have much potential impact on cities as a whole.
probably something to do with driverless cars...
except we could tell him that the biggest problem is that modern cities are built around cars, not people.
None of these ambitions seem to be taking commercial considerations into account, at least not at their outset. More realistic and near-term goals have also been under discussion during Google 2.0 meetings, including Page's determination that location tracking should be precise "down to the inches." That would allow people to identify those around them discreetly, as well as providing information to store owners that can help customize what you're presented with as you walk through a shop.
All with in a "model city". Imagine if this was proposed by a conservative in a suit and tie rather than an unshaven bro-grammer in a tee-shirt. Enjoy the furure.
Hubris knows no bounds.
And then there's False Authority Syndrome.
i think google has shown a sincere desire to innovate in the past. also, they're the only thing standing in the way of comcast's domination of telco. some random idiot entrepreneur can't compete with that. google has the financial backing and the human resources to accomplish great things, and they're better positioned than the government because they aren't paid by the military-industrial complex or lobbyists like alec or special interests like comcast.
this is good, because google has been open about what they're doing. banks and credit cards also want to know where you are within inches, but they aren't going to advertise it when they launch a satellite to do so. neither will the nsa. at least google is honest about it, and that counts for something. someday i'm sure they'll turn on us and become just another bank, but until then we might as well encourage them to try to improve our world however they can.
it's not really false authority. if larry wants to build a new city, he can hire the smartest and most capable people to do so. that's google has always worked, and they've done a good job of it.
Google Joins Forces With NSA And DARPA As Military Contractor
Google now a master of Washington influence
That is indeed a very thin article. The best takeaway I got from it is biology-based password technology, meaning something like a chip embedded in your body that allows greater security of your own devices? Intriguing.
"this is good, because google has been open about what they're doing."
I wish I could share your optimism in large corporations, but I wouldn't trust anything that powerful, primary colors or not.
biology based password is usually either a fingerprint or eye scan or something like that.
open internet
https://www.google.com/help/netneutrality_letter.html
https://www.google.com/takeaction/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottcleland/2012/01/24/the-real-reasons-google-killed-sopapipa/
let's hope google can use it's wealth and power to influence the government more than comcast. what do you think happens if they don't? the government will listen to the governed?
http://time.com/3319344/net-neutrality-congress-fcc/
maybe google is building a clone army to protect an open internet?
I don't get this idolitry of tech companies. Hoping that a massive corporation uses it's wealth and power to influence the government seems ass backwards. I don't know if you've seen the recent Roosevelt's special on PBS, but getting corporate influence out of government is what seems more appropriate, given how much our politicians are enslaved to money.
Amazing how us architects jump on anything that will challenge our status quo. I, meanwhile am looking as to how to apply to work with them.
I don't get this idolitry of tech companies.
there are a lot of things you don't get. i'd help you understand what i'm talking about if you wanted to listen, but for starters, it's not idolatry.
i agree that removing corporate influence from government would be a great thing to do. once you've completed that task, come back and let us know. until then, we should remain aware of the difference between how the world works and how we want the world to work.
I think I've heard this one before....
the only solution is to become voluntary prisoners...
When you look around you, most great things were created without the help of Google or Facebook. If anything Silicon Valley has stopped innovating since the 70s, a fact quoted by Prominent Tech guru Peter Theil.
New airports are fine. Much of the city is crumbling, that could be highlighted. But real solutions come from hard tech not soft.
you're referring to a hedge fund manager as a "prominent tech guru?" the ipod and the ipad and flat screen tvs and cell phones and personal computers and all sorts of other pretty amazing things have been developed since the 70s. to think innovation has stopped is pretty ridiculous.
it's true that many great things have been created without google's or facebook's help. that does not exclude google or facebook from creating great things. both things can happen at the same time. this is an article about google and their potential investment in cities and airports. neither the article, nor the following discussion, relate to non-google ways of developing great things.
it's good that there are still evil coporations who are using their resources to try to improve things. there aren't many left. to disparage google for trying, and telling them they ought to become a ponzi scheme like the rest, is just dumb.
it's possible google will kill us all after creating skynet and cylons. it's also possible we'll all die from skin cancer because of the depleted ozone layer before those robots get the chance to kill us. it's also possible google will help develop better cities, better airports, or some other sort of more efficient and more sustainable transportation option. and, of course, it's certainly possible google will fail spectacularly in their attempts to design better cities and airports. there have actually been a lot of google projects that didn't get traction and were abandoned. that's not a bad thing.
telling them to stop R&D because you're afraid john connor doesn't have the muster to stop the impeding disaster is not helpful. please feel free to stay in your cave beating stones together to make fire since that's what the great artists did, but let the rest of the world move on.
Never stop R&D, that's insane. But also have the sense to recognize that not every innovation is necessary or good. Evolution isn't measured in technology, but humanity. Maybe I need an upgrade!
Facebook created a way to stay in contact with acquaintances....People that aren't important enough to call on the phone but you still aren't ready to completely get rid of. I think that pretty much symbolizes 21st century "progress".
Progress had become synonymous with convenience. In reality, Progress and convenience are probably in opposition more often than not.
Progress had become synonymous with convenience
so you think this article is about the google executives forming a team to overcome what amounts to generational challenges because that's what seemed convenient and easy?
No curt, I'm saying that the core idea that we can get fatter while simultaneously becoming more sustainable and "progressing" is inherently flawed.
have the sense to recognize that not every innovation is necessary or good
the core idea that we can get fatter while simultaneously becoming more sustainable and "progressing" is inherently flawed
But we can fix it with technology!
I'd say they should call up SHoP and brainstorm. Google had a terrible reputation for design until they valued graphic designers about two years ago. Though SV is our best chance for 1984, I'm more interested in their hubristic attitude that they have a magic solution in a lab when they should realize their limits.
If I was an investor in Google id wonder if Facebook and Google's desperate search for a big new thing is a sign of impending bubble burst.
Yep darkman.
Google has stopped funding ALEC over climate change denial.
Each google search produces 7g of co2.
keep googley searching plants breathe see oh two
Interesting article.
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/24/americas_dark_economic_secret_how_a_giant_gimmick_has_wages_and_jobs_hanging_by_a_thread/
thayer, that article has nothing to do with google or the tech sector or building a team to explore city and airport design
if anything, that article highlights how google is one of the better companies, because they are trying to innovate and develop new products and services rather than becoming a canadian coffee shop like burger king
curt, I think you missed the point:
Google Joins Apple Avoiding Taxes With Stateless Income
Google, for example, has used a pair of tax shelters known by tax attorneys as the “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich” that move foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda to avoid about $2 billion in income taxes a year, according to the company’s filings in the U.S.
Developing companies under the shade of America's umbrella then avoiding taxes should be classified as Treason.
Frac, its simple Math. Increase co2, reduce plant material, and you get excess co2. Why is this concept hard for people to grasp. Climate change deniers are living in crazy land. Yes after we are all dead it's reasonable to assume that In Due time plants will retake deforested areas and levels will eventually reach homeostasis. That's what nature does. The planet will be fine we are fucked from this climate problem.
"The planet will shake us off like a surface nuisance"
-Carlin
The "can do" attitude being sold by some of these "forward" thinking people is mostly bullshit. Googles optimism is really just delusion, denial, delirium, PR, and a hint of greed. There is no money in the truth because the truth is counter-consumerist. The truth calls for reduction and that shit is hard to sell. The "green washed economy" is the biggest snake oil market of all time. Its literally like selling vitamin c tablets to fight stage 4 cancer. Too little too late.
google should pay whatever taxes they owe. i agree with you on that. they do operate on an international level though, so how they go about paying what's fair to the US and UK and ireland and every other country on the planet is well beyond my competence.
however, i think it's fair to note that their efforts into researching city and airport development really are unrelated to their accounting practices. they can have a google 2.0 team under larry or a google y team under sergi, and maybe they will come up with something useful. or maybe they won't.
your attempts to drag them through the mud under the guise of environmental concern or skewed tax policy is pointless. larry and sergi really are smarter than pretty much anyone on this forum. more than that, they've built strong teams of people who are all smarter than most people here, and they're working together to do a better job of improving things.
what are you doing? not paying shit for taxes because you don't make shit to begin with? destroying the environment by designing buildings over what could be a natural oxygen producing environment? at least google is trying, which is a lot better than most corporations their size, and a lot better than someone complaining on the internet about how other people are doing it wrong.
if you tear down the people who try to fix the problems because that's what happens to be popular with the hipsters at the moment, then things aren't going to get better. give them some credit for trying.
Curt, its not that I don't commend their will/effort. I just find it to be tantamount to McDonald's claiming to address hunger by air dropping happy meals into Liberia.
If mcdonalds fed hamburgers to starving people in liberia or anywhere else, it really would be beneficial and i'm sure much appreciated by those who's hunger would be satiated and lives saved.
complaining about the calorie content or cholesterol would not be pragmatic in that situation. telling mcdonalds they should have fed people organic chicken just seems dumb to me. commend them for making an effort where others don't, and maybe others will start putting in an effort. if you criticize people for helping, people will be less likely to want to help.
You don't see the point. While the intent may be good, the solution is connected to the problem.
Trying to sustain the unsustainable is unsustainable.
Saying Larry and Sergey are smarter therefore always right is a fascist statement. Though we all know how easy it is for the sheep to be seduced by power.
I've worked with Google people in the past...most are the same bullshitters you see in every other profession. So far they have invented a search engine and a useful map. If they try to build a city or airport by themselves it will probably look like a cross between Glass and Monocle... Useless and oppressive.
feeding people is unsustainable. but then, not feeding people causes people to die. for some people i suppose that's a hard line to walk, but the idea of keeping people alive shouldn't be dismissed. neither should the idea of building a model city. as mentioned previously, it's a thin article without even a hint of any actual solutions or methodologies. why would you think the lack of information given implies it's unsustainable?
nobody said 'always right.' instead of putting all their money into the hands of their friends and executives and further exacerbating wealth inequality problems, they're investing in thought and innovation. they're doing a good thing.
the solution is connected to the problem.
where, in the article, is a solution identified?
i'm sure most people at google are just like most people. then again, i'm pretty sure the goal for the teams mentioned in this article is different than the goals of the janitorial staff or the design department or the search team.
if you guys are just making shit up for the sake of being argumentative, what's the point?
I stopped using Google when they started targeting me with advertising and claimed ownership of everything I posted online. If something is free, it is very likely that you are the product.
That doesn't mean they aren't trying to do something good. It also doesn't mean that what they are trying to project is anything more than eyewash. In my experience the bullshit is rarely if ever matched in reality. It's the intent (or more specifically the lack thereof) that makes it bullshit.
Meanwhile Google runs private luxury buses from public(!) bus stops in SF to their headquarters. Why not build a public transportation system, or extend BART, so that everyone can benefit? Wouldn't a contribution to the civic infrastructure that they benefit from be more forward thinking and appropriate?
Yep and yep Darkman. I think because I hadn't posted my time card updates for two days in Google docs I had weird information technology shit happen today. Similar to that one time i forgot to update my student visa and they damn near did not let me out of the country, asking questions like where were you in the last 2 weeks and what city was your father born in. Had a random foreign country call and spam mail from a clearly hacked account of an Iranian I met once for a weird job that never happened. I apologize for not noting the weirdness in my Google docs....
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.