CS67-English [4Mei]

CASE STUDY SERIES #67 APRIL 2020 [X] Project: What’s Next? Authors: Perdana Karim Felice Valeria Editor: Treviliana Eka Putri Design and Layout: Naufal A. Radityasakti 1 GoogleX Project: What’s Next? Introduction Humans nowadays have become much more dependent on technology. Technology, for the most part, has become an important and integral part of our lives. From the computers that we can put in our pockets, to the artificial intelligence we talk to, technology can no longer be separated from our lives, for better or for worse. Although it may seem like this is an entirely new phenomenon, humans were no dierent back then and have always been dependent on the technology of their time. We have always been dependent on the technologies that have created our lives to be easier and better. Back then, the technology that we depend on was much simpler compared to the technology today. No matter how small the technological advancement was, it has, for the most part, made an impact to the livelihood of humans. From the fire that guided our ancestors through the dark and gave them warmth to the discovery of electricity that illuminated us from the dark and gave us warmth that we could control, humans have always been dependent on technology that helped us live through another day. In this day and age of the 4th Industrial Revolution, where technology is more and more integrated within our lives, the million-dollar, or in this case the billion-dollar, the question is; What's next? Google, what once started out as a simple search engine that connected early internet users to websites and information that they needed, has now become a mega company that is no longer just a search engine. Sure it still has its search engine features, and it may as well be one of its most used features to this date, but Google has expanded itself to more than that. Today, Google has become a billion-dollar company that has expanded itself far and wide to heights that no one could have imagined. To the soware that we use in our tiny computers that we put in our pockets, to cloud-based storage systems that we take for granted today, Google has become an integral part of our digital lives that one cannot separate ourselves from. Before we knew it, in one way or another, we were all using Google's product. Knowing the scale of outreach that Google has, Google itself has taken the initiative to make it so that their products could indeed help mankind itself. One of said products that would be discussed within this case study is Google X Project. GoogleX Project: What’s Next? 2 Google X, led by Astro Teller or preferrably called as "Captain of Moonshots", is a semi-secret research and development facility founded by Google in 2010. Its mission as tagline within its website is “We create radical new technologies to solve some of the world’s hardest problems”1 Google X experiments on ideas that do not necessarily seem like it's possible to achieve, but if it is achieved, it could have a revolutionary impact on our lives as we know it. But that's the beauty of Google X as explained by Teller, the goal of Google X is of course to create something that could help mankind. Still, if they fail, that's okay, because to them, it is not only about creating something, but it's mainly about knowing whether or not something works or fails.2 This case study will be focusing on Google X projects and how it will further help human lifes, mainly talking about the potential benefits that said projects could bring when compared to the conventional methods that we have been using so far. Within the Google X projects there are three stages that each project goes through: "In development", "Graduated", and "Discontinued". The projects that we will be discussing are those that are within the Graduated phase, meaning that these projects are actual feasible solutions to our real life problems. We will be discussing 4 of Google X's projects, those of which we think would have significant importance if and when they are actualised and implemented within our lives. 3 GoogleX Project: What’s Next? Loon Expanding Internet connectivity with stratospheric balloons The internet has unquestionably been a notwithstanding the high proportion of crucial part of almost all aspects within internet penetration, there are still human lives. The world could currently be myriads of people who have not gained interconnected through the internet, proper access to the internet (digital which makes it highly advantageous in divide) – both locally and globally – many ways. In Indonesia alone, according especially in rural areas, which is to APJII, the penetration of the internet undoubtedly detrimental for their itself has increased over time from year to attainment of available opportunities and year. In 2018, the number of internet users the acquisition of information that could in the country had increased by 10.2% or be gained from the internet. Henceforth, it 27.916.716 million from the previous year, is important to ensure the feasibility of which made the total number of internet access to the internet, which could be users in Indonesia become 171.176.716 done by enhancing internet connectivity million.3 Meanwhile, at the global level, in the first place, especially in rural the number of internet users has reached communities. 4.5 billion current.4 Nonetheless, GoogleX Project: What’s Next? 4 Loon, a project initiated by Google in 2013 to relay internet connectivity in remote and rural areas worldwide through a network of balloons, tries to extend the internet from the ground to the sky. The project is aimed to alleviate the prevalent digital divide and improve disaster preparedness of the internet. Through balloons, the expansion of internet connectivity to cover a larger area could be done as they could be autonomously upli the antennas (which limits cell tower’s coverage areas) to the stratosphere over 100 km apart (even in harsh conditions), in which the signals are subsequently sent back to each user’s LTE device.5 The combination of materials science, machine learning, atmospheric modelling, and communications systems6 development has made the project become worthy to be taken into account and executed due to the advancements it oers in the light of internet infrastructure. Currently, it is independently operated under Google’s parent firm, Alphabet. The successful execution of the Project Loon could be clearly seen during the occurrence of several catastrophes. Firstly, the Hurricane Maria occurring in Puerto Rico in 2017, in which the island’s connectivity infrastructure was severely damaged, was mitigated by the Project Loon. In responding to the catastrophe, emergency internet service was delivered by Project Loon alongside the government of Puerto Rico and other international partners through balloon-powered internet. The project also collaborated with AT&T and T-Mobile, as internet service providers, to support people with basic internet services and communication in order to provide those people accessibility to information.7 On the other hand, Project Loon had also assisted people in flood areas of Piura, Chimbote, and Lima in Peru during the extreme flooding in 2017 to connect with one another through the internet.8 As the communication infrastructure on the ground was harshly damaged, people could not obtain important information to keep them updated with the situation at hand, which was extremely dangerous. Henceforth, balloon-powered internet had become crucial to maintain internet connectivity among them as necessary information could be delivered to them. 5 GoogleX Project: What’s Next? Aside from during natural disasters, the significance of the Project Loon could also be concluded in responding to the ineectiveness of the ground-based or underground-based internet infrastructure to be utilised in remote areas, such as fibre optic cables. They oen are costly to be implemented in rural areas – usually, rural areas are located in mountains or beaches, which would make it diicult to adjust the infrastructure as there are more costs that should be borne to be able to facilitate the highly dispersed population across those areas.9 Consequently, there have been fewer investments on the internet infrastructure in rural areas by businesses compared to in urban areas – such as in the case of Indonesia. Henceforth, the implementation of the Project Loon could be an alternative for underground-based or ground-based internet infrastructure to address the problem. Moreover, the Project Loon could also alleviate social discrepancies among rural communities with urban communities, such as providing them access to online educational resources, information (crucially during the COVID-19 outbreak), and connectivity among people. The Project Loon is also environmentally friendly as it uses renewable energy in executing the project; solar energy is used to operate the balloon functionally, and wind energy is utilised to fuel its motor controls.10 As a result, the use of non-renewable energy resources is automatically reduced, which will generate positive benefits for the environment. Nonetheless, notwithstanding the abundance of benefits oered by the project, the Project Loon also raises some concerns throughout the implementation, such as how the confidentiality of data privacy might be threatened since Google will have more access to its consumers’ data to examine their behaviour. Furthermore, a hardware failure in operating the balloons also becomes a major concern since they are autonomously operated, which is therefore diicult to be reached and fixed in the first place. Hence, there might be a risk that a balloon will arrive in an unwanted area aer it floats in the air, which becomes a major safety concern.

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