YOU TOO can make crazy ideas turn into reality!

September 24, 2008 8:48 PM

I get a cut of your good Karma if you win. So Google has committed $10 million to fund up to five ideas selected by their advisory board.What's the kicker? Anyone can submit an idea.

My idea will definitely be a Hummer that isn't driven by an douchebag. Either that or a moneyholder/lender that doesn't need a $700,000,000,000 bailout.

posted by hal_c_on (22 comments total)

$10 million dollars should be enough to cover the legal fees of prosecuting the Bush Administration.
posted by clearly at 9:01 PM on September 24, 2008 [5 favorites]

Hell, $1 million dollars is enough to bribe Dr. Evil to not destroy the Earth.
posted by clearly at 9:02 PM on September 24, 2008

Great idea!

And it's Google's 10th birthday today. Interesting timeline.
posted by nickyskye at 9:06 PM on September 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

nickyskye, I don't know what I just watched in that video you linked to. It is like some creepy fringe yoga Rickroll.
posted by clearly at 9:12 PM on September 24, 2008 [3 favorites]

Sounds like fbfund but lamer.
posted by scarabic at 9:13 PM on September 24, 2008

Is that what you meant to link to, nickyskye? Because I'm thinking "no", but around minute 6 that video turned into the thing that's making tonight awesome.
posted by penduluum at 9:16 PM on September 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

i think i just got tensegrityrolled
posted by mayfly wake at 9:39 PM on September 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

I like the part where Google surpasses AltaVista and Yahoo! by culling dark star secret sorcery energy. Feeling lucky indeed!
posted by scarylarry at 9:40 PM on September 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

lol, tensegrityrolled. *sheesh. That strange link was going into vronsky's Gurdjieff thread and I changed my mind. Sorry guys. Must learn to test links before posting.

This is the correct Google's 10th Birthday timeline.
posted by nickyskye at 9:47 PM on September 24, 2008

Here's an idea: how about America cleans up its financial mess the way Sweden did?
posted by ornate insect at 10:06 PM on September 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

Damn $10M is not going to be enough to have oprah taken off the air
posted by axltea at 11:15 PM on September 24, 2008

YOU TOO can make crazy ideas turn into reality!

For instance, you could make that \m/ video.
posted by pracowity at 11:57 PM on September 24, 2008

Man, today 10 million seems like chump change compared to that stupid 700 billion bailout we keep hearing about. It's an interesting project though. I can't wait to see who wins.
posted by sunshinesky at 1:54 AM on September 25, 2008

If your idea is truly credible then you will probably have some expertise in that area. But once you submit the idea, you will not possess it in any way. They don't even guarantee the opportunity to work on the selected project. If one was a suspicious man, one might wonder if it was a way for Google to grab lots of good ideas and exploit them for itself. But of course, I am not suspicious man. Anyway, not much of an incentive if you're trying to get off the streets.

Then again the Tao te ching say that 'where no credit is taken, accomplishment endures.'
posted by leibniz at 3:36 AM on September 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

Even back then people had problems paying off their mortgage.
posted by ersatz at 4:48 AM on September 25, 2008

leibniz , I had those doubts as well but then thought I'd rather see the ideas happen for the benefit of others than not happen because I don't have the money to get them off the ground.
posted by nickyskye at 7:05 AM on September 25, 2008

But once you submit the idea, you will not possess it in any way.

This is the sort of wishing well into which you toss ideas you would otherwise never pursue. If you find yourself thinking something like "People wouldn't be catching malaria at all if they just [something doable at a reasonable cost]" and you think no one else is implementing it, you describe it here and hope Google's lawyers and engineers find that it's a new and valuable idea. If they like it, you cash in with minimal effort (and no one ever catches malaria again, but the people who make mosquito nets all starve). If they don't like it, you lose nothing (but people keep dying of malaria, and it's all your fault because you weren't smart enough, you bastard).
posted by pracowity at 7:06 AM on September 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

pracowity, Exactly.
posted by nickyskye at 9:33 AM on September 25, 2008

so Google owns all the submissions? that doesn't quite seem fair? They should at least make the submissions public, right? hmm. make it a real competition by having submissions compete in the open...
posted by mhh5 at 11:48 AM on September 25, 2008

actually.. just read the ToS.. Google doesn't own the submissions.. but they have a non-exclusive license to them. that's not so bad. but they should still make the submissions public.... and in the process benefit mankind with the collection of public ideas.
posted by mhh5 at 12:09 PM on September 25, 2008

So I'm not really a cheery optimist or a "give them the benefit of the doubt" kinda guy. But are you all seriously arguing about who will get credit if your idea is selected?

People always come up with ideas like pracowity described. Its usually the lower or middle class who come up with those ideas since they are 95%+ of the total population. 95% of the population has a greater number of ideas than 5% of the population.

This gives the boners out there who don't have the capital or the means to attain it, a chance to actually put their "what if " into practice. Sure Bill Gates can submit his ideas too, but people like that already have outlets to do that; we don't. This is our chance.

I'm not a sucker, and I know that even corporate philanthropy is done to improve PR which in turn improves profits. Google is no exception.

It might also be that Google needs to distribute 10-$50B this year so it doesn't get taxed an extra $100B or something. Who knows...but in this case it benefits 3 entities:
1. Google (of freaking course)
2. People with the ideas- Yeah, I'm sure they will be some kind of engineering or mathematical geniuses on the cusp of fame anyways, but they will get credit (if not money).
3. People/communities that the idea actually benefits.

SO yeah...I'm hal_c_on, and I totally endorse this contest.
posted by hal_c_on at 12:39 PM on September 25, 2008

I wonder how many people are going to submit ideas along the lines of: pay me $10 million dollars to sit in my underwear, stinking of bourbon, and use your search engine to look for porn.

Come to think of it, that sounds pretty good, I think I'll make that my entry.
posted by quin at 1:04 PM on September 25, 2008