Larry Page at AAAS

Larry Page wants scientists and entrepreneurs to get more involved in politics and charitable works.

I decided to drop by his talk at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Francisco last weekend to hear what he had to say. His best quote: "I'm not very good at companies and business, but I've been pretty lucky." We could use some of that luck.

But what he does know about business is that, these days, "All economic growth is due to technological progress." And the problem is that most politicians don't know anything about the important issues in technology and science. "You really want to have people in power who are able to understand things." Well, that may be asking a bit much.

He came to the meeting, he says, to "encourage engagement." Most importantly, he wants scientists to "try to change the world." That means not just doing research in their labs, but taking control of and trying to commercialize their technologies. It worked for him.

He also feels that, since American universities are spectacular but K-12 education sucks, universities should take over public education and make it worthwhile. He didn't know exactly how that would be done, though.

He thinks we should stop building roads and create better means of transportation. We should be able to invent better ways to transport people. If we can land airplanes on auto-pilot, why can't we auto-pilot our cars? Why don't we have better people movers?

And how about alternative energy? He Googled up some statistics. In Nevada, the amount of solar energy hitting a square mile of land averages about 800 megawatts, Nuclear reactors that use up several square miles generate a couple gigawatts. Thus, he says, "The amount of energy that hits a nuclear plant is about the same as the amount it produces."

And he says this doesn't have to be cells that directly convert light to electricity. Nuclear plants just use their fuel to heat water, make steam, and power turbines. "I don't think making steam from sunlight is that hard."

And the only problem with wind power is distribution. When the wind is blowing, wind power is competitive with coal. We need to be able to store and distribute it properly to take care of those calm days.

And if you want to get a job that helps do good things for the world, he notes that the Google Foundation has lots of money but not enough people to figure out where to spend it. He keeps trying to get the folks there to hire more people. Just a thought.