Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Seven Tech World Wonders

Good Charlotte plays at the Googleplex for Google’s 8th birthday.

Erick Jensen collected the 7 world wonders of the tech world. Topping the list is the Googleplex, the Google headquarter in Mountain View, California. It spun off many copies around the world which are equally decorated with colorful items such as lava lamps, and everything else that looks playful. Erick writes:

The building now known as the Googleplex was originally occupied by Silicon Graphics, Inc. and purchased by Google in June of 2006. ... Creativity was clearly a priority after Google took over – no expense was spared in designing the luxurious environment. The Google headquarters boasts two swimming pools, gourmet restaurants, game rooms, free laundry and salons complete with a masseuse – definitely not your average American office building.

Today, the Googleplex may be a technological world wonder, but will it last forever? Let’s use a quote from Edward Gibbon from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire of 1776... for this thought experiment, we just have to replace “Rome” with “Google”:

[T]he decline of Google was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight.

On that note, if you want to get an impression of the Xerox PARC, the “Googleplex of the 70s” (sort of), give the book Dealers of Lightning a try. It’s an interesting account of what happens when you get some of the smartest people on earth together to do some tech research. As opposed to Google, Xerox wasn’t really successful in commercializing their ideas, though. (And if you want to go back even further in computing history, check out the interesting Where Wizards Stay Up Late... it tries to wrap up the history of the internet).

[Thanks Corey D.! Photo by Matt Pagel, CC-licensed.]

The Seven Tech World Wond ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (6)

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