Google taking on the world
 

Linkage

Gotta say, if they can commit to making the world more efficient, through different types of power usage as well as making the electricity grid a HELLUVA lot more efficient, it's going to make the US look like a juggernaut yet again.

Just to show what it entails.

I've got to say... it's not a really bad idea, but as i read this i just caught myself thinking...

"or we culd just invest more in solar and wind power and cut those costs alltogether... PLUS there are the costs (on production, research, install and eletric upkeep) that this "grid" would generate just to power itself up and keep everything wired and on stand-by on real time"

Bellsouth, I see this as running parallel to alternative energy.

That said, I salute the eventual overlords of the world o7

I don't like the idea of something being able to shut off my air conditioner during peak times, especially if I still have small children at that time. Heat prostration isn't that pretty to watch.

ETA: In fact, I don't like the idea of Google big brothering anything on a global scale. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

Wow, I thought Cyberdine was supposed to bring about the machine revolution.

I guess a search engine company could do it just as well, though.

...

In all seriousness though, having computers run all that seems far too easy to screw up in my opinion. Computers are very prone to glitches and screw-ups, not to mention being very easy for someone to exploit. I'm not saying a Diehard 4 scenario where somebody runs the traffic through a laptop, but if Google essentially had control over prices of utilities - "responses to real-world supply and demand" - then they could jack up prices and take a cut for themselves.

A world working like that would be a pretty cool thing but I just can't see how it would work in practice.

If I had to choose one company to rule over the world I think I'd probably pick Google. The way they do business seems refreshing compared to the way that most other companies work; Google, in my opinion, lacks the shadiness of the others.

With regards to their current plans, I don't think that having a less centralized power grid is a bad idea. Pricing based on real-time rates also seems like a good idea and I think that the price would be mostly stable. After it got rolling people would use less at times when the price is higher; demand goes down and so should price. Same thing for when the energy is more readily available, but in reverse.

I also don't think that this would be instead of other energy sources as well. It would most likely be integrated with things like wind and solar.

Personally I can't wait until Google makes their space elevator though. That's something that will really be super neat.

My impression from the article is that Google's plan calls for the consumer to decide (through a configuration program) what shuts down, and what at what price point this occurs.

Upgrading the power grid sounds like an awesome idea to me. Maybe most of Kentucky won't lose power the next time there's an ice storm >.>;

I dunno, this strikes me as a bit too paranoid. The system they're talking about would have you in control of whether it went off or not. If you're willing to pay any price to have your AC on, then it'll always be on. Those of us who are more cheap about things can have it go off if its going to bite our pockets too much.

These are only problems if the system is designed badly. Computers do have glitches and screw ups, but that's why we have a thing called redundancy. :P There's also security methods that would make it very hard to "exploit". As long as its designed right, these shouldn't be a problem.

I'd rather they focused on getting electricity's price down through the use of solar and wind energy so that we wouldn't have to worry about the price at peak times because the price at peak times would still be lower than the price at non-peak times nowadays.

Or something like that.

I mean, if you're getting more electricity than ever before through solar and wind energy and it's cleaner than ever before, why do we have to conserve? Conservation is for now, not the future. In the future, you're supposed to be able to let it all hang out. Or something to that effect.

Well, they talked about that in the article:
Renewable energy sources aren't producing at all times. Maybe there's no wind, maybe its a cloudy day, but sometimes you'll need to get your power from somewhere else. That's what this whole thing is about.