Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and I love all things tech and today it is
Speaker 1: time to look back at another classic episode of tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: This one is titled The Loons at Google and originally
Speaker 1: published on November twenty two. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: Project loon, which actually has had some developments since we
Speaker 1: recorded this, but I'll talk about that in a little bit. First,
Speaker 1: let's listen to this classic episode. We will continue our
Speaker 1: exciting delivery the Google Balloon WiFi project. Let's begin. Actually,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's that's way too low key. I'm sorry, guys.
Speaker 1: I I've had a long day. So what is this?
Speaker 1: What is this idea? Balloon wos WiFi Google? These are
Speaker 1: just words, Lauren. He's talking about Google Loon UM and
Speaker 1: this entire project got started off because according to Google,
Speaker 1: who would probably know, about two thirds of the world's population,
Speaker 1: some five to six billion people don't have Internet access.
Speaker 1: And I mean they're not talking like their wifis down today.
Speaker 1: They have no internet access, zero way to get to
Speaker 1: the Internet. Um. And so so Google, this this team
Speaker 1: and Google, which we will talk about later, came up
Speaker 1: with this concept that they could have a network of
Speaker 1: balloons providing WiFi access. Yeah, so you're essentially you're creating
Speaker 1: this radio wave network and the instead of building towers
Speaker 1: like you would with a three G or four G
Speaker 1: type thing. So so you know that way, we would
Speaker 1: normally build a tower right in the middle of nowhere
Speaker 1: and then have a network of towers and that would
Speaker 1: be your cellular network or would be your four G
Speaker 1: network or whatever, and that's how you would get access
Speaker 1: to the Internet. But this is a more expensive and
Speaker 1: that's infrastructure. And yeah, and you have to you have
Speaker 1: to you where to build things. You've got to get
Speaker 1: the permission to build where you want to build. Some
Speaker 1: of these places might be really remote and it might
Speaker 1: be difficult to build out that bar the use of
Speaker 1: some of the radio signals can get tricky sometimes. So
Speaker 1: what if you were instead to have everything that would
Speaker 1: be mounted on a tower in held by a balloon,
Speaker 1: a giant balloon that could fly at incredible altitudes and
Speaker 1: provide and bounce Internet signals are around, you know, to
Speaker 1: the balloons and then to two receivers on the ground
Speaker 1: antenna that are privately owned. Yes, so this is all
Speaker 1: part of a division within Google called Google X, and
Speaker 1: Google X is kind of the super secret uh division.
Speaker 1: That's a hey, you know, that's a preview for an
Speaker 1: upcoming episode, but yeah, it's it's what would be used
Speaker 1: as a way of doing rapid research and development on projects.
Speaker 1: And in fact, the guy who is essentially UH, Sergey
Speaker 1: brin Is, is really in charge of Google X, but
Speaker 1: there are other people who oversee these projects. Their roles
Speaker 1: supposedly is that they look at projects and look for
Speaker 1: reasons to kill them and says that, you know, we
Speaker 1: kill projects really quickly, and you have to be able
Speaker 1: to justify your projects exact worthfulness that's a great work.
Speaker 1: Full of worth is what we're looking for, and if
Speaker 1: it is not, then we will get rid of it.
Speaker 1: So so hypothetically, each of these balloons will will serve
Speaker 1: a ground area some forty or twenty five miles in
Speaker 1: diameter at three G ish speeds, which is not bad,
Speaker 1: especially when you're thinking about a place that has never
Speaker 1: had an Internet before. Like you know, for anyone who's
Speaker 1: used to really fast internet, three G sounds like a
Speaker 1: major step down for me. It sounds incredible because I
Speaker 1: remember back when I had a dial up modem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so three G speeds is pretty fast to go from
Speaker 1: nothing to three g is is that's a that's huge, right?
Speaker 1: And uh and and you know we were talking about
Speaker 1: talking earlier about that cellular tower network kind of concept
Speaker 1: and and this is like it's it's not really like
Speaker 1: a satellite system as much as like a like a
Speaker 1: cellular tower network where and the towers are moving instead
Speaker 1: of the users. Right, So the towers themselves will float
Speaker 1: and they'll all float on Okay, uh, and they will
Speaker 1: essentially change better than we sat down here. Thank you. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a that's now I've got nothing but Tim Curry
Speaker 1: going through my head at this point. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for that vision. No problem. So these loon balloons, um,
Speaker 1: they're they're set to float in the stratosphere. I need
Speaker 1: some details here, Lauren. What is the stratosphere? I mean,
Speaker 1: I hear like, I think this is going to the stratosphere,
Speaker 1: So I assume it's high up for something pretty high,
Speaker 1: all right. It is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere,
Speaker 1: which is about ten to fifty kilometers a k a
Speaker 1: thirty thousand to nine thousand feet a k a six
Speaker 1: to thirty seven miles above the surface. It's all of
Speaker 1: this is is pretty approximate and rough because you know,
Speaker 1: the it changes as the altitude is the altitude of
Speaker 1: the ground level changing, right, So like in mountainous areas,
Speaker 1: it's different than if you're at the Dead Sea or something, right,
Speaker 1: so or or Death Valley is really what I was
Speaker 1: thinking of. But anyway, so sure the dead Sea is
Speaker 1: relatively low to yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's not
Speaker 1: high up on my list at any rate. It's a
Speaker 1: good spot to locate this, right because at that level,
Speaker 1: you're really floating above weather patterns. Right, most of the
Speaker 1: clouds and and and everything, all the storms and stuff
Speaker 1: are going to happen in the troposphere, which is you
Speaker 1: know where we are, So that's the stuff that's all
Speaker 1: around us and above the stress sphere is the miso sphere, right,
Speaker 1: and so we've got this this region where if the
Speaker 1: balloons are traveling through this, they're going to avoid all
Speaker 1: those storms. It's also important because as I understand it,
Speaker 1: when we get to it, their power source is going
Speaker 1: to be heavily depend upon not having clouds in the way. Absolutely. Um,
Speaker 1: it's also above most birds and jet planes, so you're
Speaker 1: going to avoid interference with that stuff, right, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: most commercial jets travel at around thirty five thousand feet
Speaker 1: or so, So if it's in the stratosphere at you know,
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand feet, it's well over what most commercial
Speaker 1: jets are traveling at. Even at a hundred thousand you're
Speaker 1: even talking about higher than most surveillance vehicles unless there's
Speaker 1: some secret ones out there that we don't know about,
Speaker 1: which is totally possible, entirely possible. I've never been to
Speaker 1: telescope that way myself, so it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: say they're they're supposed to be around right around twenty
Speaker 1: kilometers or sixty six thousand feet or twelve miles about
Speaker 1: the surface, so not not quite at that hundred thousand
Speaker 1: mile mark, but pretty high up, yeah, really high up.
Speaker 1: So no, it is called the stratosphere, and this is important.
Speaker 1: It's not just useless weather related information because because it's
Speaker 1: stratified or layered in, temperature getting warmer as it goes higher. Now,
Speaker 1: the troposphere where we are gets colder as it goes higher.
Speaker 1: So this is this is a little bit of a
Speaker 1: of a difference, and thanks to that temperature differentiation, the
Speaker 1: layers are going to contain different currents of relatively slow
Speaker 1: winds that are going in different directions. So in other words,
Speaker 1: if you are able to control the altitude of a balloon,
Speaker 1: you would be able to change direction right to get
Speaker 1: it into those different air streams and move it around
Speaker 1: pretty much as you please. That will also come into
Speaker 1: play in a little bit. It's just a little teaser. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's um. It's also where the ozone layer is, right,
Speaker 1: that is correct. So this is obviously if for those
Speaker 1: of you who were around in the eighties and you
Speaker 1: remember hearing about the ozone layer uh a lot every
Speaker 1: day getting destroyed by all of our hair spray. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is the layer of the atmosphere where you would
Speaker 1: find the ozone layer. By the way, that also is
Speaker 1: why you know, you hear about stuff that produces ozone
Speaker 1: and people talk about how that's bad, and you might
Speaker 1: get a mixed reaction there. You're thinking, wait, I remember
Speaker 1: the ozone layer was going away and that was bad,
Speaker 1: But now there's these other things that make ozone and
Speaker 1: that's bad. It's because of the location of those on
Speaker 1: layers of the strassphere. That's where it's useful for us.
Speaker 1: But ozone down here in the troposphere is bad news
Speaker 1: and not useful for us. So that's why it gets
Speaker 1: a little confusing. So yeah, so it's a pretty elegant system.
Speaker 1: I mean, the basic concept is is if you launch
Speaker 1: these balloons, then uh, and we will get into the
Speaker 1: construction of those in just a moment, then you can
Speaker 1: you can use these air currents to let them travel
Speaker 1: basically as they will, but in a relatively controlled manner. Right,
Speaker 1: So if it starts going too far off, you can
Speaker 1: change the altitude of the balloon using whatever control mechanism
Speaker 1: you've set up, and then that way it will drift
Speaker 1: in a different direction, hopefully back toward where you wanted
Speaker 1: to go. But if you were able to make a
Speaker 1: large enough network of these, then presumably you could just
Speaker 1: allow them to drift across the countryside, because another one
Speaker 1: would pick up the slacker for the first one, creating
Speaker 1: a more or less continuous ring of connectivity. There's also
Speaker 1: pretty amazing just imagining this ring of balloons circling globe
Speaker 1: and slowly providing WiFi to everybody. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: what these things are actually made out of. So it's
Speaker 1: not like a balloon that you would find at a
Speaker 1: kid's birthday party, not exactly. No, um, okay. So so
Speaker 1: it's going to consist of of the balloon itself. It's
Speaker 1: called the envelope, and that's made of sheets of polythylene plastic,
Speaker 1: which is a really large family of plastics with a
Speaker 1: whole range of flexibilities and other properties. It's used for
Speaker 1: everything from like film to juice bottles, cable jacketing, car bumpers,
Speaker 1: and plastic shopping bags, which the team says, the balloons
Speaker 1: are really similar to if some three times thicker. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the bags are three times thicker, I should say, because
Speaker 1: the balloon is three mill thick. Now, mill is actually
Speaker 1: a measurement here, we're talking about point zero seven six millimeters.
Speaker 1: That's how thin this envelope is. Point zero seven six millimeters. Now,
Speaker 1: that is incredibly thin. This polyethylene sheet is is very
Speaker 1: very vulnerable. So you have to be very careful when
Speaker 1: you unfolded before you inflated, obviously, because otherwise just the
Speaker 1: tiniest uh probably yeah, yeah, you end up with a
Speaker 1: big ripping it. Um this by the way is very
Speaker 1: similar to the balloon that was used by Felix Baumgartner
Speaker 1: who did his space jump, where he flew as high
Speaker 1: up as anyone had ever done in a balloon and
Speaker 1: higher in fact, and set a world record, and then
Speaker 1: jumped all of the balloon to plummet to the Earth,
Speaker 1: because that's what same people do. No, it's actually it
Speaker 1: was a really good TV. It was a phenomenal I
Speaker 1: mean I watched it. I watched it from I missed
Speaker 1: the very beginning because I was I remember I was
Speaker 1: out at the time, but I got home, turned it
Speaker 1: on and it was still during the earliest part of
Speaker 1: the ascent, so he was maybe I don't know, ten
Speaker 1: thousand feet up. I was glued to that thing. It
Speaker 1: was incredible. So anyway, the balloons that they're using, or
Speaker 1: that they will use for this, they've got a pilot
Speaker 1: program we'll talk about in the bit, but the for
Speaker 1: the full rollout, it's very similar to the balloon that
Speaker 1: Felix Baumgartner. You and in fact it's it's provided by
Speaker 1: the same company. It's Raven Arrow Stars the name of
Speaker 1: the company. And uh so these incredibly thin balloons get
Speaker 1: pretty big as I recall, Yeah, about fifteen wid by
Speaker 1: twelve meters tall, which is about fifty BYTT when inflated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they don't get fully inflated until they've reached a
Speaker 1: certain altitude. And it's another one of those things like
Speaker 1: if you watch the Felix Baumgartner uh ascent, you saw
Speaker 1: that the shape of the balloon actually changed quite a
Speaker 1: bit as it went up. You know, it went from
Speaker 1: kind of this bulbous balloon to an elongated tear drop
Speaker 1: kind of shape. And that's more or less what these
Speaker 1: would look like once they reached the right altitude. So
Speaker 1: what is giving them the lift? That would be helium gas,
Speaker 1: good old helium. Yes, that's not a bad choice. I
Speaker 1: mean it's you know, it's hard to get ahold of
Speaker 1: comparatively speaking in the sense that we talked about how
Speaker 1: helium is one of those resources that's increasingly difficult for
Speaker 1: us to get, and we need it for lots of
Speaker 1: different stuff, including things like cooling down super colliders so
Speaker 1: that we can you you know, universe level science. But
Speaker 1: it's still i would say, preferable to something like hydrogen,
Speaker 1: which can go boom, right, absolutely doesn't go boom. Helium
Speaker 1: will make you talk funny if you breathe it, but
Speaker 1: other it do won't make you go boom hypothetically, not
Speaker 1: unless something else is very very wrong. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say maybe physics have somehow changed in your local area.
Speaker 1: Then I suggest you find shelter. But so these these balloons,
Speaker 1: these balloons are filled with helium gas and um. They
Speaker 1: contain a pump to control the fill of the balloon
Speaker 1: UM that would allow you to make a descent if
Speaker 1: you needed to, or a further ascent. Right, So that's
Speaker 1: that's how they can control where the balloon is going
Speaker 1: by using this pump to either vent out or put
Speaker 1: in more helium um. It also includes a parachute in
Speaker 1: case of some kind of popping related emergency wherein you
Speaker 1: need to get the equipment back to the ground without
Speaker 1: yeah or possibly smooshing someone underneath it if it's in
Speaker 1: a populated area. So that makes sense. And then what
Speaker 1: I love about this is that how do you how
Speaker 1: do you power the electronics? I mean, obviously you've got
Speaker 1: some sort of transmitter and a receiver up there. You
Speaker 1: would have to write, so the receiver is going to
Speaker 1: take the the information that's been essentially broadcast out from
Speaker 1: the user and then transmit the new information down to
Speaker 1: the user. And that's how you get your Internet access.
Speaker 1: But that means that you have to get electricity somewhere
Speaker 1: because these things just don't run on helium and the
Speaker 1: pump doesn't run on helium itself. Point uh. And that
Speaker 1: would be I mean, you know, if you were doing
Speaker 1: this in Victorian times, would have a really fancy steam engine,
Speaker 1: that would be need an enormous balloon. Um. But but
Speaker 1: in this case, we're powering it with solar panels UM,
Speaker 1: just just a really thin layer UM kind of hanging
Speaker 1: in between the envelope of the balloon and the hardware
Speaker 1: that's going to hang out below and UM. In full sun,
Speaker 1: it's supposed to produce about a hundred wats and so
Speaker 1: you've also got on there's some batteries, which makes sense
Speaker 1: because even when it's floating above the cloud line so
Speaker 1: that you're still going to get as much sun as possible,
Speaker 1: there's this thing called nighttime, right right, So so the
Speaker 1: the the box of hardware that floats or doesn't float,
Speaker 1: it's attached below the solar panels, is going to contain
Speaker 1: some rechargeable batteries for that whole wacky nighttime thing, all right,
Speaker 1: and what does uh? What? What? What kind of software
Speaker 1: we talking about? What's the operating system? Linux based? Well
Speaker 1: that makes sense, I mean, so is Android really? Android
Speaker 1: is a variation of Linux, so that makes us to me.
Speaker 1: And it's got GPS on it so it knows where
Speaker 1: it is, which is important because obviously you're gonna have
Speaker 1: ground teams monitoring these balloons to make sure that they're
Speaker 1: operational and that they are where they're supposed to be.
Speaker 1: And they can also send some commands to the balloons
Speaker 1: if they if needed yep, which again could be important
Speaker 1: if you need to change the altitude UM and so
Speaker 1: they also have some sensors aboard right right, including UM
Speaker 1: air temperature monitoring also for altitude and speed, so that
Speaker 1: they can tell those operators what's going on. Then, temperature
Speaker 1: is a big deal because that's one of those things
Speaker 1: in the stratosphere that you have to deal with it.
Speaker 1: It gets pretty chilly up there. So yeah, like like
Speaker 1: negative fifty degrees celsius, which in some I don't understand
Speaker 1: how temperature works at those ranges, but it's only negative
Speaker 1: fifty eight degrees fahrenheit seems incorrect, but no, no, No,
Speaker 1: it's it's when you get down to those low temperatures,
Speaker 1: they kind of they converge at one point and then
Speaker 1: they start to go apart again. I think I think
Speaker 1: what that means is technically just really bloody cold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really really cold. And but here's nice thing. Electronics
Speaker 1: work better when they're cold. Yes, there's that, um, but
Speaker 1: but also important for that air temperature is to figure
Speaker 1: out what you know. You know, if if you are
Speaker 1: for some reason not picking up what speed you're going
Speaker 1: or what direction you're going correctly, you can use that
Speaker 1: air temperature to help guide the balloon into the correct
Speaker 1: air stream. Gotcha, all right? And then you have the
Speaker 1: radio antennas themselves, the actual antennas that end up receiving
Speaker 1: and transmitting the information to the users on the ground. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of interesting. I saw a picture of the
Speaker 1: ones that were on the ground that they look a
Speaker 1: little weird. Yeah, they're they're kind of basketball shaped. And
Speaker 1: this is this is really this is a specific design
Speaker 1: point that they that they created because when you when
Speaker 1: you've got this bulbous antenna, it should hypothetically help sending
Speaker 1: capture signals between the balloons even when the angles are
Speaker 1: very awkward, so you don't have to have it as
Speaker 1: directional as you would with a regular antenna. So in
Speaker 1: order to launch one of these balloons, you have to
Speaker 1: have a team of at least six people. So that
Speaker 1: includes a launch commander and a coordination team at mission control.
Speaker 1: I love that they have a mission control, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it takes six people to to launch one of these.
Speaker 1: Um So, I mean it's you know, it's not something
Speaker 1: that you can fully automate. Like I said, just the
Speaker 1: fact that the balloon itself is so delicate means that
Speaker 1: you have to take great care. I remember that watching
Speaker 1: that video of of the team for Felix baumb Gardners
Speaker 1: a set where they were very carefully unrolling the balloon
Speaker 1: and everyone was being extra sensitive about it because even
Speaker 1: the smallest hair could mean disaster. The same sort of
Speaker 1: thing for these balloons. Hey, guys, I know it might
Speaker 1: be a little looney of Jonathan to bust in here,
Speaker 1: but we need to take a quick break. Alright, so
Speaker 1: we're back. Let's talk about some of the challenges Google
Speaker 1: faces with this program, right, um So, so, the stratosphere
Speaker 1: is not really the most friendly environment to work and
Speaker 1: necessarily um. The air pressure is about one percent that
Speaker 1: of sea level. UM. We talked about the temperature, talked
Speaker 1: about the temperature, it's it's it's a little bit chilly
Speaker 1: up there. And UM. Also that the part of the
Speaker 1: stratosphere that the balloons are working in is near the
Speaker 1: upper end of the ozone layer UM, which means that
Speaker 1: the balloons are going to be subject to more radiation
Speaker 1: and temperature swings from the sun. Right, so that means
Speaker 1: more ultra violet radiation. There's some other issues that they
Speaker 1: could potentially run into that. You know, the atmosphere protects
Speaker 1: us from a lot of that stuff, but these balloons
Speaker 1: would be much more vulnerable to it. Now, it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that the likelihood of them failing is super high.
Speaker 1: In some cases, we're talking about events that we just
Speaker 1: can't plan for because we don't understand enough to be
Speaker 1: able to predict what would happen. But it does mean
Speaker 1: it's something that could potentially impact the project, right. It
Speaker 1: basically just means that they need to think about how
Speaker 1: to make the equipment a little bit sturdier than they
Speaker 1: than they normally would for something ground basis, and which
Speaker 1: will impact the cost and google of course, is really
Speaker 1: interested in making these as cheap as possible to be
Speaker 1: able to provide the service the service to as many
Speaker 1: people as possible. Right, So keeping it cheap and durable,
Speaker 1: those are that's a huge challenge, right because those two
Speaker 1: things don't normally go hand in hand. Cheap and uh
Speaker 1: it'll last forever not something we see very frequently. However,
Speaker 1: to upset some of those costs, they are collaborating with
Speaker 1: Noah thought it's the National Ocean A Graphic an Atmospheric Administration,
Speaker 1: thank you. Um. They're in return for giving Noah's some
Speaker 1: data about the wind patterns that they're they're picking up
Speaker 1: from all of these balloons being up there. Uh, Noah
Speaker 1: is helping them out a little bit with funding and
Speaker 1: uh and oh interesting, So it's so it really is
Speaker 1: a great collaborative uh project. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, they're they're
Speaker 1: also getting a little bit of information about them because
Speaker 1: of course Noah has a whole lot of weather balloons
Speaker 1: and so they're they're getting some good info about how
Speaker 1: to construct these things. Now I've got I've got another
Speaker 1: question for you, Lauren. So if I'm understanding this correctly,
Speaker 1: we've got these balloons floating around the stress fere. They
Speaker 1: are obviously mobile, so the stress fere will be pushing
Speaker 1: them around the winds. Even though they're moving slowly, you
Speaker 1: will still push these balloons around. Wouldn't that mean that
Speaker 1: there would be the possibility occasionally that I might not
Speaker 1: have a balloon that's in range of me. Absolutely, and
Speaker 1: part of that is going to be covered by that
Speaker 1: by that bulbous antenna design. But they're also collaborating with
Speaker 1: a bunch of ground based Internet service providers in order
Speaker 1: to help fill in the coverage and and create a
Speaker 1: more continuous network. Also, they're looking to get like four
Speaker 1: to five hundred balloons for a single latitude, so hopefully
Speaker 1: they would be able to to provide a pretty good
Speaker 1: coverage there. Um, But there's also some international laws to
Speaker 1: worry about in in these are modern times, I can
Speaker 1: imagine that some countries might not be excited about Internet
Speaker 1: based things flying through their airspace. Yeah. I think anytime
Speaker 1: you are flying something over another sovereign nation's airspace and
Speaker 1: you are not part of that sovereign nation, there's already
Speaker 1: a level of trust that you are asking for that
Speaker 1: that that's a big that's a big request. And then
Speaker 1: on top of it. We're talking about a communication system
Speaker 1: that really what the Internet is, and and something run
Speaker 1: by Google which may or may not share information with
Speaker 1: the n ESSAY and may or may not knowingly share
Speaker 1: information with the n s A. Because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of information ever since we did our n s A
Speaker 1: at so we've had people say you need to update
Speaker 1: that because all this other information that's come out. That's
Speaker 1: a story that's just continuing to break and it does
Speaker 1: look like so it's really sad and I don't want
Speaker 1: to go there, right. Yeah, there's plus there there's this
Speaker 1: weird car. I don't know if I told you about this, Lauren,
Speaker 1: but there's this weird car on the corner and it's
Speaker 1: been there for like ever. I'm sure it's nothing anyway. Um,
Speaker 1: there's just things that we think about at any rate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would see that that would be a barrier. Possibly.
Speaker 1: Is that making sure that all the countries you want
Speaker 1: to stuff over and you know some of them and
Speaker 1: maybe that they don't want it but they don't need
Speaker 1: the service. But in order to get to the countries
Speaker 1: that do need the service, Yeah, you gotta fly through
Speaker 1: the stratosphere. It's not like you have complete control over
Speaker 1: these balloons. You can make them go generally where you
Speaker 1: want them to go, but there's gonna be some you know,
Speaker 1: some floating there. So and and that level of the
Speaker 1: stratosphere is, by the way, still part of any given
Speaker 1: sovereign nation's territory. It's not. It's high up enough that
Speaker 1: it would be in um in space where you where
Speaker 1: it's No, it doesn't belong to anybody where no one
Speaker 1: can hear you make a lawsuit, right exactly, UM, tort
Speaker 1: reform doesn't exist in space. Uh. There there are a
Speaker 1: few naysayers. Bill Bill Gates made a really awesomely scathing comment.
Speaker 1: I'm this is this is kind of terrible, but I
Speaker 1: love it all right. So he was basically saying that
Speaker 1: there are really bigger problems to worry about in thorop
Speaker 1: world countries other than internet service UM. According to tech Radar,
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, when you're dying of malaria, I suppose
Speaker 1: you'll look up and see that balloon, and I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how it will help you when it ki gets diarrh. Yet. No,
Speaker 1: there's no website to fix that. So, uh, I have
Speaker 1: I have this gentle message for for Mr Bill Gates.
Speaker 1: Mr Bill Gates. I would go so far as to
Speaker 1: suggest that solving the world's problems is not a zero
Speaker 1: sum game, and therefore concentrating on one problem does not
Speaker 1: necessarily mean you cannot also contribute effort towards solving another problem,
Speaker 1: and that we do not live in a world where
Speaker 1: we have to pick and choose which problems we solve.
Speaker 1: We in fact live in the world where we have
Speaker 1: the capability of addressing many problems simultaneously. So I think
Speaker 1: it's okay for Google to address the access to Internet problem,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't suggest that Google does not care about
Speaker 1: these other issues. Rather, it says we can do all
Speaker 1: of this if we put our minds to it. That's
Speaker 1: all I have to say about that, although I will
Speaker 1: point out that Google has also said that by sixteen
Speaker 1: they expect the Internet to generate four point to trillion
Speaker 1: dollars in value, doubling what it was in two thousand twelve,
Speaker 1: meaning that if you are not part of the Internet,
Speaker 1: then you're kind of not making the money that you
Speaker 1: would need to address some of these problems. So perhaps
Speaker 1: by getting this access, countries that are experiencing really serious
Speaker 1: issues well beyond internet access could maybe move towards addressing
Speaker 1: those problems as well with this new beneficial tool called
Speaker 1: the Internet. Just throwing it out there. That's that's getting
Speaker 1: getting you know, business and education and stuff like that
Speaker 1: at the ground level is probably a really big block
Speaker 1: right now to some of these populations entrance into To
Speaker 1: be fair, Bill Gates is probably still a little ticked
Speaker 1: off that Microsoft got on the Internet game way too late,
Speaker 1: and that was his fault. So I mean, that's probably
Speaker 1: some sour grapes that I'm just saying. Possibly also I
Speaker 1: need a cookie, I'm getting We have a bit more
Speaker 1: to say about Project Loon after this short break. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the the staff working on this project and
Speaker 1: a little bit into the future. Um. Alright, so the
Speaker 1: project is being headed by one Mike Cassidy uh previously
Speaker 1: the founder of a search engine direct Hit, which sold
Speaker 1: to ask Jeeves for like five million back in the
Speaker 1: year nothing UM and Rich of All, formerly of Apple's
Speaker 1: Tech Advancement crew, both of whom matriculated at M I T. H.
Speaker 1: And rich of All I believe is in fact the
Speaker 1: person I was referring to who would be looking at
Speaker 1: projects and saying this needs to be proven to be
Speaker 1: worthwhile or it gets axed. And so far Google Loon
Speaker 1: has has not crossed that threshold where it's okay, it's
Speaker 1: above the line, it's floating over it. You might say,
Speaker 1: you you might, because it's a balloon. Goodness, my gracious.
Speaker 1: They began testing prototypes out in Central Valley, California, inn
Speaker 1: And once they had some good ones, a pilot test
Speaker 1: was conducted in June out in christ Church in Canterbury,
Speaker 1: New Zealand. So now they're they're as I recall, they
Speaker 1: did that test. Now they're kind of fine tuning everything
Speaker 1: right right right there. They're back in Central Valley. As
Speaker 1: of as of this podcast, I think they've actually just
Speaker 1: launched a full pilot program according to their own website,
Speaker 1: So that's like breaking news as of the recording of this.
Speaker 1: Probably did. Yeah, it's on their on their website they
Speaker 1: talk about the pilot program is in pla ace. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is our pilot test began this week. We launched
Speaker 1: thirty balloons. So there you go. But I think that
Speaker 1: might that there's no date on that website, so it
Speaker 1: might be that that announcement is actually the test that
Speaker 1: you're talking about here. So um, you know, I'm willing
Speaker 1: to guess that that's probably the case, and that it's
Speaker 1: you know, since there is no date there, they didn't
Speaker 1: literally launched it this week. Either way, they're hoping to
Speaker 1: launch a wide scale test around the parallel South um
Speaker 1: providing service to like New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina,
Speaker 1: South Africa, that kind of that kind of band. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then they're talking they're about three to four hundred balloons,
Speaker 1: which is far more than thirty. So I am now
Speaker 1: convinced that that thirty one I was talking about, Samuel
Speaker 1: was the June test. Yeah, well, there's there's no there's
Speaker 1: no date on when they're planning on launching this. Everything
Speaker 1: is still in testing right now. You know. They're they're
Speaker 1: they're working on designs that will stand the air longer
Speaker 1: for for up to about a hundred days of a
Speaker 1: time without needing to be serviced. So their pilot test
Speaker 1: began with thirty balloons that they launched from Teka Po,
Speaker 1: which is an area in New Zealand on New Zealand's
Speaker 1: South Island. In fact, and there's an article in Wired
Speaker 1: that is a blast to read where they talk about
Speaker 1: the pilot program and what it was like to be
Speaker 1: um approached by Google. Uh so, the first civilian who
Speaker 1: got access secretly to this, his name is Charles Nimmo
Speaker 1: and the very first sight he visited was Google. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, I thought it was only fair, but then
Speaker 1: but then the the second family actually that got access
Speaker 1: was a New Zealand family called the Mackenzies. It was
Speaker 1: Hayden and Anna Mackenzie and Hayley Mackenzie told Wired. He
Speaker 1: said that he was approached by mysterious dudes who said
Speaker 1: that they wanted to have him be part of a test,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't tell him what the test was until
Speaker 1: he had agreed to be part of a test. And
Speaker 1: then he couldn't talk about the test until they told him.
Speaker 1: He could talk about the test, but he couldn't even
Speaker 1: know what the test was until he agreed to do it.
Speaker 1: Those guys in that car outside of our buildings really similar.
Speaker 1: We can't look at them because then they get scarier anyway,
Speaker 1: the test, Um gosh, I hope those guys in that
Speaker 1: car don't play a larger role in future of podcasts.
Speaker 1: Would be terrible, to be dreadful. The so the mysterious
Speaker 1: dudes convinced the mackenzie Is that they weren't there to
Speaker 1: steal their brains or anything, and the Mackenzie's agreed, that's
Speaker 1: all right, Well, whatever this test is, let's try it out.
Speaker 1: So then the dudes went up and put this red
Speaker 1: basketball or the in the article I think they said
Speaker 1: it was like a soccer ball size or football for
Speaker 1: those in New Zealand sized object and put it on
Speaker 1: top of their house. Still didn't tell him what it
Speaker 1: was for, totally left that part out, left the house.
Speaker 1: The next day they came back and said, okay, you
Speaker 1: have internet now, because they had launched a baloon that
Speaker 1: was now floating. Sixtet were the mackenzies farm They were
Speaker 1: there farmers, and so they the Anna Mackenzie turned on
Speaker 1: her computer, logged into the network that was for the
Speaker 1: Google Loon program, and discovered that she did indeed have
Speaker 1: Internet access, and she went to like the New Zealand
Speaker 1: equivalent of eBay to look at tractors because they're farmers.
Speaker 1: So but it was so funny to hear about these guys,
Speaker 1: just like, we want you to be in this test,
Speaker 1: but we can't tell you what it is or what
Speaker 1: it'll do. Installing it and still not telling them till
Speaker 1: the next day, and that they were just like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: now you've got Internet loves New Zealand. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's only so many Hobbit films that can be
Speaker 1: made there, so you've gotta you gotta make your own fun.
Speaker 1: I suppose. I suppose at a certain point, when you've
Speaker 1: had like orcs running through your relative backyard, it's things
Speaker 1: are less strange, I suppose. So I just thought that
Speaker 1: was a cool story. Highly recommend that Wired article. You can,
Speaker 1: speaking speaking of New Zealand, New Zealand listeners, you can
Speaker 1: still sign up to be a pilot test. If I'm
Speaker 1: not I mean, if you have really spotty access to Internet,
Speaker 1: I'm not entirely sure how you're listening to the show
Speaker 1: right at this very moment, but but yeah, you can
Speaker 1: just go to www dot Google dot com slash loon
Speaker 1: slash where that's w H E R E and scroll
Speaker 1: all the way down to sign up. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a really neat project. I think
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where if it works, it's
Speaker 1: just gonna be uh, completely awesome to see that level
Speaker 1: of access suddenly becoming much more widespread. I really hope
Speaker 1: that it works out. It's just it's to me. I
Speaker 1: like what I like about is that it's a really
Speaker 1: innovative approach to a problem. Right. Yeah, I had never
Speaker 1: thought I would never ever ever have thought of anything
Speaker 1: like this. And you know a few people on the
Speaker 1: internets have have said that, you know, old Loon is
Speaker 1: a really appropriate name for the project because it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So I was going to the moon and we did that,
Speaker 1: So not me personally, I have I haven't been, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I just the thing forward. I think it's uh, I
Speaker 1: think it's pretty exciting and let and again, this really
Speaker 1: kind of illustrates how the culture at Google and specifically
Speaker 1: the Google X division really rewards innovation and that they
Speaker 1: want people to think in new and interesting ways to
Speaker 1: come at problems from directions that you just wouldn't expect. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: Jonathan from twenty here and in the days since we
Speaker 1: recorded this episode, a lot of stuffs happened with lun.
Speaker 1: Luon has become Loon LLC, a company under the Alphabet
Speaker 1: family of companies, of which Google is also a company,
Speaker 1: and that you know, in in recent times, Luon has
Speaker 1: actually been deployed and various areas around the world. It's
Speaker 1: also provided endless hours of entertainment for yours truly, as
Speaker 1: people have misidentified loon balloons as UFOs, they are not UFOs,
Speaker 1: they are i fos. We have completely identified them. But
Speaker 1: in St. Louis, uh and Africa. In Texas, we've seen
Speaker 1: reports of people saying, Hey, there's some sort of flying
Speaker 1: saucer or something up in the sky, and it turns
Speaker 1: out it's one of these balloons, which I find very interesting.
Speaker 1: But it's it's cool to be able to follow up
Speaker 1: on something that when we first covered it was still
Speaker 1: very much in the project stage, and it's now in
Speaker 1: a real world deployment stage, although still very early in
Speaker 1: its life cycle. I'm excited to see how this continues
Speaker 1: and how effective it ends up being. If you guys
Speaker 1: have suggestions for future topics of tech stuff, you should
Speaker 1: reach out to me on Twitter. The handle is text
Speaker 1: stuff hs W and I'll talk to you again really soon.
Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more
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