They Promised Us Jet Packs. They Promised the Bosses Profit. [Alphabet X]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/technology/they-promised-us-jet-packs-they-promised-the-bosses-profit.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
What all these efforts have in common, besides imaginative
power, is that they do not make any money. X's budget and head
count are a secret, but shareholders' perceptions about the
division were aptly summed up by a poster board in its
Mountain View, Calif., offices. It had a picture of a burning
$100 bill followed by, "Investors think we do this." That
poster points to a central question for both X and Alphabet:
What exactly is X's business? And how does a public company
invest in such speculative ideas, most of which will never
work, without irritating investors or wasting a ton of money?
- - -
I suppose on balance this is a reasonable article as articles go,
but I'd personally emphasize how damned important this kind of research
is -- not merely to Alphabet but potentially to the entire world. You
simply cannot predict in advance which efforts will have dramatic
positive impacts for vast numbers of people even if you don't make
money yourself soon from the particular project -- or even ever!
That's why I frequently compare Google/Alphabet generally with Bell
Labs in its heyday (the article does mention BTL, as well as Xerox
PARC). There's a sort of subtext in the article though that I find
disturbing -- the impression that the author may feel that if the firm
who creates the development can't monetize it themselves, perhaps they
shouldn't have done the work in the first place. I disagree very
strongly with that idea.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
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Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently
doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
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