

What you'd build if you had 100 millions? - AlexTheFounder

Imagine that you were approached by a kind person who offered you 100 million dollars to build something of your choice.<p>This person is very powerful and you cannot possibly cheat, but you don't have to make a profit off your product either.<p>So, you can take 100 millions and spend your time building something you want. What it would be?
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arethuza
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.

~~~
dsplittgerber
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-...](http://continuations.com/post/106672598/looking-for-help-in-starting-
not-for-profit)

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catone
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.

~~~
chasingsparks
Move to Detroit. See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=930868> and
[http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab0802...](http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab080216.pdf)

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
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 :)

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dsplittgerber
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
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.

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tetha
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 :)

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electromagnetic
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.

~~~
steveitis
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.

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zefhous
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?

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bastlynn
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.

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cperciva
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.

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pavelludiq
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.

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yosho
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
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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_W._Olin_College_of_Engineering)

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walesmd
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.

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tricky
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.

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turtle4
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.

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andr
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.

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moreclever
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.

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flooha
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
<http://www.motoair.com/>

~~~
wmeredith
"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.

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chasingsparks
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.)

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

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olegk
Louis C.K. has ideas:

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

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frevd
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 ;]

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pogos
I'd invest in 5000 promising new startups.

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

~~~
wlievens
$100 million won't do for that.

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ivenkys
OLPC - only better and completely free.

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

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

~~~
chasingsparks
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.

~~~
MikeCapone
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.

~~~
chasingsparks
I have read some of his papers. I should have been more clear: I like him a
lot.

And I do agree with you that it makes him unforgettable. I personally think it
is done with deliberation. To a certain degree, he is going to be treated as a
quack. He even says so often. By dressing the part of Gandalf the Gray he's
almost openly mocking them.

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ujal
<http://singinst.org/donate/>

~~~
randallsquared
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. :)

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mfukar
I'd build a rollercoaster.

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

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gsiener
Distributed mesh wireless + solar energy.

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mikkom
_really_ nice house.

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

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known
I'd start a Bank.

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Mz
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.

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

~~~
yan
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=935884>

~~~
jtnak
i'm sorry, this does suck

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jtnak
I would build a gold statue of me

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flooha
A ~3 ton statue of you.

~~~
kbob
Gold is dense.

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

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codef0rmer
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 ;)

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csomar
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
The person has approached YOU :)

