According to Google co-founder Larry Page, Scientists need more entrepreneurial drive and could benefit by doing more to promote solutions to big human problems.
Did you know that Larry Page came up the with idea of Page Rank? Not too many people do.
Now you know, and “knowing is half the battle.” – Yo Joe!
If Sergey Brin would have thought of weighing the relative importance of hyperlinks to improve the relevancy of Web searches – completely randomizing it, everyone would be concerned with “Brin Rank” and not “Page Rank” 
On Friday, February 16, 2007 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Larry Page went on to say:
There are lots of people who specialize in marketing, but as far as I can tell, none of them work for you.
“It is not hard to do this,” Page told hundreds of scientists, meeting in San Francisco.
“You need to think that business and entrepreneurship is a good thing. If no one really pays attention to you, then you have a serious marketing problem,” said Larry Page.
Page offered a variety of proposals to raise the profile of scientists in society.
Among the ideas he says deserve further attention:
- Noting how 40,000 people die annually in U.S. auto accidents, Page proposed giving computers control over cars.
While many people fear the loss of control, he said, “I am pretty sure if computers guided cars, a lot fewer people would die.”
- Build fewer roads in underdeveloped parts of Africa.
Instead, he suggested ultralight planes capable of traveling at up to 90 MPH and which would consume less gasoline than ground vehicles.
- Solar energy installations in the Nevada desert were capable of producing 800 megawatts per square mile, somewhat less than half the 2,000 megawatts of a nuclear power plant, he said.
A mid sized natural gas-powered plant generates around 400 or 500 megawatts.
- A major limitation to wind power is the need for a distribution grid to move power from regions where wind blows to where populations are centered.
He said 80 percent of the electrical grid of Europe and North Africa could be served by an ambitious wind distribution grid cross-connecting the two regions. “Are we going to build that grid? I don’t think so. But I think it would be a good idea.”
Page said the reason many scientific undertakings did not succeed was due to a lack of human effort rather than technical hurdles.
Some people think that Google is out to do evil but I firmly believe that the Google guys in Mountain View are following their “Do No Evil” mantra and helping with so many things to make our world a better place:
- Free Wi-Fi Internet
- Alternate Power Solutions
- Water Research
To find out more about the philanthropic arm of Google, check out the Google Foundation. They’re always up to more then just search.
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Larry Page’s suggestion that scientists could use more entrepreneurial drive to promote ideas that are beneficial to mankind is all well and good, but not realistic. Most successful artists have agents who promote their work — why would creative types who explore the scientific world be any different? Perhaps promoting worthwhile scientific discoveries would be something the Google Foundation could to via websites that offer little-known scientific solutions to world problems.
Where would he put that grid of windmills? People tend to think they’re ugly. That’s why there are so few coastal/offshore wind farms despite the fact that they would be able to supply most of the energy needed by major coastal cities; they tend to depress beachfront property values and drive away tourists.
(Of course, growing up in Tehachapi, I think they’re crazy, but what can you do?)
I’m not disagreeing with Page (just look at what combining entrepreneurship with charity has done to philanthropy), I’m just quibbling with that one point.
Hi Luke. The grid of windmills could be put in all sorts of places I suppose.
As for them being ugly, people need to realize if something isn’t done soon, we won’t have energy left to run the world.
In the past 20+ years, we as people have done so much damage to the planet, so much that can not be reversed… and people wonder why Tom Cruise purchased a plot on land on Mars