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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com Tylor and welcome to Text Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I and today we're going to

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Speaker 1: start off with a little listener mail. But on this

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Speaker 1: case that we're actually done a listener mail that was

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Speaker 1: in to us via Facebook. So listener Facebook, Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: uh listener. Andrew wrote to us and said, inspired by

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Speaker 1: your recent drone episode, I'd love to hear an episode

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Speaker 1: on the Google WiFi Balloon project and provided us with

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Speaker 1: the length and then said thanks for keeping my daily

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Speaker 1: commute less boring. Cheers and cheers to you, sir. Yes

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Speaker 1: we will. We will endeavor not to bore you further.

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Speaker 1: We will continue our exciting delivery the Google Balloon WiFi project.

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Speaker 1: Let's begin. Actually, that's that's that's that's way too low key.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, guys, I've had a long day. So what

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Speaker 1: is this? What is this idea? Balloons WiFi Google? These

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Speaker 1: are just words, Lauren. He's talked about Google loon um

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Speaker 1: and this entire project got started off because according to Google,

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Speaker 1: who would probably know, about two thirds of the world's population,

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Speaker 1: some five to six billion people don't have Internet access.

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Speaker 1: And I mean they're not talking like their WiFi is

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Speaker 1: down today, like they have no internet access, zero way

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Speaker 1: to get to the internet. Um. And so so Google

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Speaker 1: this this team of Google which we will talk about later,

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Speaker 1: came up with this concept that they could have a

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Speaker 1: network of balloons providing WiFi access. Yeah, so you're essentially

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Speaker 1: you're creating this radio wave network and the instead of

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Speaker 1: building towers like you would with a three G or

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Speaker 1: four G type thing. Uh so, so you know that way,

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Speaker 1: we would normally build a tower right in the middle

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Speaker 1: of nowhere and then have a network of towers and

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Speaker 1: that would be your cellular network or would be your

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Speaker 1: four G network or whatever, and that's how you would

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Speaker 1: get access to the Internet. But this is a more

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Speaker 1: expensive and that's infrastructure. And yeah, and you have to

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Speaker 1: you have to figure out where to build things. You've

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Speaker 1: got to get the permission to build where you want

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Speaker 1: to build. Some of these places might be really remote

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Speaker 1: and it might be difficult to build out that bar

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Speaker 1: the use of some of the radio signals can get

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Speaker 1: tricky sometimes. So what if you were instead to have

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Speaker 1: everything that would be mounted on a tower in held

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Speaker 1: by a balloon, a giant balloon that could fly at

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Speaker 1: incredible altitudes and provide bounce Internet signals are around, you know,

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Speaker 1: to the balloons and then to two receivers on the

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Speaker 1: ground antenna that are privately owned. Yes, so this is

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Speaker 1: all part of a division within Google called Google X,

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Speaker 1: and Google X is kind of the super secret uh divisions.

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Speaker 1: That's a hey, you know, that's a preview for an

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Speaker 1: upcoming episode, but yeah, it's it's what would be used

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Speaker 1: as a way of doing rapid research and development on projects.

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Speaker 1: And in fact, the guy who is essentially UH, Sergey

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Speaker 1: brinn Is, is really in charge of Google X, but

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Speaker 1: there are other people who oversee these projects. Their role

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Speaker 1: supposedly is that they look at projects and look for

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Speaker 1: reasons to kill them and says that you know, we

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Speaker 1: kill projects really quickly, and you have to be able

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Speaker 1: to justify your projects. That's a great work, full of

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Speaker 1: worth is what we're looking for, and if it is not,

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Speaker 1: then we will get rid of it. So so hypothetically,

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Speaker 1: each of these balloons will will serve a ground area

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Speaker 1: some forts or twenty five miles in diameter at three

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Speaker 1: g ish speeds, which is not bad, especially when you're

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Speaker 1: thinking about a place that has never had an Internet before. Like,

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Speaker 1: you know, for anyone who's used to really fast internet,

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Speaker 1: three G sounds like a major step down. For me,

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Speaker 1: it sounds incredible because I remember back when I had

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Speaker 1: a dial up modem. Yeah, so three G speeds is

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Speaker 1: pretty fast. To go from nothing to three G is

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Speaker 1: that's a that's huge, right And uh and and you

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Speaker 1: know we were talking about talking earlier about that cellular

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Speaker 1: tower network kind of concept, and and this is like

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Speaker 1: it's it's not really like a satellite system as much

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Speaker 1: as like a like a cellular tower network where and

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Speaker 1: the towers are moving instead of the users, right, So

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Speaker 1: the towers themselves will float and they'll all float on Okay. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and they will essentially change better than down here. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: thank you. Yeah, yeah, there's a that's now I've got

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Speaker 1: nothing but Tim Curry going through my head at this point.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for that vision. No problem. So these

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Speaker 1: loon balloons, um, they're they're set to float in the stratosphere.

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Speaker 1: I need some details here, Lauren. What is the stratosphere?

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Speaker 1: I mean, I hear it like I think this is

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Speaker 1: going to the stratosphere. So I assume it's high opportunity,

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Speaker 1: pretty high, all right, it is the second layer of

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Speaker 1: the Earth's atmosphere, which is about ten to fifty kilometers

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Speaker 1: a k a thirty thousand to a d ninety seven

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Speaker 1: thousand feet a k a six to thirty seven miles

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Speaker 1: above the surfaces. All of this is is pretty approximate

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Speaker 1: and rough because you know, the it changes as the

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Speaker 1: alter it is, the altitude of the ground level changing, right,

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Speaker 1: so like in mountainous areas, it's different than if you're

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Speaker 1: at the Dead Sea or something, right, so or or

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Speaker 1: Death Valley is really what I was thinking of. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: so sure the Dead Sea is relatively low to yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know it's it's not high up on my list

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Speaker 1: at any rate. It's a good spot to locate this,

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Speaker 1: right because at that level, you're really floating above weather patterns. Right,

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Speaker 1: most of the clouds and and and everything. All the

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Speaker 1: storms and stuff are going to happen in the troposphere,

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Speaker 1: which is you know where we are, So that's the

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Speaker 1: stuff that's all around us. And above the stress sphere

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Speaker 1: is the miso sphere, and so we've got this this

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Speaker 1: region where if the balloons are traveling through this, they're

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Speaker 1: going to avoid all those storms. It's also important because

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Speaker 1: as I understand it. When we get to it, their

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Speaker 1: power source is going to be heavily depend upon not

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Speaker 1: having clouds in the way. Absolutely. Um, it's also above

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Speaker 1: most birds and jet planes, so you're going to avoid

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Speaker 1: interference with that stuff, right, Yeah, because most commercial jets

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Speaker 1: travel at around thirty five thousand feet or so, So

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Speaker 1: if it's in the stratosphere at you know, a hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand feet, it's well over what most commercial jets are

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Speaker 1: traveling at even and a hundred thousand you're even talking

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Speaker 1: about higher than most surveillance vehicles unless there's some secret

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Speaker 1: ones out there that we don't know about, which is

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Speaker 1: totally possible, entirely possible. I've never been to telescope that

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Speaker 1: way myself, so it's hard for me to say they're

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Speaker 1: they're supposed to be around right around twenty kilometers or

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Speaker 1: sixty six thousand feet or twelve miles above the surface,

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Speaker 1: so not not quite at that hundred thousand mile mark,

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Speaker 1: but pretty high up, yeah, really high up. So now

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Speaker 1: it is called the stratosphere, and this is important. It's

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Speaker 1: not just useless weather related information because because it's stratified

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Speaker 1: or layered in temperature getting warmer as it goes higher. Now,

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Speaker 1: the troposphere where we are gets colder as it goes higher.

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Speaker 1: So this is this is a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: of a difference, and thanks to that temperature temperature different creation,

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Speaker 1: the layers are going to contain different currents of relatively

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Speaker 1: slow winds that are going in different directions. So in

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Speaker 1: other words, if you are able to control the altitude

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Speaker 1: of a balloon, you would be able to change direction

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Speaker 1: right to get it into those different air streams and

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Speaker 1: move it around pretty much as you please. That will

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Speaker 1: also come into play in a little bit. It's just

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Speaker 1: a little teaser. Uh, you know it's um. It's also

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Speaker 1: where the ozone layer is, right, that is correct. So

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Speaker 1: this is obviously if for those of you who were

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Speaker 1: around in the eighties and you remember hearing about the

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Speaker 1: ozone layer uh a lot every day getting destroyed by

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Speaker 1: all of our hair spray. Uh. This is the layer

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Speaker 1: of the atmosphere where you would find the ozone layer.

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Speaker 1: By the way, that also is why you know, you

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Speaker 1: hear about stuff that produces ozone and people talk about

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Speaker 1: how that's bad, and you might get a mixed reaction there.

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Speaker 1: You're thinking, wait, I remember the ozone layer was going

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Speaker 1: away and that was bad. But now there's these other

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Speaker 1: things that make ozone, and that's bad. It's because of

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Speaker 1: the location of those on layers of the stratosphere. That's

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Speaker 1: where it's useful for us. But ozone down here in

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Speaker 1: the troposphere is bad news and not useful for us.

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Speaker 1: So that's why it gets a little confusing. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: so so it's a pretty elegant system. I mean, the

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Speaker 1: basic concept is if you launch these balloons then uh,

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Speaker 1: and we will get into the construction of those in

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Speaker 1: just a moment. Then you can you can use these

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Speaker 1: air currents to let them travel basically as they will,

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Speaker 1: but in a relatively controlled manner. Right, so if it

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Speaker 1: starts going too far off, you can change the altitude

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Speaker 1: of the balloon using whatever control mechanism you've set up,

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Speaker 1: and then that way it will drift in a different direction,

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Speaker 1: hopefully back toward where you want it to go. But

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Speaker 1: if you were able to make a large enough network

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Speaker 1: of these, then presumably you could just allow them to

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Speaker 1: drift across the countryside because another one would pick up

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Speaker 1: the slack first one, creating a more or less continuous

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Speaker 1: ring of connectivity. As also pretty amazing just imagining this

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Speaker 1: ring of balloons circling the globe and slowly providing Wi

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Speaker 1: Fi to everybody. So let's talk about what these things

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Speaker 1: are actually made out of. So it's not like a

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Speaker 1: balloon that you would find at a kid's birthday party.

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Speaker 1: Not exactly. No, um, okay. So so it's going to

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Speaker 1: consist of of the balloon itself is called the envelope,

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Speaker 1: and that's made of sheets of um polythylene plastic, which

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Speaker 1: is a really large family of plastics with a whole

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Speaker 1: range of of flexibilities and other properties. It's used for

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Speaker 1: everything from like filmed juice bottles, cable jacketing, car bumpers,

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Speaker 1: and plastic shopping bags, which the team says, the balloons

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Speaker 1: are really similar to if some three times thicker. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the bags are three times thicker, I should say, because

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Speaker 1: the balloon is three mill thick. Now, mill is actually

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Speaker 1: a measurement here, we're talking about point zero seven six millimeters.

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Speaker 1: That's how thin this envelope is. Point zero seven six millimeters. Now,

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Speaker 1: that is incredibly thin. This polyethylene sheet is is very

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Speaker 1: very vulnerable, So you have to be very careful when

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Speaker 1: you unfolded before you inflated, obviously, because otherwise just the

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Speaker 1: tiniest uh probably yeah, yeah, you end up with a

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Speaker 1: big ripping it um. This, by the way, is very

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Speaker 1: similar to the balloon that was used by Felix Baumgartner

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Speaker 1: who did his space jump, where he flew as high

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Speaker 1: up as anyone had ever done in a balloon and

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Speaker 1: higher in fact, and set a world record, and then

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Speaker 1: jumped to all of the balloon to plummet to the

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Speaker 1: Earth because that's what see people do. No, it's actually

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Speaker 1: it was. It was a phenomenal I mean I watched it.

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Speaker 1: I watched it from I missed the very beginning because

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Speaker 1: I was I remember I was out at the time,

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Speaker 1: but I got home, turned it on and it was

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Speaker 1: still during the earliest part of the ascent, so he

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Speaker 1: he was maybe I don't know, ten tho feet up thing.

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Speaker 1: It was incredible. So anyway, the balloons that they're using,

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Speaker 1: or that they will use for this, they they've got

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Speaker 1: a pilot program. We'll talk about the bit, but the

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Speaker 1: for the full rollout. It's very similar to the balloon

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Speaker 1: that Felix Baumgartner used, and in fact it's it's provided

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Speaker 1: by the same company. It's Raven Arrow Stars. The name

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Speaker 1: of the company and uh so these incredibly thin balloons

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Speaker 1: get pretty big, as I recall, yeah, about fifteen by

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Speaker 1: by twelve meters tall, which is about fifty by when inflated. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and they don't get fully inflated until they've reached a

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Speaker 1: certain altitude. And it's another one of those things like

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Speaker 1: if you watch the Felix Baumgartner h Ascent, you saw

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Speaker 1: that the shape of a balloon actually changed quite a

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Speaker 1: bit as it went up. You know, it went from

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Speaker 1: kind of this bulbous balloon to an elongated tear drop

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Speaker 1: kind of shape. And that's more or less what these

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Speaker 1: would look like once they reached the right altitude. So

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Speaker 1: what is giving them the lift? That would be helium gas,

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Speaker 1: good old helium. Yes, that's not a bad choice. I

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Speaker 1: mean it's you know, it's hard to get ahold of

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Speaker 1: comparatively speaking in the sense that we talked about how

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Speaker 1: helium is one of those resources that's increasingly difficult for

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Speaker 1: us to get, and we need it for lots of

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Speaker 1: different stuff, including things like cooling down super colliders so

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Speaker 1: that we can do you know, universe level science. But

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Speaker 1: it's still I would say, preferable to something like hydrogen,

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Speaker 1: which can go boom. Right, Absolutely, Helium doesn't go boom.

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Speaker 1: Helium will make you talk funny if you breathe it,

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Speaker 1: but other it do won't make you go boom. Hypothetically,

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Speaker 1: not unless something else is very very wrong. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: would say maybe if physics have somehow changed in your

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Speaker 1: local area, then I suggest you find shelter. But so

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Speaker 1: these these balloons, these balloons are filled with helium gas

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Speaker 1: and um. They contain a pump to control the fill

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Speaker 1: of the balloon UM that would allow you to make

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Speaker 1: a descent if you needed to, or a further ascent. Right.

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Speaker 1: So that's that's how they can control where the balloon

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Speaker 1: is going by using this pump to either vent out

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Speaker 1: or put in more helium um. It also includes a

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Speaker 1: parachute in case of some kind of popping related emergency

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Speaker 1: wherein you need to get the equipment back to the

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Speaker 1: ground without it, yeah, or possibly smooshing someone underneath it

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Speaker 1: if it's in a populated area. So that makes sense.

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Speaker 1: And then what I love about this is that how

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Speaker 1: do you how do you power the electronics? I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously you've got some sort of transmitter and a receiver

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Speaker 1: up there. You would have to write so the receiver

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Speaker 1: is going to take the uh, the information that's been

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Speaker 1: essentially broadcast out from the user, and then transmit the

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Speaker 1: new information down to the user. And that's how you

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Speaker 1: get your Internet access. But that means that you have

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Speaker 1: to get electricity somewhere because these things just don't run

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Speaker 1: on helium, and the pump doesn't run on helium itself.

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Speaker 1: It's a good point, so uh, and that would be

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, if you were doing this in

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Speaker 1: Victorian times, would have a really fancy steam engine that

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Speaker 1: would need an enormous balloon UM. But but in this case,

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Speaker 1: we're powering it with solar panels UM, just just a

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Speaker 1: really thin layer UM kind of hanging in between the

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Speaker 1: envelope of the balloon and the hardware that's going to

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Speaker 1: hang out below and UM. In full sun, it's supposed

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Speaker 1: to produce about hundred watts and so you've also got

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Speaker 1: on there some battery, which makes sense because even when

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Speaker 1: it's floating above the cloud line so that you're still

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Speaker 1: going to get as much sun as possible, there's this

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Speaker 1: thing called nighttime, right right, So so the the the

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Speaker 1: box of hardware that floats or doesn't float, it's attached

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Speaker 1: below the solar panels is going to contain some rechargeable

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Speaker 1: batteries for that whole wacky nighttime thing. All right, and

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Speaker 1: what does uh what? What? What kind of software we

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Speaker 1: talking about? What's the operating system? Linux based? Linux based?

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Speaker 1: Well that makes sense, I mean, so is Android really?

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Speaker 1: Android is a variation of Linux, so that makes us

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Speaker 1: to me. And it's got GPS on it so it

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Speaker 1: knows where it is, which is important because obviously you're

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Speaker 1: gonna have ground teams monitoring these balloons to make sure

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Speaker 1: that they're operational and that they are where they're supposed

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Speaker 1: to be. And they can also send some commands to

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Speaker 1: the balloons if they if needed yep, which again could

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Speaker 1: be important if you need to change the altitude um

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Speaker 1: and so they also have some sensors of board right right,

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Speaker 1: including um air temperature monitoring and also for altitude in

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Speaker 1: speed so that they can tell those operators what's going on.

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Speaker 1: And temperature is a big deal because that's one of

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Speaker 1: those things in the stratosphere that you have to deal

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Speaker 1: with it. It gets pretty chilly up there. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: like like negative fifty degrees celsius, which in some I

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Speaker 1: don't understand how temperature works. At those ranges, but it's

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Speaker 1: only negative fifty eight degrees fahrenheit, which seems incorrect. But no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: it's it's when you get down to those low temperatures,

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Speaker 1: they kind of they converge at one point and then

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Speaker 1: they start to go apart again. I think. I think

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Speaker 1: what that means is technically just really bloody cold. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's really really cold. And but here's nice thing. Electronics

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Speaker 1: work better when they're cold. Yes, there's that, um, but

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Speaker 1: but also important for that air temperature is to figure

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Speaker 1: out what you know, you know, if if you are

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Speaker 1: for some reason not picking up what speed you're going

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Speaker 1: or what direction you're going correctly, you can use that

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Speaker 1: air temperature to help guide the balloon into the correct

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Speaker 1: air stream. Gotcha, all right? And then you have the

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Speaker 1: radio antennas themselves, the actual antennas that end up receiving

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Speaker 1: and transmitting the information to the users on the ground. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's kind of interesting. I saw a picture of of

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Speaker 1: the ones that were on the ground that they look

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Speaker 1: a little weird. Yeah, they're they're kind of basketball shaped.

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Speaker 1: And this is this is really this is a specific

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Speaker 1: design point that they that they created because when you

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Speaker 1: when you've got this bulbous antenna. It should hypothetically help

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Speaker 1: sending capture signals between the balloons, even when the angles

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Speaker 1: are very awkward, right, so you don't have to have

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Speaker 1: it as directional as you would with a regular antenna.

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Speaker 1: So in order to launch one of these balloons, you

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Speaker 1: have to have a team of at least six people.

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Speaker 1: So that includes a launch commander and a core nation

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Speaker 1: team at mission control. I love that they have a

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Speaker 1: mission control, but yeah, it takes six people to to

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Speaker 1: launch one of these um So, I mean it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's not something that you can fully automate. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: just the fact that the balloon itself is so delicate

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Speaker 1: means that you have to take great care. I remember

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Speaker 1: that watching that video of of the team for Felix

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Speaker 1: Baumgartner's Ascent, where they were are very carefully unrolling the

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Speaker 1: balloon and everyone was being extra sensitive about it because

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Speaker 1: even the smallest hair could mean disaster. The same sort

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Speaker 1: of thing for these balloons. There's a lot more we

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Speaker 1: have to talk about with these, and and you know

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Speaker 1: the things that Google is gonna have to look out for.

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Speaker 1: And also I've got a fun little story about what

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Speaker 1: it was like to be approached by Google to be

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Speaker 1: in the initial alpha test of this technology. But before

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Speaker 1: we do that, let's take a quick break and thank

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Speaker 1: our sponsor. Alright, so we're back. Let's talk about some

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Speaker 1: of the challenges Google faces with this program. Right. Um, So,

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Speaker 1: so the stratosphere is not really the most friendly environment

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Speaker 1: to work and necessarily, um, the air pressure is about

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Speaker 1: one percent that of sea level. Um. We talked about

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Speaker 1: the temperature, talked about the temperature. It's it's it's a

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Speaker 1: little bit chilly up there. And um. Also that the

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Speaker 1: part of the stratosphere that the balloons are working in

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Speaker 1: is near the upper end of the ozone layer. UM,

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Speaker 1: which means that the balloons are going to be subject

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Speaker 1: to more radiation and temperature swings from the sun. Right.

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Speaker 1: So that means more ultra violet radiation. There's some other

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Speaker 1: issues that they could potentially run into that. You know,

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Speaker 1: the atmosphere protects us from a lot of that stuff,

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Speaker 1: but these balloons would be much more vulnerable to it. Now,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that the likelihood of them failing is

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Speaker 1: super high. In some cases, we're talking about events that

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Speaker 1: we just can't plan for because we don't understand enough

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Speaker 1: to be able to predict what would happen. But it

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Speaker 1: does mean it's something that could potentially impact the project, right.

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Speaker 1: It basically just means that they need to think about

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Speaker 1: how to make the equipment a little bit sturdier than

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Speaker 1: they than they normally would for something ground basis and

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Speaker 1: which will impact the cost. And Google of course is

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Speaker 1: really interested in making these as cheap as possible to

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Speaker 1: be able to provide the service the service to as

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Speaker 1: many people as possible. Right, So keeping it cheap and durable,

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Speaker 1: those are that's a huge challenge, right because those two

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Speaker 1: things don't normally go hand in hand. Cheap and uh

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Speaker 1: it'll last forever not something we see very frequently. However,

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Speaker 1: To upsets some of those costs, they are collaborating with Noah.

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Speaker 1: It's the National Ocean A Graphic and Atmospheric Administration, thank you. Um,

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Speaker 1: they're in return for giving Noah's some data about the

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Speaker 1: wind patterns that they're they're picking up from all of

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Speaker 1: these balloons being up there. Uh, Noah is helping them

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Speaker 1: out a little bit with funding and uh and oh interesting,

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Speaker 1: So it's so it really is a great collaborative uh project. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're they're also getting a little bit of information about them,

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Speaker 1: because of course Noah has a whole lot of weather balloons,

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Speaker 1: and so they're they're getting some good info about how

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Speaker 1: to construct these things. Now I've got I've got another

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Speaker 1: question for you, Lauren. So if I'm understanding this correctly,

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Speaker 1: we've got these balloons floating around the strass sphere. They

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Speaker 1: are obviously mobile, so the stressphere will be pushing them

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Speaker 1: around the winds. Even though they're moving slowly, you will

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Speaker 1: still push these balloons around. Wouldn't that mean that there

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Speaker 1: would be the possibility occasionally that I might not have

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Speaker 1: a balloon that's in range of me. Absolutely, and part

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Speaker 1: of that is going to be covered by that by

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Speaker 1: that bulbous antenna design. But they're also collaborated with a

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Speaker 1: bunch of ground based internet service providers in order to

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Speaker 1: help fill in the coverage and and create a more

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Speaker 1: continuous network. Also, they're looking to get like four to

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Speaker 1: five hundred balloons for a single latitude, so hopefully they

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00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:18,040
Speaker 1: would be able to to provide a pretty good coverage there. Um,

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Speaker 1: But there's also some international laws to worry about. In

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Speaker 1: in these are modern times, I can imagine that some

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Speaker 1: countries might not be excited about Internet based things flying

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Speaker 1: through their airspace. Yeah. I think anytime you are flying

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Speaker 1: something over another sovereign nation's airspace and you are not

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Speaker 1: part of that sovereign nation, there's already a level of

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Speaker 1: trust that you are asking for that that that's a

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Speaker 1: big that's a big request. And then on top of it,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about a communication system that's really what the

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Speaker 1: Internet is, and and something run by Google which may

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Speaker 1: or may not share information with the n ESSAY and

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Speaker 1: may or may not knowingly share information with the n

400
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,560
Speaker 1: s A. Because there's a lot of information. Ever since

401
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Speaker 1: we did our n s A uh episode, we've had

402
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,159
Speaker 1: people say, you need to update that because all this

403
00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,000
Speaker 1: other information that's come out. That's a story that's just

404
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Speaker 1: continuing to break and it does look like so it's

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Speaker 1: really sad and I don't want to go there, right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's plus there there's this weird car. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if I told you about this, Lauren, but there's this

408
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Speaker 1: weird car on the corner and it's been there for

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Speaker 1: like ever. I'm sure it's nothing anyway. Um, there's just

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Speaker 1: things that we think about at any rate. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: would see that that would be a barrier. Possibly, is

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Speaker 1: that making sure that all the countries you want to

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Speaker 1: and and you know some of them, and maybe that

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Speaker 1: they don't want it, but they don't need the service.

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Speaker 1: But in order to get to the countries that do

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Speaker 1: need the service, yeah, you gotta fly through the stratosphere.

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Speaker 1: It's not like you have complete control over these balloons.

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Speaker 1: You can make them go generally where you want them

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Speaker 1: to go, but there's gonna be some you know, some

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Speaker 1: floating there. So and and that level of the stratosphere is,

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00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:56,400
Speaker 1: by the way, still part of any given sovereign nation's territory.

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Speaker 1: It's not high enough that it would be in UM

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Speaker 1: in space where you where it's no, it doesn't belong

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Speaker 1: to anybody. No one can hear you make a lawsuit

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00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:09,840
Speaker 1: right exactly, U torte reform doesn't exist in space. Uh.

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Speaker 1: There there are a few naysayers. Bill Bill Gates made

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Speaker 1: a really awesomely scathing comment. I'm this is this is

428
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:19,840
Speaker 1: kind of terrible, but I love it all right. So

429
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:23,119
Speaker 1: he was basically saying that there are really bigger problems

430
00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:27,440
Speaker 1: to worry about in thorough world countries other than Internet service. UM.

431
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,400
Speaker 1: According to tech Radar. He said, Yeah, when you're dying

432
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:32,879
Speaker 1: of malaria, I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon,

433
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:34,399
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure how it will help you when

434
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 1: it kid gets diarrh. Yet, no, there's no website to

435
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,880
Speaker 1: fix that. So uh, I have I have this gentle

436
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 1: message for for Mr Bill Gates. Mr Bill Gates, I

437
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,919
Speaker 1: would go so far as to suggest that solving the

438
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,440
Speaker 1: world's problems is not a zero sum game, and therefore

439
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:53,919
Speaker 1: concentrating on one problem does not necessarily mean you cannot

440
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:58,040
Speaker 1: also contribute effort towards solving another problem, and that we

441
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 1: do not live in a world where we have to

442
00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:02,880
Speaker 1: pick and choose which problems we solve. We in fact

443
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 1: live in the world where we have the capability of

444
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 1: addressing many problems simultaneously. So I think it's okay for

445
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:14,879
Speaker 1: Google to address the access to Internet problem, and it

446
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: doesn't suggest that Google does not care about these other issues. Rather,

447
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:20,840
Speaker 1: it says we can do all of this if we

448
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,720
Speaker 1: put our minds to it. That's all I have to

449
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 1: say about that, although I will point out that Google

450
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:32,119
Speaker 1: has also said that by sixteen they expect the Internet

451
00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:36,159
Speaker 1: to generate four point to trillion dollars in value, doubling

452
00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: what it was in two thousand twelve, meaning that if

453
00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 1: you are not part of the Internet, then you're kind

454
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:43,679
Speaker 1: of not making the money that you would need to

455
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:47,400
Speaker 1: address some of these problems. So perhaps by getting this access,

456
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 1: countries that are experiencing really serious issues well beyond Internet

457
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:57,480
Speaker 1: access could maybe move towards addressing those problems as well

458
00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 1: with this new beneficial tool called the Internet. Just throwing

459
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:05,720
Speaker 1: it out, that's that's getting getting you know, business and

460
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: education and stuff like that at the ground level is

461
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,479
Speaker 1: probably a really big block right now to some of

462
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 1: these populations entrance into To be fair, Bill Gates is

463
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:17,679
Speaker 1: probably still a little ticked off that Microsoft got on

464
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: the Internet game way too late and that was his fault.

465
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,640
Speaker 1: So I mean that's probably some sour grapes that I'm

466
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:25,680
Speaker 1: just saying. Possibly also I need a cookie I'm getting.

467
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about the the staff working on this

468
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:34,439
Speaker 1: project and a little bit into the future. Um alright,

469
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,200
Speaker 1: So the project is being headed by one Mike Cassidy

470
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,639
Speaker 1: uh previously the founder of a search engine direct Hit,

471
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,200
Speaker 1: which sold to ask Jeeves for like five million back

472
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:49,120
Speaker 1: in the year nothing um and Rich of All, formerly

473
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:52,159
Speaker 1: of Apple's Tech Advancement Crew, both of whom matriculated at

474
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:54,359
Speaker 1: m I t Uh and Rich of All. I believe

475
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: is in fact the person I was referring to who

476
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 1: would be looking at projects and saying this needs to

477
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: be proven to be worthwhile or it gets axed. And

478
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 1: so far Google Loon has has crossed that threshold where

479
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: it's okay, it's above the line, it's floating over it.

480
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 1: You might say, you you might, because it's a balloon. Goodness,

481
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,360
Speaker 1: my gracious. They began testing prototypes out in Central Valley, California,

482
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 1: in and once they had some good ones, a pilot

483
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:27,159
Speaker 1: test was conducted in June out in christ Church in Canterbury,

484
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: New Zealand. So now they're they're, as I recall, they

485
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,719
Speaker 1: did that test. Now they're kind of fine tuning everything

486
00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:38,120
Speaker 1: right right right there. They're back in Central Valley. As

487
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,200
Speaker 1: of as of this podcast, I think they've actually just

488
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: launched a full pilot program according to their own website,

489
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 1: So that's like breaking news as of the recording of

490
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,719
Speaker 1: this probab Yeah, it's on their on their website. They

491
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:54,359
Speaker 1: talk about the pilot program is in place. Uh, this

492
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 1: is our pilot test began this week. We launched thirty balloons,

493
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: So there you go. But I think that might that

494
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:04,159
Speaker 1: there's no date on that website, so it might be

495
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:08,359
Speaker 1: that that announcement is actually the test that you're talking

496
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 1: about here. So um, you know, I'm willing to guess

497
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:14,919
Speaker 1: that that's probably the case, and that it's you know,

498
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 1: since there is no date there, they didn't literally launch

499
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:21,320
Speaker 1: it this week. I either way, they're hoping to launch

500
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:27,160
Speaker 1: a wide scale test around the parallel South um providing

501
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: service to like New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, South Africa,

502
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 1: that kind of that kind of band. Yeah, and then

503
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 1: they're talking they're about three to four hundred balloons, which

504
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,040
Speaker 1: is far more than thirty. So I am now convinced

505
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: that that thirty one I was talking about Seguel was

506
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: the June test. Yeah, well, there's there's no there's no

507
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: date on when they're planning on launching this. Everything is

508
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,040
Speaker 1: still in testing right now. You know. They're they're they're

509
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 1: working on designs that will stay in the air longer

510
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: for for up to about a hundred days at a

511
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,160
Speaker 1: time without needing to be serviced. So their pilot test

512
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: began with thirty balloons that they launched rom Tekapo, which

513
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,479
Speaker 1: is an area in New Zealand on New Zealand's South Island.

514
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:08,679
Speaker 1: In fact, and there's an article in Wired that is

515
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: a blast to read where they talk about the pilot

516
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 1: program and what it was like to be um approached

517
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 1: by Google. Uh So, the first civilian who got access

518
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:25,439
Speaker 1: secretly to this, his name is Charles Nimmo and the

519
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,439
Speaker 1: very first sight he visited was Google. Uh you know,

520
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 1: I thought it was only fair, but then but then

521
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 1: the the second family actually that got access was a

522
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,879
Speaker 1: New Zealand family called the Mackenzies. It was Hayden and

523
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:43,919
Speaker 1: Anna Mackenzie, and Hayley Mackenzie told Wired. He said that

524
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,719
Speaker 1: he was approached by mysterious dudes who said that they

525
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 1: wanted to have him be part of a test, but

526
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 1: they couldn't tell him what the test was until he

527
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:54,199
Speaker 1: had agreed to be part of a test. And then

528
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: he couldn't talk about the test until they told him

529
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:58,719
Speaker 1: he could talk about the test, but he couldn't even

530
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:00,639
Speaker 1: know what the test was until he agreed to do it.

531
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 1: Those guys in that car outside of our buildings, similar

532
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: we can't look at them because then they get scarier. Anyway,

533
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 1: the test um, gosh, I hope those guys in that

534
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: car don't play a larger role in future of podcasts

535
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 1: to be dreadful. The so, the the mysterious dudes convinced

536
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: the mackenzie that they weren't there to steal their brains

537
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:26,440
Speaker 1: or anything, and the Mackenzie's agreed, that's all right, Well,

538
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: whatever this test is, let's try it out. So then

539
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 1: the dudes went up and put this red basketball or

540
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: the in the article I think they said it was

541
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: like a soccer ball size or football for those in

542
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: New Zealand sized object and put it on top of

543
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 1: their house. Still didn't tell him what it was for,

544
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 1: totally left that part out, left the house. The next

545
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 1: day they came back and said, okay, you have internet now,

546
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: because they had launched a balloon that was now floating

547
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 1: sixty feet over the Mackenzie's farm. They were they're farmers,

548
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 1: and so they the Ana Mackenzie turned on their computer,

549
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: logged into the network that was for the Google Loon program,

550
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: and uh discovered that she did indeed have Internet access,

551
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,680
Speaker 1: and she went to like the New Zealand equivalent of

552
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: eBay to look at tractors because they're farmers. So but

553
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: it was so funny to hear about these guys just like,

554
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 1: we want you to be in this test, but we

555
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 1: can't tell you what it is or what it'll do

556
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,800
Speaker 1: installing it and still not telling them till the next day,

557
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 1: and that they were just like yeah, sure, Like now

558
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 1: you've got Internet love New Zealand. I mean, you know,

559
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 1: there's there's only so many hobbit films that can be

560
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: made there, so you gotta you gotta make your own fun.

561
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: I suppose at a certain point, when you've had like

562
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: orcs running through your relative backyard, it's things are less strange.

563
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: So I just thought that was a cool story. Highly

564
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 1: recommend that Wired article. You can, speaking speaking of New Zealand,

565
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 1: New Zealand listeners, you can still sign up to be

566
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 1: a pilot tester. If I'm not I mean, if you

567
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 1: have really spotty access to Internet, I'm not entirely sure

568
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: how you're listening to the show right this very moment,

569
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: but but yeah, you can just go to www dot

570
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: Google dot com slash loon slash where that's w H

571
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,640
Speaker 1: E R E and scroll all the way down to

572
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: sign up. That's pretty cool. You know, this is a

573
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: really neat project. I think it's one of those things where,

574
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 1: if it works, it's just gonna be uh, completely awesome

575
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 1: to see that level of access suddenly becoming much more widespread.

576
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 1: I really hope that it works out. It's just it's

577
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: to me. I like what I like about is that

578
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 1: it's a really innovative approach to a problem. Right. Yeah,

579
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: I had never thought I would never ever ever have

580
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 1: thought of anything like this. And you know, a few

581
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,160
Speaker 1: people on the internets have have said that, you know,

582
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 1: old Loon is a really appropriate name for the project

583
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: because it's crazy. So I was going to the moon

584
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:49,520
Speaker 1: and we did that, so not me personally, I haven't.

585
00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: I haven't been, but yeah, I just gotta think forward.

586
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 1: I think it's uh, I think it's pretty exciting and that.

587
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: And again, this really kind of illustrates how the culture

588
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: at Google and specifically the Google X division really rewards

589
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 1: innovation and that they want people to think in new

590
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: and interesting ways, to come at problems from directions that

591
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 1: you just wouldn't expect, and it's just an awesome example

592
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 1: of that. I really hope it works. Obviously, if if

593
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 1: if the experiment fails, then that means we still have

594
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 1: learned something. We've learned you know that this this approach,

595
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,440
Speaker 1: while innovative, is not practical, and maybe that means we

596
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: re examine and find a new way of addressing the issue.

597
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 1: And and either way, you know, we've got some of

598
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: that great scientific research that's going to know at Yeah,

599
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 1: so we're so no matter what, we're still learning. So yeah,

600
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where I just see this

601
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 1: as a as a positive all around. Yeah, but I'm

602
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 1: excited to see where it goes. And thank you so

603
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:46,240
Speaker 1: much Andrew for writing. Yeah. So, hey, if you want

604
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,400
Speaker 1: to have your suggestion read on an episode of tech

605
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,080
Speaker 1: Stuff and have us cover the topic you always wanted

606
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 1: to hear about, right to us. Our addresses tex Stuff

607
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com, or drop us a line on

608
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: social networks. Were on Tumbler, we're on Twitter, We're on Facebook.

609
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 1: You can find us with the handle of tech Stuff,

610
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 1: hs W and Lauren and I will talk to you

611
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: again really soon for more on this and thousands of

612
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:19,920
Speaker 1: other topics. Does it how staff works dot com