motherjones.com— Google wants to make sure everyone has more and better information about how much energy we use. Is this brilliant or creepy?
Apr 8, 2010View in Crawl 4
Awesome if it helps them earn more money. That's the primary purpose of a corporation --- to earn money. Expecting a corporation to be your friend and always act with regard for your best interests is unrealistic and naive.
I for one do not believe they are trying to take over everything, I am more inclined to believe they are trying to break the monopoly agreements a lot of big players currently have. They try not to compete with each other too much for profit maximization reasons; so if google jumps in and shakes things up, then we might finally stop getting completely ripped off.
If you are looking at smart meters on every house then you're looking at Internet to ever house. Internet (optical/cable) could become a standard building service install with all new houses like telephone, electricity, gas, water, sewerage, etc is today.Do away with telephone lines and instead have a power/optic pair running up the house to serve all non fluid/gas needs. Common distribution box for power, data and consumer management. Pair Ethernet with internal power distribution so every socket in the house has a data line. Run a slow speed network over the internal power for smart devices to communicate.As it stands, house are dumb and don't take into account the future which should be the present. A commitment to such infrastructure at least for new building projects would go a long way towards moving us away from sparse disconnected technology and into a true technology era.(Oh, and when I talk about single service supplies, I do so from an Australian perspective where infrastructure and service providers tend to increasingly be separate non related entities.)
I'm not expecting they're trying to be our friends. It would just be refreshing for a major corporation to earn money in a respectable and transparent way. I believe they are, but they have the power to do whatever they want, so...
"I believe they are, but they have the power to do whatever they want, so..."But as they say, power corrupts.So let me re-phrase that --- expecting a profit driven corporation with the power to do whatever they want to always be "respectable and transparent" is unrealistic and naive.
I wish that we had a smart meter so I could sign up with Google Power. Ok, I admit it.. the biggest reason is because I like stuff that makes pretty graphs..
It makes sense for such a large consumer of energy and such a pioneer innovator like Google to expand into markets like this. Have you ever done something and thought, "Well why the hell didn't they just do this, and the whole thing would be a whole lot better for everyone!" I think Google asked this question a while back about energy; they saw how people use it, how it might be incredibly inefficient, how the system is fundamentally broken, and maybe they came up with ideas to fix it while making some money.
I'd rather have Google looking over me than most other corporations. If Google doesn't do it, someone else will. Facebook has shown that people often don't mind being monitored on the internet, and this guy has predicted that games will take over all aspects of our lives, where anything is monitored by extremely cheap technology:<a class="user" href="http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/" rel="nofollow">http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outs ...</a>This is going to happen whether it's Google or Microsoft or Apple or your own government, but I for one welcome my googly overlords.
jqp123Apr 9, 2010
Awesome if it helps them earn more money. That's the primary purpose of a corporation --- to earn money. Expecting a corporation to be your friend and always act with regard for your best interests is unrealistic and naive.
ecanemApr 9, 2010
I for one do not believe they are trying to take over everything, I am more inclined to believe they are trying to break the monopoly agreements a lot of big players currently have. They try not to compete with each other too much for profit maximization reasons; so if google jumps in and shakes things up, then we might finally stop getting completely ripped off.
101melodyApr 9, 2010
Brilliant.So bored of hearing peoples paranoias.This isn't Terminator II.
subtafugeApr 9, 2010
are you kidding me!! : <a class="user" href="http://imgur.com/VKmyI.png" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/VKmyI.png</a>this reads like a 419 scam....
myztryApr 9, 2010
If you are looking at smart meters on every house then you're looking at Internet to ever house. Internet (optical/cable) could become a standard building service install with all new houses like telephone, electricity, gas, water, sewerage, etc is today.Do away with telephone lines and instead have a power/optic pair running up the house to serve all non fluid/gas needs. Common distribution box for power, data and consumer management. Pair Ethernet with internal power distribution so every socket in the house has a data line. Run a slow speed network over the internal power for smart devices to communicate.As it stands, house are dumb and don't take into account the future which should be the present. A commitment to such infrastructure at least for new building projects would go a long way towards moving us away from sparse disconnected technology and into a true technology era.(Oh, and when I talk about single service supplies, I do so from an Australian perspective where infrastructure and service providers tend to increasingly be separate non related entities.)
rpieszakApr 9, 2010
I'm not expecting they're trying to be our friends. It would just be refreshing for a major corporation to earn money in a respectable and transparent way. I believe they are, but they have the power to do whatever they want, so...
regularuserApr 9, 2010
Thanx, I Iove your wife loves my show.I would say NOM, but I will not.
jqp123Apr 9, 2010
"I believe they are, but they have the power to do whatever they want, so..."But as they say, power corrupts.So let me re-phrase that --- expecting a profit driven corporation with the power to do whatever they want to always be "respectable and transparent" is unrealistic and naive.
bbqribsApr 9, 2010
I wish that we had a smart meter so I could sign up with Google Power. Ok, I admit it.. the biggest reason is because I like stuff that makes pretty graphs..
poonchowApr 10, 2010
It makes sense for such a large consumer of energy and such a pioneer innovator like Google to expand into markets like this. Have you ever done something and thought, "Well why the hell didn't they just do this, and the whole thing would be a whole lot better for everyone!" I think Google asked this question a while back about energy; they saw how people use it, how it might be incredibly inefficient, how the system is fundamentally broken, and maybe they came up with ideas to fix it while making some money.
poonchowApr 10, 2010
I'd rather have Google looking over me than most other corporations. If Google doesn't do it, someone else will. Facebook has shown that people often don't mind being monitored on the internet, and this guy has predicted that games will take over all aspects of our lives, where anything is monitored by extremely cheap technology:<a class="user" href="http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/" rel="nofollow">http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outs ...</a>This is going to happen whether it's Google or Microsoft or Apple or your own government, but I for one welcome my googly overlords.