Google 'Solve For X' Website Goes Live

alphadogg writes "Google on Monday released a website and video regarding its Solve for X project, which the company says is 'a place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems.' It's got a TED-like think tank feel to it, but possibly with oodles of Google resources behind it. It appears related to Google's up-to-now largely secretive Google X research lab that the New York Times recently shed some light on."

Comments

I finally get it

[should_be_linear]

Point of video is: "If you own Google stocks, sell".

Good Idea!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a good idea! How long til they pull the plug?

So, the question everyone is asking is:

[Seumas]

The question everyone is probably asking themselves is "what countries is this censored in?".

Re:So, the question everyone is asking is:

[demonbug]

The question everyone is probably asking themselves is "what countries is this censored in?".

More to the point, "How can we leverage the massive potential of the internet to improve communication and erode the power of regimes built on fear and ignorance when even the most trusted tech companies seem eager to roll over for every authoritarian whim promulgated by a developing market?"

We need a new Bell Labs

[Biff Stu]

The beauty of the old Bell Labs was that to a certain extent, basic research was OK and appreciated. I couldn't imagine any corporate lab today producing anything close to the quality and quantity of fantastic work that came out of Bell Labs. Google certainly has the resources to do it, but the big question is would the shareholders appreciate the long-term value of such an asset?

Google announces closing of Solver for X

[Anonymous Coward]

Google today announced the closure of the Solve for X website immediately. A Google spokesperson said the site had not obtained a "large enough marketshare to warrant its continued development" and that they "valued everyone's participation utp to this point." Google suggested Google+ as an alternative website where the discussion can be continued, and said that with their next projects they plan to announce the cancellations prior to launch to spare users any more inconvenience.

Re:Priority #1:

[Miseph]

The terrible truth is that the Thing on Trump's head is, in fact, Donald Trump. The grotesque fleshy appendage below, commonly believed to be his actual body, is really the partially consumed remains of a deformed orangutan. That Thing, as it were, is a partially-sentient trans-dimensional parasite, using its host for the purposes of locomotion, sustenance, and reproduction: which it accomplishes by implanting slug-like larvae into the ears of human hosts between the ages of 17 and 32. The larvae then gestate for approximately 23 years, using that time to invade the central nervous system, and at the moment of maturity seize full motor and sensory control from the victim, leaving their former host a helpless, but conscious witness to the atrocities their former bodies will then commit.

The day of reckoning will come, Trump shall rule this world, and his Glory shall build an Empire to span our universe. All shall know Him and tremble at his Might and Power. We shall be His eternal servants, in life His serfs, in death His sustenance. Those few deemed worthy may even be given the Great Honor of serving as Trump's Host for some years, until our flesh is no longer fit to carry His Magnificence and we are ceremoniously cast into the sun as tribute to our Master.

All Hail Trump.

Lots of solutions already, they are just ignored

[Paul Fernhout]

In the video they asked for the cure for cancer, and it turns out most cancer can be prevented with adequate vitamin D, eating lots of vegetables, and avoiding some lifestyle risks.

Global warming can be dealt with by renewables and probably LENR (cold fusion) and if all else fails, Thorium power (but it is not clear it is all from fossil fuels as much may have come from topsoil destruction by poor farming practices, or that global warming is entirely a bad thing compared to delaying a next ice age).

Massive unemployment can be dealt with through a "basic income", an expanded gift economy, improved subsistence technologies like 3D printing and home gardening robots, and/or by better participatory planning at all levels of government.

The biggest issue Google, like the rest of us, needs to wrestle with is the one in my sig below -- the irony of technologies of abundance being used to fight over perceived scarcity, or worse, to create artificial scarcity.