Manas Verma comments upon the significance of X labs, as laid down by various personalities in the field, and their actual contribution in the social diaspora.
Also, examples have been stated dealing with various companies blooming their businesses via X labs in various countries, and affording a technology – based glorification of the economy while also ensuring social benefits.
INTRODUCTION
Recently Google announced their parent company Alphabet inc. which now constitutes of newly independent companies that earlier were fused with Google – one of which is Google X Labs. Now as an independent company, the fundings and projects in X Labs will be more transparent. Essentially, at X Labs, scientists and engineers come together to take on risky and ambitious technological projects. As mentioned in their website, they take on a hybrid approach between “research and development”. With this kind of focus, Google can invest a decent amount of money into projects that may not initially seem as promising but nevertheless can potentially make breakthroughs.
In fact, their whole research process is to fail as much and as fast as possible. Their Rapid Evaluation Team scrutinizes different ideas, “primarily by doing everything humanly and technologically possible to make them fall apart” (Gertner). Every idea that is accepted needs to pass three criterion – it must affect millions of people, if not more; part of it must seem radical, almost resembling science-fiction; the technology required must be attainable in at most the near future. Most importantly, however, as DeVaul, the head of the Rapid Evaluation Team, says that “No idea must be incremental.” This idea seems to resonate among other innovators as well. Serious changes is in society never happen incrementally. There rarely ever is one single step that suddenly changes everything. It is only when innovators force through the boundaries do they actually result with game changers (Gertner).
So far, four strong projects have emerged from this: Driverless Cars, Google Glass, high-altitude Wi-Fi balloons, and glucose-monitoring contact lenses. The Google Glass has already gone on the market. Driverless Cars have been shown to be less accident prone, and if they dominate the roads, they would eradicate traffic. However, a few months ago, another of their innovative technologies got a lot of attention.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google X has invested in more efficient and longer lasting batteries. They are working on solid-state thin film batteries that “transmit a current across a solid, rather than liquid, making them smaller and safer” (Barr). This investment is actually much more important than it may seem. Improving batteries will allow technology to get smaller without losing functionality. Furthermore, Ray Kurzweil, a futurist and Google engineer, believes that technology will eventually be a part of us – essentially, humans would become cyborgs (Prado). With any kind of liquid based battery, this could be dangerous. Also, if it has a bad battery life, in Kurzweil’s vision of the future, changing batteries too often could be a hassle. Even if Kurzweil’s predictions do not come out to be true, cheaper and efficient batteries would be very important when converting from gas to electric transportation. Currently electric cars are slowly on the rise, and eventually trucks, ships, airplanes will also be running on electricity, and creating efficient batteries for them would be a must.
CONCLUSION
With such positive benefits coming from such kind of research, it seems that most companies, and even nations, should put more focus into scientific research and development into radical ideas that may not seem obviously important at first.
Most engineers are made to work on projects that are merely incremental. There’s a reason for this – it’s more predictable, it’s safer, and it generally has a better guarantee of being profitable. However, it will not be impactful. It is only when one takes risks and leaps that something revolutionary occurs. Ultimately, it is research like this that shapes the future.
REFERENCES
a) Barr, Alistair. “Google Gets Into Battery Arms Race.” WSJ. Wall Street Journal, 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 14 Aug. 2015.
Link : http://www.wsj.com/article_email/google-gets-into-battery-arms-race-1428694613-lMyQjAxMTE1NDEwMDUxMTA4Wj
b) Gertner, Jon. “The Truth About Google X: An Exclusive Look Behind The Secretive Lab’s Closed Doors.” Fast Company. 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Aug. 2015.
Link : http://www.fastcompany.com/3028156/united-states-of-innovation/the-google-x-factor
c) Prado, Guia Del. “Ray Kurzweil Thinks We’ll All Be Cyborgs by 2030.” Business Insider. 6 June 2015. Web. 14 Aug. 2015.
Link : http://www.businessinsider.in/Ray-Kurzweil-thinks-well-all-be-cyborgs-by-2030/articleshow/47561216.cms
