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Comment by mtrpcic | Hacker News Reader

This is very exciting. While Google might have strayed from their original "Don't be evil" mantra a little bit, I couldn't think of a better partner for SpaceX to work with on this. Not only does Google have the drive and deep pockets, they've got the incentive. If this works out as well as everyone is hoping, not only will it upset the internet industry, I can see this having benefits for the telco/cell carrier industry as well. With cheap, fast internet available worldwide, nobody is going to pay $30 for a 2GB cap on their mobile phones.

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> While Google might have strayed from their original "Don't be evil" mantra a little bit

I don't know. I'm getting more and more the impression that Page is cut from the same cloth like Elon Musk. Both seem to be balls-to-the-walls visionaries who accept nothing less than the utmost limits of what's possible - and then aim a bit higher than that.

I'm starting to think that, for Page, "evil" means "anything less than the greatest possible good for the largest number of people, over a very long term".

But the thing that makes it hard for some people to believe is not the long term vision, but the short term actions. Musk isn't really doing anything that people could call harmful. However, there are a lot of people who would disagree with that if you said the same thing about Google.

'Harmful' is a pretty strong word. No longer the underdog and dominating in business issues related to search maybe, but I have a hard time seeing how this cause harm in any tangible way. Do you have some examples of how a lot of people might find Google to be causing harm?

Google has been known to connect to wifi hotspots without permission using their mapping cars. Not only did they connect to people's wifi, they also took dumps of any unencrypted data they happened to find while they were connecting. They only got rid of the data after a lawsuit forced them to.

They had terrible privacy settings on Google Buzz, letting anyone you had any email conversations find out where you've checked in to.

They're the only mobile OS maker who will not put a proper update system in place, leaving millions of their users without patches. Google is unapologetic about this, even going as far to say 4.4.4 is out of support and users should upgrade to 5, even though most Android handsets are incapable of upgrading. Serious security flaws exist in older versions, and the systems will never be patched.

Let's talk about the anti-poaching agreement they had, hurting not only their staff, but all of IT in general.

Google is the only huge company I know of that still believes it is a startup that can get away with anything, including breaking the law. I have nothing against the people at Google, they do amazing things. But the company needs to learn the value of corporate responsibility sooner rather than later.

Was there ever any evidence that they were broadcasting to the hotspots (a requirement for 'connect' to make sense)?

That isn't going to make people irritated with them recording unencrypted data any happier, but I guess it is reasonable to be accurate and specific.

Grow big enough, attract critics automatically, no matter what you do.

It's a law of nature.

This seems quite charitable in every way. I don't know if it's just that I'm an Elon fanboi but I don't see the comparison.

Sure, Page has accomplished quite a bit, but I find it hard to compare to Elon Musk's track record in founding multiple cutting-edge firms in several wildly different domains. Perhaps I assign too much to the production of physical goods and not enough to software but that is a bias I must admit.

I think GP is referring to a number of "moon shots" at Google that aren't (strictly) software like self-driving cars, drone delivery, and longevity treatments.

I dunno... The first thought that ran through my head was "Jeez, I hope they don't screw it up."

By which I mean that I hope that SpaceX's mission to lift the human race out of Earth's gravity well, colonise Mars and explore the galaxy doesn't end up playing second fiddle to some elaborate ploy designed to sell more online adverts.

SpaceX would drive the product and Google will be a great partner and investor. It is a good match. If Google drive the product, that would raise a lot of concerns across many governments - like EU - as if they didn't have enough problems already.

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