What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=950117

by AlexTheFounder • 17 years ago

17 59 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Imagine that you were approached by a kind person who offered you 100 million dollars to build something of your choice.

This person is very powerful and you cannot possibly cheat, but you don't have to make a profit off your product either.

So, you can take 100 millions and spend your time building something you want. What it would be?

cperciva• 17 years ago

I'd build a research institute for mathematics and computer science.

If I had to build something technical, I'd build a secure realtime BSD kernel.

jeremyw• 17 years ago

A news organization for long-term thinking, reporting and analysis. Essentially a News of the Long Now.

walesmd• 17 years ago

A University strictly dedicated to IT/CS related studies that was actually in it to teach, innovate, and research rather than turn a profit.

And the distance learning department would not use Blackboard, we'd open source our own platform.

dsplittgerber2• 17 years ago

I would establish a huge prize for finding the most efficient way to teach the principles of rational thinking and economics to society. And then I'd spend the rest of the money on establishing that teaching method so that everyone can benefit, regardless of prior education or status. This will lead to a better society.

ctb9• 17 years ago

Assuming that there was in fact a 'most efficient' way to teach the principles of rational thinking, how could you confidently identify it?

Makes me think the people most able to teach these principles would rely on them to avoid your contest.

ivenkys• 17 years ago

OLPC - only better and completely free.

mikkom• 17 years ago

really nice house.

arethuza• 17 years ago

I read Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" a few years ago and it certainly is a sobering book. I would agree with its thesis that we face a distinct possibility of our high tech "Western" society crashing - and due to the Threads linking us together this crash could be pretty hard.

I would use the 100 million to investigate possible ways of mitigating the effects of such a crash. As the actual causes would be essentially unpredictable I'd pass on that effort and concentrate on what we could do to establish a degree of continuity of core areas of knowledge: maths, medicine, geography etc.

One option would be to build bunkers full of useful books in remote locations (like the gene bank in the Svalbard). However, a better way might be to build a long lasting organisation set apart from our culture - very much like secular versions of medieval monasteries or the mathic concents in Neal Stephenson’s excellent Anathem.

dsplittgerber2• 17 years ago

I haven't read Collapse but Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures had an idea for "black swan philantrophy", which would be "focused on funding projects aimed at preventing or coping with very low probability events that would have cataclysmic outcomes for humanity."

I don't know why threats.org is down at the moment; perhaps it's due to the fact that there weren't that many people willing to actually help with the non-profit a few months ago.

http://continuations.com/post/106672598/looking-for-help-in-...

steveitis2• 17 years ago

Sounds like Asimovs 'Foundation'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series

codef0rmer• 17 years ago

I would build a giant Ark to save us all from 2012 apocalypse, unlike Roland Emmerich who had saved, few of us in his f*ing movie ;)

ujal• 17 years ago

http://singinst.org/donate/

randallsquared• 17 years ago

A million dollars, I could see. I can't imagine what useful thing they could accomplish with 100 million, given that the bottleneck for their avowed program is Friendliness theory. Giving them that much money would distort the organization, probably. Might be counterproductive. :)

moreclever• 17 years ago

I'd build a sustainable commune on a massive scale, using advanced aquaponics, greenhouses, alternative energy sources, and digital information sharing. This would hopefully serve as an example to inspire others to build their own sustainable projects.

gsiener• 17 years ago

Distributed mesh wireless + solar energy.

drhowarddrfine• 17 years ago

I'd hire someone to create a software filter to sort out crap posts like this one.

yan• 17 years ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=935884

jtnak2• 17 years ago

i'm sorry, this does suck

mfukar• 17 years ago

I'd build a rollercoaster.

csomar• 17 years ago

Are you serious? You failed your first start-up, how come do you want someone to give you 100 millions.

"This person is very powerful and you cannot possibly cheat"

When the project is big, cheating become easier

"but you don't have to make a profit off your product either"

What's the benefit of your work then?

AlexTheFounder• 17 years ago

The person has approached YOU :)

tetha• 17 years ago

Judging from my very own current problems, I guess I'd start to support small universities and support promising young students, especially if they study some sort of had science like physics, math, computer science and such.

Such support should include money (well, students need food, books, other equipment depending on the course), but I think it should also include support with various buerocratic problems, like facing the german bafoeg-institute and other buerocrats.

Certainly, it will be hard to actually get a good selection principle going and it also needs a plan to get the money back, but once this is done, I think this is a very valuable thing to invest in. I mean, studying is pretty much a full time job (well, if you study hard to get through the universiy fast, it is), and thus, students usually don't have that much time to work and sometimes they even get to pay for being at the university.

Besides that, I would invest a large sum into neurodermatism research, just for pure egoism. I have this problem, and whoever also has this problem knows how bad this status can be whenever it goes active. (To everyone else: Just imagine the urge to scratch your inner elbow, hand or other inappropiate locations until every skin is gone and just a bloody mess is left. After that, one is depressed, cannot move properly and is in pain.) Thus, this would be a second major investment. I guess it also would not be that egoistic, as a lot of people could benefit from results from this research :)

catone• 17 years ago

Prototype vertical farms. It's my new obsession.

The UN projects that arable land will decline to 1/3 acre per person by 2050 (down from 1 acre/person in 1970). I'd buy up a few old mill buildings (they're all over New England, where I live), and convert them to combination indoor farms using hydroponic or aeroponic growing systems, living space (for farmers), and retail space (to sell the food to the community and offer sales space to other local farmers).

I'd use the roof for combination solar, additional green space, and rain catchment.

neicull• 17 years ago

I second that... I had a similar idea a couple weeks back. bravo!

chasingsparks4• 17 years ago

Move to Detroit. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=930868 and http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab0802...

Me and a friend have a half-baked (in more ways than one) idea that it would be fun to move to Detroit and get into aquaculture. It's something we managed to romanticize. Give it some steam-punk marketing aesthetic for giggles.

(I think half the value of HN is being able to browse your old comments to remember where you saw something very interesting.)

petesalty• 17 years ago

Wow, I've been thinking about this a lot. I thought I was the only one :) Although I was kind of thinking a bit larger - building a whole new city within a city - completely self sustaining. With 100M it might be possible :)

pogos• 17 years ago

I'd invest in 5000 promising new startups.

npost• 17 years ago

I would invest it in startups. Which is the best way to foster innovation and job growth.

allenp• 17 years ago

An extra-solar planet imager (telescope or satellite) and a nuke powered exploration probe to check things out.

wlievens• 17 years ago

$100 million won't do for that.

pavelludiq• 17 years ago

I would probably start filming low-budget cyberpunk movies for the hardcore viewer, since i don't have to make a profit, a cult-following is the aim. But not the "this movie is so bad its fun" type of cult following, i want the "this movie is really obscure and deep, but still entertaining, too bad none of my friends have herd of it" type. Im aiming at the Nirvana type, not the Johny Mnemonic type of film.If i actually DO make a profit, i might do a steam-punk movie :D I have NO experience or knowledge of movie making, so chances are i will fail and my films would become ideal for bad movie nights.

Alternatively I'll donate the money to someone who can actually use it to make something great.

bastlynn• 17 years ago

An accountability website for voting records from city to state to national (in that order given that often enough local legislation has a more direct impact on the average citizen's life than national). The site would cross reference stated platforms of politicians vs their actual voting actions as transparently analyzed by up to 3 university poli sci and history professors one each from conservative / liberal / historial context point of view. The site would also track budgetary spending and hours worked / where worked per politician to provide metrics to the voting populace on who's doing their job, who's doing their job as they said they would.

Primary goal, to provide transparent and neutral public information to voters to enable them to make an actual choice when voting instead of lock stepping according to the current PR spin of any specific party. Secondary goal would be to complement local efforts to increase voting awareness.

Public servants should be under the same metric driven scrutiny by their employers as any other employee for any private company.

radu_floricica• 17 years ago

Bribe the hell out of an education system (in any bribeable country) to make heavy use of modern psychology, esp. critical reasoning skills.

jtnak2• 17 years ago

I would build a gold statue of me

flooha3• 17 years ago

A ~3 ton statue of you.

kbob• 17 years ago

Gold is dense.

Chirag• 17 years ago

I would Invest all of it in an Alternative Fuel research.

chasingsparks4• 17 years ago

I'd be uncomfortable with 100 million I did not earn. I'd like to think I would say, no thanks. Instead, I would probably come up with some justification for why I am suitable to control this very large investment.

(You could argue that, given luck, a lot of people receive $100 million without really "earning" it. That may be the case, but that would probably make me uncomfortable also. However, as in the previous case, I'd still delude myself into thinking I earned it by foresight, brilliant investment, or mettle.)

flooha3• 17 years ago

Personal crash safety suit for motorcyclists/extreme sports which could absolutely protect against all damage. I have ideas, which could be applied to other applications, anyone have the $100,000,000?

there• 17 years ago

http://www.motoair.com/

wmeredith• 17 years ago

"MOTOAIR, motorcycle airbag jacket is the necessary equipments of riders, the AIRBAG SYSTEM is designed to proof shocks ordinary, can protect the human body easily to be injured the fatal spot"

Their site copy reads like a bad video game port script.

flooha3• 17 years ago

I've seen it before and wasn't very impressed. Think more like Iron Man.

yosho• 17 years ago

I'd build a college, maybe only inviting 500 students at a time or something and hire the best professors paying the highest salaries and see what happens.

Of course the college would be super selective, but it would be a breeding ground for awesomeness.

decode• 17 years ago

That's not so far off from how Olin College was created, except with 5x as much money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_W._Olin_College_of_Eng...

MikeCapone2• 17 years ago

I'd build a biotech-biogerontology institute for the SENS Foundation and Aubrey de Grey.

chasingsparks4• 17 years ago

I just read his book. Interesting in a Popular Science magazine type way. I mostly enjoyed the fact that de Grey -- a guy who champions vastly extended lifespans -- dresses like a freaking wizard. The photo on the back cover has him sporting a long wizard-like beard with a very colorful, starfish print shirt. I'd almost donate to him just for that.

MikeCapone2• 17 years ago

If you want something that is less popular science (the book was after all written for a popular audience), check out his papers.

Yes, his beard probably gets more ink than anything else. That's sad in a way (don't judge a book by its cover), but it's probably also good in another way, since it makes him pretty unforgettable.

electromagnetic• 17 years ago

I'd try and find a mothballed oil platform, buy it for cheap and renovate it into a luxury hotel with luxury apartments and market it to celebrities as a way to completely avoid the paparazzi and to a wealthy client list. Bars, nightclubs, restaurants and casino's would be there from the start to help clear out people's pockets. It would be self-sustaining with gardens and hydroponics, wind power and eventually wave power, both of which could be sold back to shore to decrease maintenance costs.

If it failed, so what, it would advance the idea of seasteading. If it succeeded I'd attempt to expand the platform, or build another platform within about 3km, so that the platforms could be connected with existing gondela technology.

The idea of seasteading has always fascinated me, but to make it carbon-neutral or even better carbon-negative (encouraging coral growth around the bases, out putting power to onshore communities, etc.) would send an environmental message that the people who care about the environment aren't just a bunch of witless nags at greenpeace but are people who actually want to change the whole world into something better. This environmental message could be capitalized on during expansion phases and used to attract businesses.

In theory you would become a monopolic supplier of all goods. Food, power, housing, transport, would all be owned by your company meaning you can attain income from all aspects of the business and keep it profitable. By keeping the market open, it makes you look friendly and open (consider you own the transportation, so anyone competing with you and winning is still paying you money).

In 40 years time I would be a James Bond-esque supervillain and precisely where I want to be before retirement.

steveitis2• 17 years ago

Peter Thiel (Paypal cofounder) has a net worth of 1.3 billion, which is a hell of a lot more than 100 million.

He has already said he believes in the concept and donated money to the 'seasteading institute'.

Obviously either it isn't worth that much to him, or 1.3 billion isn't enough for it to be reliably done.

olegk• 17 years ago

Louis C.K. has ideas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95fNgx8aCS8

almost• 17 years ago

Robots, lots of big robots :) So what I do now but more so...

andr• 17 years ago

I would assemble a team to try and replicate several scientific experiments that have came out with inexplicable results. While a large number of those will turn out fraudulent, it is very possible that a few claims were true, but sounded so outlandish that they were considered fake right away.

zefhous• 17 years ago

A huge airship — just the first of many. The first would probably be capable of lifting around 400 tons, but subsequent airships could be made larger and more efficient.

Yes, I'm being absolutely serious. I'm part of a group of people trying to get this done currently, and a lot of research has been done.

There have recently been a few companies who have tried and failed at this for various reasons, but we think it definitely can be done and we want to be the ones to do it.

Anyone have $100,000,000?

turtle4• 17 years ago

If you're offering, I'll take you up on it. :)

I am interested in both robotics and agriculture, specifically small scale agriculture such as home hydroponics and container gardening. I would create a company based on the idea of combining the two fields in order to help bring technology and automation to the process of growing healthy food in limited spaces.

frevd• 17 years ago

build a large solar power plant in some desert - will make the money back very soon. additionally, if sea is near, add a desalination plant and create a nice oasis - will bring people and reclaim desert territory - another constructive way to increase the ROI.

ps: if youre asking for inspiration because you actually got the money, dont forget to gimme a share ;]

known• 17 years ago

I'd start a Bank.

tricky• 17 years ago

I would implement a "system" in the "franchise prototype" sense of the word that allows radiologists and cardiologists (they read nukes, echos, and CT's) to sit at any PC in the world and just analyze studies whenever they get a chance (or all day if that's what they want to do.)

I would use the rest of the money (there would be a LOT leftover) to send teams of techs with portable equipment to poor areas and then inject these studies into the radiologist's work queues so they get analyzed for free.

I think this could be a self-sustaining system where the profits from reading studies could pay for the charity work.

Mz• 17 years ago

I don't need $100 million. I need more like $100,000. That would be enough to pay off all my debts and let me walk away from my job and pursue what I really want to do full time. Building better lifestyles and spreading a different "culture"/ideas doesn't really take much money per se. And a better way of life/better way of thinking/better culture is the only thing you can build that scales well (with the current global population) and doesn't run into a brick wall concerning consumerism butting heads with ecological fragility.

But if I just had to spend $100 million, I think I'd go with distributed, green power.

What you'd build if you had 100 millions?

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