Google's new Solve for X initiative aims to hash out solutions to 'moonshots' (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

Google has unveiled its new Solve for X initiative, an online forum that will encourage "moonshot thinking" to solve some of the world's most insurmountable issues, CNET reported

Solve for X aims to give entrepreneurs, researchers, and scientists a place to hash out solutions to "moonshots": efforts to tackle global problems using radical solutions and breakthrough technology, according to a blog post by Google announcing the project

"Moonshots live in the gray area between audacious projects and pure science fiction; they are 10 times improvement, not 10 percent. That’s partly what makes them so exciting," wrote Astro Teller and Megan Smith, co-hosts of the Solve for X forum, in the post. 

The search engine giant rolled out the project's new website and Google+ page on Monday, and launched offline last week with a small event for fifty people co-hosted by Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt in San Martin, California, The Huffington Post reported

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The invite-only online online gathering will feature short, technology-focused presentations from innovators on topics that include low-energy desalination, e-waste mining, crowd-sourced protein folding, stretchable silicon biosensers, and climate change, TechCrunch reported

The Solve for X Google+ page also allows users to discuss some of the ideas floated for the program and offer up their own solutions and thoughts, CNET reported. 

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The project has drawn comparisons to the wildly popular TED Talks, online conversations that feature "ideas worth spreading" from successful designers, entertainers, educators, business leaders, and more. 

"The world needs more ideas, not fewer, and more commitment to sharing them freely and openly so that collectively we can test-run them and turn them into reality," Bruno Giussani, the European director of the TED conferences, told BBC News, applauding Google's new venture. "Google being at the origin of this, obviously technology and engineering will play a big role in Solve For X." 

[View the story "Google's 'Solve for X' initiative draws comparisons to TED talks" on Storify]

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