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At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

nytimes.com

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Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#41

Post by nosequel »

marshallp wrote: post #16
culturestate wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we'd be surprised to see some of the things that might be in the bowels of, say, Sandia.

I used to think they were all special genius places, until i see that it's not their people winning publicly open challenges like netflix, darpa grand challenge, x prize, or goldfarb.

People at those "special genius places" can't participate in any of the things you mentioned. They get paid for other, much more important jobs. Darpa grand challenge wasn't due to the government not being able to do something, it was due to it being much cheaper to just pay someone to do it for you. In the end, lots of teams competed and only a few got any money out of it, the rest of us ended up just volunteering for the government for a while in the hopes of making a lot of money.

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#42

Post by nosequel »

marshallp wrote: post #8
badclient wrote: post #4

I think what Google's best at is not so much innovation as taking existing innovations typically reserved for Dept. of Defense/B2B uses and bringing it to consumers for free. We already know the DoD already has tech that is years ahead. Google is one of the few companies who can not only afford to bring crazy breakthroughs like Google Street but to do so in a financially profitable or feasible manner.

I disagree that dod has the best tech already in "top secret". The best tech is often dod sponsored, but is made public by the university researchers who usually create it. And it's not costly, you can go read it and use it, often the stuff is released as open source software on the researchers' website.

How would you know if it is top secret? Most top secret tech never gets seen outside of the top secret circles. Unless you have a TS/SCI clearance, the best you can do is speculate on what exists now. Obviously not all fields are covered in the government, but things that are very important to them (signal intelligence, networking, logistical management, satellite communication) are all very well ahead of the consumer/public space in my experiences.

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#43

Post by nosequel »

marshallp wrote: post #37
Jd wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take it you think there are MBA types that wander around NSA headquarters, grab the dragonfly-size spy robots and bring them to market?

yeah, exactly. there has to be a management structure even at nsa, and management types are "networkers" who'll talk to people with money to invest.

NSA gets their money whether you like it or not. They certainly have people in charge who talk to the legislative branch, but they aren't MBA/marketing people. The are usually ex-generals. Other agencies might seek outside contractors, but the NSA is one of the few who do most of their work themselves. I didn't work there, but that was my understanding at the time I worked in other parts of the government.

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#44

Post by nosequel »

One nitpicky-type thing for me in the article is saying that Sebastian Thrun invented the first driverless car. Yes, he was the head of the Standford team who won in 2005, but he was on the CMU team the competition before where Red Whitaker was the team lead. The fact that these teams were quite huge also prevents someone from saying that one person invented the driverless car. Being team lead on a team who wins the second competition certainly doesn't mean that person invented the tech. I know I'm being anal about it, but there were a lot of people who competed in the DGC, and it is quite annoying to hear people mention his name in that regard. Having talked to Sebastian a few times during the competition, I would think he thinks the same way.

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#46

Post by geogra4 »

nosequel wrote: post #41
marshallp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think they were all special genius places, until i see that it's not their people winning publicly open challenges like netflix, darpa grand challenge, x prize, or goldfarb.

People at those "special genius places" can't participate in any of the things you mentioned. They get paid for other, much more important jobs. Darpa grand challenge wasn't due to the government not being able to do something, it was due to it being much cheaper to just pay someone to do it for you. In the end, lots of teams competed and only a few got any money out of it, the rest of us ended up just volunteering f…

I've worked with some GOTS software that came from Sandia and some that came from Lawrence Livermore. It's honestly kind of crappy.

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#47

Post by mattdeboard »

nadam wrote: post #38

I am hacker and a geek, but nowadays I am more and more interested in marketing. I am wondering in what part the existence of such a lab and the emphasis in their communication on A.I. is a conscious marketing effort. I can imagine that even if nothing from that lab will make direct profit for them, and even if their search engine will never be even close to strong A.I. they can communicate an excellent marketing mes…

Being more and more interested in marketing in the way you've described means to me that you are cultivating a more and more robust, healthy skepticism of the messaging that comes from our media/corporate centers.

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#48

Post by brown9-2 »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #2

"It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. [...] These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. " Those are shoot-for-the-stars ideas? I hope those are at the lowest end of…

You seem to have cut off the quote right before the shoot-for-the-stars ideas begin:

"... Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space."

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#49

Post by 0xABADC0DA »

flyt wrote: post #12
aantix wrote: post #10

There have been times in my life where I've thought that I've had a "genius" idea and every cell in my body has said "Don't tell anyone. Hoard it. Cultivate it. And you'll be a revolutionary!" And then I end up sharing. And there never ceases to be one or two or four perspectives shared that I never thought of before. And in the end, I think the idea flourishes because I was open and shared and iterated and shared th…

PARC gave the world Graphical User Interfaces, object oriented programming, ethernet, laser printers, precursors to PostScript, and a few other major breakthroughs. It wasn't necessarily a "secret lab", but its distance from XEROX management on the east coast made it effectively an under the radar operation (to their detriment, of course)

Yeah not really. If you look at Sketchpad and the Mother Of All Demos you see the foundations and inventions of modern user interfaces, and C++ style objects were invented first in Simula.

So PARC was mostly just the industrialization of already known ideas and computer interactions.

Re: At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future

#50

Post by munin »

brown9-2 wrote: post #48
waterlesscloud wrote: post #2

"It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. [...] These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. " Those are shoot-for-the-stars ideas? I hope those are at the lowest end of…

You seem to have cut off the quote right before the shoot-for-the-stars ideas begin: "... Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space."

a telepresence robot you say? looks like they've been scooped by bell labs: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/278794,bell-labs-builds-telepr... (among MANY others)
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