What you'd build if you had 100 millions? • Hacker News Board

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#21

Post by catone » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:05 PM UTC

Prototype vertical farms. It's my new obsession.

The UN projects that arable land will decline to 1/3 acre per person by 2050 (down from 1 acre/person in 1970). I'd buy up a few old mill buildings (they're all over New England, where I live), and convert them to combination indoor farms using hydroponic or aeroponic growing systems, living space (for farmers), and retail space (to sell the food to the community and offer sales space to other local farmers).

I'd use the roof for combination solar, additional green space, and rain catchment.

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#22

Post by pogos » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:06 PM UTC

I'd invest in 5000 promising new startups.

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#23

Post by neicull » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:11 PM UTC

catone wrote: post #21

Prototype vertical farms. It's my new obsession. The UN projects that arable land will decline to 1/3 acre per person by 2050 (down from 1 acre/person in 1970). I'd buy up a few old mill buildings (they're all over New England, where I live), and convert them to combination indoor farms using hydroponic or aeroponic growing systems, living space (for farmers), and retail space (to sell the food to the community and o…

I second that... I had a similar idea a couple weeks back. bravo!

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#24

Post by chasingsparks » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:22 PM UTC

catone wrote: post #21

Prototype vertical farms. It's my new obsession. The UN projects that arable land will decline to 1/3 acre per person by 2050 (down from 1 acre/person in 1970). I'd buy up a few old mill buildings (they're all over New England, where I live), and convert them to combination indoor farms using hydroponic or aeroponic growing systems, living space (for farmers), and retail space (to sell the food to the community and o…

Move to Detroit. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=930868 and http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab0802...

Me and a friend have a half-baked (in more ways than one) idea that it would be fun to move to Detroit and get into aquaculture. It's something we managed to romanticize. Give it some steam-punk marketing aesthetic for giggles.

(I think half the value of HN is being able to browse your old comments to remember where you saw something very interesting.)

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#25

Post by npost » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:24 PM UTC

I would invest it in startups. Which is the best way to foster innovation and job growth.

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#26

Post by allenp » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:25 PM UTC

An extra-solar planet imager (telescope or satellite) and a nuke powered exploration probe to check things out.

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#27

Post by pavelludiq » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:29 PM UTC

I would probably start filming low-budget cyberpunk movies for the hardcore viewer, since i don't have to make a profit, a cult-following is the aim. But not the "this movie is so bad its fun" type of cult following, i want the "this movie is really obscure and deep, but still entertaining, too bad none of my friends have herd of it" type. Im aiming at the Nirvana type, not the Johny Mnemonic type of film.If i actually DO make a profit, i might do a steam-punk movie :D I have NO experience or knowledge of movie making, so chances are i will fail and my films would become ideal for bad movie nights.

Alternatively I'll donate the money to someone who can actually use it to make something great.

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#28

Post by bastlynn » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:30 PM UTC

An accountability website for voting records from city to state to national (in that order given that often enough local legislation has a more direct impact on the average citizen's life than national). The site would cross reference stated platforms of politicians vs their actual voting actions as transparently analyzed by up to 3 university poli sci and history professors one each from conservative / liberal / historial context point of view. The site would also track budgetary spending and hours worked / where worked per politician to provide metrics to the voting populace on who's doing their job, who's doing their job as they said they would.

Primary goal, to provide transparent and neutral public information to voters to enable them to make an actual choice when voting instead of lock stepping according to the current PR spin of any specific party. Secondary goal would be to complement local efforts to increase voting awareness.

Public servants should be under the same metric driven scrutiny by their employers as any other employee for any private company.

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#29

Post by radu_floricica » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:36 PM UTC

Bribe the hell out of an education system (in any bribeable country) to make heavy use of modern psychology, esp. critical reasoning skills.

Re: What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

#30

Post by jtnak » Thu, Nov 19, 2009, 2:42 PM UTC

I would build a gold statue of me