Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com Tylor and welcome to Text Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I and today we're going to
Speaker 1: start off with a little listener mail. But on this
Speaker 1: case that we're actually done a listener mail that was
Speaker 1: in to us via Facebook. So listener Facebook, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: uh listener. Andrew wrote to us and said, inspired by
Speaker 1: your recent drone episode, I'd love to hear an episode
Speaker 1: on the Google WiFi Balloon project and provided us with
Speaker 1: the length and then said thanks for keeping my daily
Speaker 1: commute less boring. Cheers and cheers to you, sir. Yes
Speaker 1: we will. We will endeavor not to bore you further.
Speaker 1: We will continue our exciting delivery the Google Balloon WiFi project.
Speaker 1: Let's begin. Actually, that's that's that's that's way too low key.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, guys, I've had a long day. So what
Speaker 1: is this? What is this idea? Balloons WiFi Google? These
Speaker 1: are just words, Lauren. He's talked about Google loon um
Speaker 1: and 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 WiFi is
Speaker 1: down today, like they have no internet access, zero way
Speaker 1: to get to the internet. Um. And so so Google
Speaker 1: this this team of Google which we will talk about later,
Speaker 1: came up with this concept that they could have a
Speaker 1: network of balloons providing WiFi access. Yeah, so you're essentially
Speaker 1: you're creating this radio wave network and the instead of
Speaker 1: building towers like you would with a three G or
Speaker 1: four G type thing. Uh so, so you know that way,
Speaker 1: we would normally build a tower right in the middle
Speaker 1: of nowhere and then have a network of towers and
Speaker 1: that would be your cellular network or would be your
Speaker 1: four G network or whatever, and that's how you would
Speaker 1: get access to the Internet. But this is a more
Speaker 1: expensive and that's infrastructure. And yeah, and you have to
Speaker 1: you have to figure out where to build things. You've
Speaker 1: got to get the permission to build where you want
Speaker 1: to build. Some of these places might be really remote
Speaker 1: and it might be difficult to build out that bar
Speaker 1: the use of some of the radio signals can get
Speaker 1: tricky sometimes. So what if you were instead to have
Speaker 1: everything that would be mounted on a tower in held
Speaker 1: by a balloon, a giant balloon that could fly at
Speaker 1: incredible altitudes and provide bounce Internet signals are around, you know,
Speaker 1: to the balloons and then to two receivers on the
Speaker 1: ground antenna that are privately owned. Yes, so this is
Speaker 1: all part of a division within Google called Google X,
Speaker 1: and Google X is kind of the super secret uh divisions.
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: brinn Is, is really in charge of Google X, but
Speaker 1: there are other people who oversee these projects. Their role
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. That's a great work, full of
Speaker 1: worth is what we're looking for, and if it is not,
Speaker 1: then we will get rid of it. So so hypothetically,
Speaker 1: each of these balloons will will serve a ground area
Speaker 1: some forts or twenty five miles in diameter at three
Speaker 1: g ish speeds, which is not bad, especially when you're
Speaker 1: thinking about a place that has never had an Internet before. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, for anyone who's used to really fast internet,
Speaker 1: three G sounds like a major step down. For me,
Speaker 1: it sounds incredible because I remember back when I had
Speaker 1: a dial up modem. Yeah, so three G speeds is
Speaker 1: pretty fast. To go from nothing to three G is
Speaker 1: that's a that's huge, right And uh and and you
Speaker 1: know we were talking about talking earlier about that cellular
Speaker 1: tower network kind of concept, and and this is like
Speaker 1: it's it's not really like a satellite system as much
Speaker 1: as like a like a cellular tower network where and
Speaker 1: the towers are moving instead of the users, right, So
Speaker 1: the towers themselves will float and they'll all float on Okay. Uh,
Speaker 1: and they will essentially change better than down here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. Yeah, yeah, there's a that's now I've got
Speaker 1: nothing but Tim Curry going through my head at this point.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for that vision. No problem. So these
Speaker 1: loon balloons, um, they're they're set to float in the stratosphere.
Speaker 1: I need some details here, Lauren. What is the stratosphere?
Speaker 1: I mean, I hear it like I think this is
Speaker 1: going to the stratosphere. So I assume it's high opportunity,
Speaker 1: pretty high, all right, it is the second layer of
Speaker 1: the Earth's atmosphere, which is about ten to fifty kilometers
Speaker 1: a k a thirty thousand to a d ninety seven
Speaker 1: thousand feet a k a six to thirty seven miles
Speaker 1: above the surfaces. All of this is is pretty approximate
Speaker 1: and rough because you know, the it changes as the
Speaker 1: alter it is, the altitude of the ground level changing, right,
Speaker 1: so like in mountainous areas, it's different than if you're
Speaker 1: at the Dead Sea or something, right, so or or
Speaker 1: Death Valley is really what I was thinking of. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so sure the Dead Sea is relatively low to yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know it's it's not high up on my list
Speaker 1: at any rate. It's a good spot to locate this,
Speaker 1: right because at that level, you're really floating above weather patterns. Right,
Speaker 1: most of the clouds and and and everything. All the
Speaker 1: storms and stuff are going to happen in the troposphere,
Speaker 1: which is you know where we are, So that's the
Speaker 1: stuff that's all around us. And above the stress sphere
Speaker 1: is the miso sphere, and so we've got this this
Speaker 1: region where if the balloons are traveling through this, they're
Speaker 1: going to avoid all those storms. It's also important because
Speaker 1: as I understand it. When we get to it, their
Speaker 1: power source is going to be heavily depend upon not
Speaker 1: having clouds in the way. Absolutely. Um, it's also above
Speaker 1: most birds and jet planes, so you're going to avoid
Speaker 1: interference with that stuff, right, Yeah, because most commercial jets
Speaker 1: travel at around thirty five thousand feet or so, So
Speaker 1: if it's in the stratosphere at you know, a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand feet, it's well over what most commercial jets are
Speaker 1: traveling at even and a hundred thousand you're even talking
Speaker 1: about higher than most surveillance vehicles unless there's some secret
Speaker 1: ones out there that we don't know about, which is
Speaker 1: totally possible, entirely possible. I've never been to telescope that
Speaker 1: way myself, so it's hard for me to say they're
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be around right around twenty kilometers or
Speaker 1: sixty six thousand feet or twelve miles above the surface,
Speaker 1: so not not quite at that hundred thousand mile mark,
Speaker 1: but pretty high up, yeah, really high up. So now
Speaker 1: it is called the stratosphere, and this is important. It's
Speaker 1: not just useless weather related information because because it's stratified
Speaker 1: 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 temperature different creation,
Speaker 1: the layers are going to contain different currents of relatively
Speaker 1: slow winds that are going in different directions. So in
Speaker 1: other words, if you are able to control the altitude
Speaker 1: of a balloon, you would be able to change direction
Speaker 1: right to get it into those different air streams and
Speaker 1: move it around pretty much as you please. That will
Speaker 1: also come into play in a little bit. It's just
Speaker 1: a little teaser. Uh, you know it's um. It's also
Speaker 1: where the ozone layer is, right, that is correct. So
Speaker 1: this is obviously if for those of you who were
Speaker 1: around in the eighties and you remember hearing about the
Speaker 1: ozone layer uh a lot every day getting destroyed by
Speaker 1: all of our hair spray. Uh. This is the layer
Speaker 1: of the atmosphere where you would find the ozone layer.
Speaker 1: By the way, that also is why you know, you
Speaker 1: hear about stuff that produces ozone and people talk about
Speaker 1: how that's bad, and you might get a mixed reaction there.
Speaker 1: You're thinking, wait, I remember the ozone layer was going
Speaker 1: away and that was bad. But now there's these other
Speaker 1: things that make ozone, and that's bad. It's because of
Speaker 1: the location of those on layers of the stratosphere. That's
Speaker 1: where it's useful for us. But ozone down here in
Speaker 1: the troposphere is bad news and not useful for us.
Speaker 1: So that's why it gets a little confusing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so so it's a pretty elegant system. I mean, the
Speaker 1: basic concept is if you launch these balloons then uh,
Speaker 1: and we will get into the construction of those in
Speaker 1: just a moment. Then you can you can use these
Speaker 1: air currents to let them travel basically as they will,
Speaker 1: but in a relatively controlled manner. Right, so if it
Speaker 1: starts going too far off, you can change the altitude
Speaker 1: of the balloon using whatever control mechanism you've set up,
Speaker 1: and then that way it will drift in a different direction,
Speaker 1: hopefully back toward where you want it to go. But
Speaker 1: if you were able to make a large enough network
Speaker 1: of these, then presumably you could just allow them to
Speaker 1: drift across the countryside because another one would pick up
Speaker 1: the slack first one, creating a more or less continuous
Speaker 1: ring of connectivity. As also pretty amazing just imagining this
Speaker 1: ring of balloons circling the globe and slowly providing Wi
Speaker 1: Fi to everybody. So let's talk about what these things
Speaker 1: are actually made out of. So it's not like a
Speaker 1: balloon that you would find at a kid's birthday party.
Speaker 1: Not exactly. No, um, okay. So so it's going to
Speaker 1: consist of of the balloon itself is called the envelope,
Speaker 1: and that's made of sheets of um polythylene plastic, which
Speaker 1: is a really large family of plastics with a whole
Speaker 1: range of of flexibilities and other properties. It's used for
Speaker 1: everything from like filmed 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 to all of the balloon to plummet to the
Speaker 1: Earth because that's what see people do. No, it's actually
Speaker 1: it was. It was a phenomenal I mean I watched it.
Speaker 1: I watched it from I missed the very beginning because
Speaker 1: I was I remember I was out at the time,
Speaker 1: but I got home, turned it on and it was
Speaker 1: still during the earliest part of the ascent, so he
Speaker 1: he was maybe I don't know, ten tho feet up thing.
Speaker 1: It was incredible. So anyway, the balloons that they're using,
Speaker 1: or that they will use for this, they they've got
Speaker 1: a pilot program. We'll talk about the bit, but the
Speaker 1: for the full rollout. It's very similar to the balloon
Speaker 1: that Felix Baumgartner used, and in fact it's it's provided
Speaker 1: by the same company. It's Raven Arrow Stars. The name
Speaker 1: of the company and uh so these incredibly thin balloons
Speaker 1: get pretty big, as I recall, yeah, about fifteen by
Speaker 1: by twelve meters tall, which is about fifty by 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 h Ascent, you saw
Speaker 1: that the shape of a 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 do 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, Helium doesn't go boom.
Speaker 1: Helium will make you talk funny if you breathe it,
Speaker 1: but other it do won't make you go boom. Hypothetically,
Speaker 1: not unless something else is very very wrong. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would say maybe if physics have somehow changed in your
Speaker 1: local area, then I suggest you find shelter. But so
Speaker 1: these these balloons, these balloons are filled with helium gas
Speaker 1: and um. They contain a pump to control the fill
Speaker 1: of the balloon UM that would allow you to make
Speaker 1: a descent if you needed to, or a further ascent. Right.
Speaker 1: So that's that's how they can control where the balloon
Speaker 1: is going by using this pump to either vent out
Speaker 1: or put in more helium um. It also includes a
Speaker 1: parachute in case of some kind of popping related emergency
Speaker 1: wherein you need to get the equipment back to the
Speaker 1: ground without it, yeah, or possibly smooshing someone underneath it
Speaker 1: if it's in a populated area. So that makes sense.
Speaker 1: And then what I love about this is that how
Speaker 1: do you how do you power the electronics? I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you've got some sort of transmitter and a receiver
Speaker 1: up there. You would have to write so the receiver
Speaker 1: is going to take the uh, the information that's been
Speaker 1: essentially broadcast out from the user, and then transmit the
Speaker 1: new information down to the user. And that's how you
Speaker 1: get your Internet access. But that means that you have
Speaker 1: to get electricity somewhere because these things just don't run
Speaker 1: on helium, and the pump doesn't run on helium itself.
Speaker 1: It's a good point, so uh, and that would be
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, if you were doing this in
Speaker 1: Victorian times, would have a really fancy steam engine that
Speaker 1: would need an enormous balloon UM. But but in this case,
Speaker 1: we're powering it with solar panels UM, just just a
Speaker 1: really thin layer UM kind of hanging in between the
Speaker 1: envelope of the balloon and the hardware that's going to
Speaker 1: hang out below and UM. In full sun, it's supposed
Speaker 1: to produce about hundred watts and so you've also got
Speaker 1: on there some battery, which makes sense because even when
Speaker 1: it's floating above the cloud line so that you're still
Speaker 1: going to get as much sun as possible, there's this
Speaker 1: thing called nighttime, right right, So so the the the
Speaker 1: box of hardware that floats or doesn't float, it's attached
Speaker 1: below the solar panels is going to contain some rechargeable
Speaker 1: batteries for that whole wacky nighttime thing. All right, and
Speaker 1: what does uh what? What? What kind of software we
Speaker 1: talking about? What's the operating system? Linux based? Linux based?
Speaker 1: Well that makes sense, I mean, so is Android really?
Speaker 1: Android is a variation of Linux, so that makes us
Speaker 1: to me. And it's got GPS on it so it
Speaker 1: knows where it is, which is important because obviously you're
Speaker 1: gonna have ground teams monitoring these balloons to make sure
Speaker 1: that they're operational and that they are where they're supposed
Speaker 1: to be. And they can also send some commands to
Speaker 1: the balloons if they if needed yep, which again could
Speaker 1: be important if you need to change the altitude um
Speaker 1: and so they also have some sensors of board right right,
Speaker 1: including um air temperature monitoring and also for altitude in
Speaker 1: speed so that they can tell those operators what's going on.
Speaker 1: And temperature is a big deal because that's one of
Speaker 1: those things in the stratosphere that you have to deal
Speaker 1: with it. It gets pretty chilly up there. So yeah,
Speaker 1: like like negative fifty degrees celsius, which in some I
Speaker 1: don't understand how temperature works. At those ranges, but it's
Speaker 1: only negative fifty eight degrees fahrenheit, which 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 of
Speaker 1: the ones that were on the ground that they look
Speaker 1: a little weird. Yeah, they're they're kind of basketball shaped.
Speaker 1: And this is this is really this is a specific
Speaker 1: design point that they that they created because when you
Speaker 1: when you've got this bulbous antenna. It should hypothetically help
Speaker 1: sending capture signals between the balloons, even when the angles
Speaker 1: are very awkward, right, so you don't have to have
Speaker 1: it as directional as you would with a regular antenna.
Speaker 1: So in order to launch one of these balloons, you
Speaker 1: have to have a team of at least six people.
Speaker 1: So that includes a launch commander and a core nation
Speaker 1: team at mission control. I love that they have a
Speaker 1: mission control, but yeah, it takes six people to to
Speaker 1: launch one of these um So, I mean it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's not something that you can fully automate. Like I said,
Speaker 1: just the fact that the balloon itself is so delicate
Speaker 1: means that you have to take great care. I remember
Speaker 1: that watching that video of of the team for Felix
Speaker 1: Baumgartner's Ascent, where they were are very carefully unrolling the
Speaker 1: balloon and everyone was being extra sensitive about it because
Speaker 1: even the smallest hair could mean disaster. The same sort
Speaker 1: of thing for these balloons. There's a lot more we
Speaker 1: have to talk about with these, and and you know
Speaker 1: the things that Google is gonna have to look out for.
Speaker 1: And also I've got a fun little story about what
Speaker 1: it was like to be approached by Google to be
Speaker 1: in the initial alpha test of this technology. But before
Speaker 1: we do that, let's take a quick break and thank
Speaker 1: our sponsor. Alright, so we're back. Let's talk about some
Speaker 1: of the challenges Google faces with this program. Right. Um, So,
Speaker 1: so the stratosphere is not really the most friendly environment
Speaker 1: to work and necessarily, um, the air pressure is about
Speaker 1: one percent that of sea level. Um. We talked about
Speaker 1: the temperature, talked about the temperature. It's it's it's a
Speaker 1: little bit chilly up there. And um. Also that the
Speaker 1: part of the stratosphere that the balloons are working in
Speaker 1: is near the upper end of the ozone layer. UM,
Speaker 1: which means that the balloons are going to be subject
Speaker 1: to more radiation and temperature swings from the sun. Right.
Speaker 1: So that means more ultra violet radiation. There's some other
Speaker 1: issues that they could potentially run into that. You know,
Speaker 1: the atmosphere protects us from a lot of that stuff,
Speaker 1: but these balloons would be much more vulnerable to it. Now,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that the likelihood of them failing is
Speaker 1: super high. In some cases, we're talking about events that
Speaker 1: we just can't plan for because we don't understand enough
Speaker 1: to be able to predict what would happen. But it
Speaker 1: does mean it's something that could potentially impact the project, right.
Speaker 1: It basically just means that they need to think about
Speaker 1: how to make the equipment a little bit sturdier than
Speaker 1: they than they normally would for something ground basis and
Speaker 1: which will impact the cost. And Google of course is
Speaker 1: really interested in making these as cheap as possible to
Speaker 1: be able to provide the service the service to as
Speaker 1: many 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 upsets some of those costs, they are collaborating with Noah.
Speaker 1: It's the National Ocean A Graphic and Atmospheric Administration, thank you. Um,
Speaker 1: they're in return for giving Noah's some data about the
Speaker 1: wind patterns that they're they're picking up from all of
Speaker 1: these balloons being up there. Uh, Noah is helping them
Speaker 1: out a little bit with funding and uh and oh interesting,
Speaker 1: So it's so it really is a great collaborative uh project. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're also getting a little bit of information about them,
Speaker 1: because 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 strass sphere. They
Speaker 1: are obviously mobile, so the stressphere will be pushing them
Speaker 1: around the winds. Even though they're moving slowly, you will
Speaker 1: still push these balloons around. Wouldn't that mean that there
Speaker 1: would be the possibility occasionally that I might not have
Speaker 1: a balloon that's in range of me. Absolutely, and part
Speaker 1: of that is going to be covered by that by
Speaker 1: that bulbous antenna design. But they're also collaborated with a
Speaker 1: bunch of ground based internet service providers in order to
Speaker 1: help fill in the coverage and and create a more
Speaker 1: continuous network. Also, they're looking to get like four to
Speaker 1: five hundred balloons for a single latitude, so hopefully they
Speaker 1: would be able to to provide a pretty good coverage there. Um,
Speaker 1: But there's also some international laws to worry about. In
Speaker 1: in these are modern times, I can imagine that some
Speaker 1: countries might not be excited about Internet based things flying
Speaker 1: through their airspace. Yeah. I think anytime you are flying
Speaker 1: something over another sovereign nation's airspace and you are not
Speaker 1: part of that sovereign nation, there's already a level of
Speaker 1: trust that you are asking for that that that's a
Speaker 1: big that's a big request. And then on top of it,
Speaker 1: we're talking about a communication system that's really what the
Speaker 1: Internet is, and and something run by Google which may
Speaker 1: or may not share information with the n ESSAY and
Speaker 1: may or may not knowingly share information with the n
Speaker 1: s A. Because there's a lot of information. Ever since
Speaker 1: we did our n s A uh episode, we've had
Speaker 1: people say, you need to update that because all this
Speaker 1: other information that's come out. That's a story that's just
Speaker 1: continuing to break and it does look like so it's
Speaker 1: really sad and I don't want to go there, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's plus there there's this weird car. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I told you about this, Lauren, but there's this
Speaker 1: weird car on the corner and it's been there for
Speaker 1: like ever. I'm sure it's nothing anyway. Um, there's just
Speaker 1: things that we think about at any rate. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would see that that would be a barrier. Possibly, is
Speaker 1: that making sure that all the countries you want to
Speaker 1: and and you know some of them, and maybe that
Speaker 1: they don't want it, but they don't need the service.
Speaker 1: But in order to get to the countries that do
Speaker 1: need the service, yeah, you gotta fly through the stratosphere.
Speaker 1: It's not like you have complete control over these balloons.
Speaker 1: You can make them go generally where you want them
Speaker 1: to go, but there's gonna be some you know, some
Speaker 1: floating there. So and and that level of the stratosphere is,
Speaker 1: by the way, still part of any given sovereign nation's territory.
Speaker 1: It's not high enough that it would be in UM
Speaker 1: in space where you where it's no, it doesn't belong
Speaker 1: to anybody. No one can hear you make a lawsuit
Speaker 1: right exactly, U torte reform doesn't exist in space. Uh.
Speaker 1: There there are a few naysayers. Bill Bill Gates made
Speaker 1: a really awesomely scathing comment. I'm this is this is
Speaker 1: kind of terrible, but I love it all right. So
Speaker 1: he was basically saying that there are really bigger problems
Speaker 1: to worry about in thorough world countries other than Internet service. UM.
Speaker 1: According to tech Radar. He said, Yeah, when you're dying
Speaker 1: of malaria, I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure how it will help you when
Speaker 1: it kid gets diarrh. Yet, no, there's no website to
Speaker 1: fix that. So uh, I have I have this gentle
Speaker 1: message for for Mr Bill Gates. Mr Bill Gates, I
Speaker 1: would go so far as to suggest that solving the
Speaker 1: world's problems is not a zero sum game, and therefore
Speaker 1: concentrating on one problem does not necessarily mean you cannot
Speaker 1: also contribute effort towards solving another problem, and that we
Speaker 1: do not live in a world where we have to
Speaker 1: pick and choose which problems we solve. We in fact
Speaker 1: live in the world where we have the capability of
Speaker 1: addressing many problems simultaneously. So I think it's okay for
Speaker 1: Google to address the access to Internet problem, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't suggest that Google does not care about these other issues. Rather,
Speaker 1: it says we can do all of this if we
Speaker 1: put our minds to it. That's all I have to
Speaker 1: say about that, although I will point out that Google
Speaker 1: has also said that by sixteen they expect the Internet
Speaker 1: to generate four point to trillion dollars in value, doubling
Speaker 1: what it was in two thousand twelve, meaning that if
Speaker 1: you are not part of the Internet, then you're kind
Speaker 1: of not making the money that you would need to
Speaker 1: address some of these problems. So perhaps by getting this access,
Speaker 1: countries that are experiencing really serious issues well beyond Internet
Speaker 1: access could maybe move towards addressing those problems as well
Speaker 1: with this new beneficial tool called the Internet. Just throwing
Speaker 1: it out, that's that's getting getting you know, business and
Speaker 1: education and stuff like that at the ground level is
Speaker 1: probably a really big block right now to some of
Speaker 1: these populations entrance into To be fair, Bill Gates is
Speaker 1: probably still a little ticked off that Microsoft got on
Speaker 1: the Internet game way too late and that was his fault.
Speaker 1: So I mean that's probably some sour grapes that I'm
Speaker 1: just saying. Possibly also I need a cookie I'm getting.
Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about the the staff working on this
Speaker 1: project and a little bit into the future. Um alright,
Speaker 1: So the project is being headed by one Mike Cassidy
Speaker 1: uh previously the founder of a search engine direct Hit,
Speaker 1: which sold to ask Jeeves for like five million back
Speaker 1: in the year nothing um and Rich of All, formerly
Speaker 1: of Apple's Tech Advancement Crew, both of whom matriculated at
Speaker 1: m I t Uh and Rich of All. I believe
Speaker 1: is in fact the person I was referring to who
Speaker 1: would be looking at projects and saying this needs to
Speaker 1: be proven to be worthwhile or it gets axed. And
Speaker 1: so far Google Loon has has crossed that threshold where
Speaker 1: it's okay, it's above the line, it's floating over it.
Speaker 1: You might say, you you might, because it's a balloon. Goodness,
Speaker 1: my gracious. They began testing prototypes out in Central Valley, California,
Speaker 1: in and once they had some good ones, a pilot
Speaker 1: test 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
Speaker 1: this probab Yeah, it's on their on their website. They
Speaker 1: talk about the pilot program is in place. Uh, this
Speaker 1: is our pilot test began this week. We launched thirty balloons,
Speaker 1: So there you go. But I think that might that
Speaker 1: there's no date on that website, so it might be
Speaker 1: that that announcement is actually the test that you're talking
Speaker 1: about here. So um, you know, I'm willing to guess
Speaker 1: that that's probably the case, and that it's you know,
Speaker 1: since there is no date there, they didn't literally launch
Speaker 1: it this week. I either way, they're hoping to launch
Speaker 1: a wide scale test around the parallel South um providing
Speaker 1: service to like New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, South Africa,
Speaker 1: that kind of that kind of band. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: they're talking they're about three to four hundred balloons, which
Speaker 1: is far more than thirty. So I am now convinced
Speaker 1: that that thirty one I was talking about Seguel was
Speaker 1: the June test. Yeah, well, there's there's no there's no
Speaker 1: date on when they're planning on launching this. Everything is
Speaker 1: still in testing right now. You know. They're they're they're
Speaker 1: working on designs that will stay in the air longer
Speaker 1: for for up to about a hundred days at a
Speaker 1: time without needing to be serviced. So their pilot test
Speaker 1: began with thirty balloons that they launched rom Tekapo, which
Speaker 1: is an area in New Zealand on New Zealand's South Island.
Speaker 1: In fact, and there's an article in Wired that is
Speaker 1: a blast to read where they talk about the pilot
Speaker 1: program and what it was like to be um approached
Speaker 1: by Google. Uh So, the first civilian who got access
Speaker 1: secretly to this, his name is Charles Nimmo and the
Speaker 1: very first sight he visited was Google. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: I thought it was only fair, but then but then
Speaker 1: the the second family actually that got access was a
Speaker 1: New Zealand family called the Mackenzies. It was Hayden and
Speaker 1: Anna Mackenzie, and Hayley Mackenzie told Wired. He said that
Speaker 1: he was approached by mysterious dudes who said that they
Speaker 1: wanted to have him be part of a test, but
Speaker 1: they couldn't tell him what the test was until he
Speaker 1: had agreed to be part of a test. And then
Speaker 1: 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, 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: to be dreadful. The so, the the mysterious dudes convinced
Speaker 1: the mackenzie that they weren't there to steal their brains
Speaker 1: or anything, and the Mackenzie's agreed, that's all right, Well,
Speaker 1: whatever this test is, let's try it out. So then
Speaker 1: the dudes went up and put this red basketball or
Speaker 1: the in the article I think they said it was
Speaker 1: like a soccer ball size or football for those in
Speaker 1: New Zealand sized object and put it on top of
Speaker 1: their house. Still didn't tell him what it was for,
Speaker 1: totally left that part out, left the house. The next
Speaker 1: day they came back and said, okay, you have internet now,
Speaker 1: because they had launched a balloon that was now floating
Speaker 1: sixty feet over the Mackenzie's farm. They were they're farmers,
Speaker 1: and so they the Ana Mackenzie turned on their computer,
Speaker 1: logged into the network that was for the Google Loon program,
Speaker 1: and uh discovered that she did indeed have Internet access,
Speaker 1: and she went to like the New Zealand equivalent of
Speaker 1: eBay to look at tractors because they're farmers. So but
Speaker 1: it was so funny to hear about these guys just like,
Speaker 1: we want you to be in this test, but we
Speaker 1: can't tell you what it is or what it'll do
Speaker 1: installing it and still not telling them till the next day,
Speaker 1: and that they were just like yeah, sure, Like now
Speaker 1: you've got Internet love 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 gotta you gotta make your own fun.
Speaker 1: I suppose at a certain point, when you've had like
Speaker 1: orcs running through your relative backyard, it's things are less strange.
Speaker 1: So I just thought that was a cool story. Highly
Speaker 1: recommend that Wired article. You can, speaking speaking of New Zealand,
Speaker 1: New Zealand listeners, you can still sign up to be
Speaker 1: a pilot tester. If I'm not I mean, if you
Speaker 1: have really spotty access to Internet, I'm not entirely sure
Speaker 1: how you're listening to the show right this very moment,
Speaker 1: but but yeah, you can just go to www dot
Speaker 1: Google dot com slash loon slash where that's w H
Speaker 1: E R E and scroll all the way down to
Speaker 1: sign up. That's pretty cool. You know, this is a
Speaker 1: really neat project. I think it's one of those things where,
Speaker 1: if it works, it's just gonna be uh, completely awesome
Speaker 1: to see that level of access suddenly becoming much more widespread.
Speaker 1: I really hope that it works out. It's just it's
Speaker 1: to me. I like what I like about is that
Speaker 1: it's a really innovative approach to a problem. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had never thought I would never ever ever have
Speaker 1: thought of anything like this. And you know, a few
Speaker 1: people on the internets have have said that, you know,
Speaker 1: old Loon is a really appropriate name for the project
Speaker 1: because it's crazy. So I was going to the moon
Speaker 1: and we did that, so not me personally, I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't been, but yeah, I just gotta think forward.
Speaker 1: I think it's uh, I think it's pretty exciting and that.
Speaker 1: And again, this really kind of illustrates how the culture
Speaker 1: at Google and specifically the Google X division really rewards
Speaker 1: innovation and that they want people to think in new
Speaker 1: and interesting ways, to come at problems from directions that
Speaker 1: you just wouldn't expect, and it's just an awesome example
Speaker 1: of that. I really hope it works. Obviously, if if
Speaker 1: if the experiment fails, then that means we still have
Speaker 1: learned something. We've learned you know that this this approach,
Speaker 1: while innovative, is not practical, and maybe that means we
Speaker 1: re examine and find a new way of addressing the issue.
Speaker 1: And and either way, you know, we've got some of
Speaker 1: that great scientific research that's going to know at Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're so no matter what, we're still learning. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where I just see this
Speaker 1: as a as a positive all around. Yeah, but I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see where it goes. And thank you so
Speaker 1: much Andrew for writing. Yeah. So, hey, if you want
Speaker 1: to have your suggestion read on an episode of tech
Speaker 1: Stuff and have us cover the topic you always wanted
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