Google Park
an idea
Disney has a park (quite a few), Hershey has a park, Anheuser Busch has a park, Universal Studios has a park, Lego has a park.
You get the point. Google should have a park. It would be a theme park with rides, but it would also be unlike any other. It would be focused on Google, and the heart of it would Googliness, technology, doing good, and treating everyone equally. This means you can’t pay more to get special treatment at the park, like paying for a private tour that gets you onto rides extra fast. There could still be employee days during the week that are reserved for employees and their guests. Maybe everyone can skip 3 lines per day that they have an admission ticket. Maybe all food and drink is free. (included in the cost) Maybe there are discounts for those who struggle to afford the park, or free days, or coupon days, or something. Google would use technology to direct people to activities that don’t have long lines, perhaps with Google Glass. And Google wouldn’t be afraid to build two or three of the same ride, activity, or display if it has excess demand. 100% powered by renewable energy. All packaging will be fully recyclable or washable and reusable, and will be recycled.
Google Park could be the core, but it could expand out to many other areas, either over time, or right away. Because of this, it should be in an area with a lot of (reasonably cheap) open land, and Google should perhaps own more land than they at first think they will need, because of possible future expansion.
Theme parks engender brand loyalty for kids and adults alike. Google could run the park at cost because of this, or even at a small loss as part of its branding efforts.
The rides would (of course) be exceptionally designed, and include VR and AR experiences, as well a roller coasters with both futuristic and retro themes.
The park could also have a learning element like Tech World (see below), only less focused on it. It could have portions where you learn how Google works, how to search better using lesser known search operators, etc. These would be less in-depth than Tech World, but both the park and any additional attractions could have little stations that feature the other attractions so that they all feed into each other. Little teasers so that people are enticed to visit everything that the greater Google Park areas have to offer.
The additional attractions that could be connected but separate from the park… could be some of the following, or others:
Google’s STEM World, or Google’s Tech World — This would feature demonstrations and semi-permanent exhibitions of how technology works, as well as leading edge feats of science, genetics, nanoparticles, engineering, and math. It could include Millenium Prize Problems (math), as well as X-Prizes and prizes that Google would offer for visitors who can improve an algorithm or find a bug, both in live code or in fun, simulated environments. This World would give visitors information to take in, but also be interactive with learning stations for learning coding, math, and science. Kids could do science experiments at one station, and build their own logic circuits at the next. It would also focus on teaching people how Google works.
Google’s Bot Kingdom — Dedicated to personal, commercial, and industrial robots, both from Google and other companies, from local tech startups and giants and from around the world.
Google’s X Adventure — This would focus not only on the extreme moonshots that Google has worked on and is working on, but also on crazy moonshots that others are attempting or perhaps ones that people should be considering attempting. It would also feature an ideas suggestion box that would regularly be checked, and certain ideas would win people prizes with the occasional idea getting pursuit from Google. People must physically be at the Park to submit their ideas. But there would be both paper and digital submission avenues.
Google’s AI Pavilion (could be multiple pavilions) — Shows AI in all its forms. Including the latest from Waymo, and work from researchers all over the world. Perhaps it poo-poos the way Apple has been so secretive with their AI research. It has onsite TPUs and graphics cards that are always humming with workloads that visitors can put on them, free of charge, to test whatever is on their mind. There would be stations to teach people AI techniques from beginner to advanced.
Google’s Computing History Museum — Goes deep into the ancient roots of computing, and then all the way up to present day — with projections about the future of computing. Explains the exponential progress of computing with Moore’s Law and other “laws” that have improved things like memory, storage, network speeds, etc. Shows plenty of actual hardware, both running and unplugged, ancient and modern. It focuses on getting the old hardware in particular up and running, but it would display cutting edge computers such as experimental quantum computers, running for everyone to observe.
Some ideas, of course free for Google to use or for anyone to build on. What do you think? Please add to them!
