This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Are Tech Giants' New Buildings Signs Of The Top?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
If pouring billions of dollars into outrageous "look at me" buildings isn't tempting the gods, what is it?
When banks build new gleaming headquarters, that generally marks the top of the bank's fortunes. There appears to be some sort of hubris in constructing a monumental new headquarters that shouts "we're rich beyond all conception" that angers the stock market gods.
For this reason, we should ponder the glamorous new headquarters Facebook just completed and Apple's "spaceship" campus that is under construction. Google's plans for an ultra-modernist headquarters were recently tabled by the city of Mountain View, but the grandiose plans themselves may count as hubris to the stock market gods.
Here is an interior view of Facebook's new digs: note that it's literally dripping with arty decor:
Here is Facebook's stock chart:
Here is a drone-cam view of Apple's spaceship campus under construction:
Here is Apple's stock chart:
An architectural rendering of Google's proposed complex that was turned down by Mountain View CA:
Here is Google's stock chart:
If pouring billions of dollars into outrageous "look at me" buildings isn't tempting the gods, what is it? At the top, it is inconceivable that these buildings could be monuments not just to hubris but to excessive confidence in endless growth of revenues, profits and valuations.
The idea that these magnificent buildings might some day be half-empty does not occur to one in a thousand people at this juncture.
This is not to wish these tech giants ill, it is simply to note that projections based on permanently parabolic growth have a long history of crashing back to Earth when the true believers least expect it.
»
- 40749 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Yeah, but they're drawing the line at human sacrifice, at least so far. I'd say we've got a ways to go yet.
"drawing the line at human sacrifice"....maybe they just delayed the announcement.
Funny... In ten years Apple will be like Nintendo..
Atari
At least Apple has enough real cash to build 10 of those spaceship buildings.
Cell phone subscriptions are about to implode as the Greater Depression begins soon.
Cable TEE VEE should be dead and gone in five years.
Watch for a huge "nostalgia" craze as things get worse and worse...
And of course a big return of Country & Western dancing
both types?
to waybehind:
what you mean lots of that paper and worthless bits of metal?
they might wanna hurry before tey can only afford 9 or 8 or.....1...
Apple for sure is showing signs of become Microsoft douche.0. So there is hope.
Facebook....feels like it could implode into nothingness at any moment. Hot air and leaking.
Google is the be-he-MOTH!
Beware the Be-He-MOTH!
As an ex IT guy who was working on alternate search engine technology, only to have the deep state majorly fuck my shit up until I had to drop the project, I can tell you that WITHOUT A DOUBT, these BS IT companies are not capable of creating good things - that is FORBIDDEN TO THEM!
Since they can't allow a better search engine (only crappy corporate results are ever desired), nor anything else that really improves the quality of life for people, these shitty companies have nothing else left to do but to try to look creative and cutting edge, in their fucking choice of poofy decorations and architecture.
But at that point, what money are they making? LOL. That monstrous Apple cash hoard is going to start going down soon, I bet.
I hear you bro. I had a big-data patent stolen from under my nose in 2001, when big-data was not really in the public domain, even in the valley, where I was then.
The people running the system are actually anti-technology, except where it suits their panopticon goals...
Wake up time, big time, all around...
https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/two-hammer-blows-and-a-rando...
Well we actually do wish these tech giants ill!
Me from the same position - 100% agree; In the '90 I used to work for IBM and internally we called MS the engineering for looser-user market, now Apple overtook the position of the looser-user market driver & profiteer.
@Christophe2
I stumbled on a relatively new SE. Haven't tried it yet.
goodgopher.com
Thanks for that link! It looks very interesting.
But that being said, I have my doubts about them as well, in part just due to wondering how they could have managed to get past what was clearly not going to be allowed for me. So are they no more than just another front for TPTB?
There are excellent ways to design search engines so that they are white-box and community directed (ex: non-anonymous crowd-sourced QC). Unfortunately, goodgopher instead seems to prefer the usual black-box single-point-of-failure where unknown administrators decide what is 'independent' and what is 'mainstream'/excluded, so even if the results are good now (I wasn't particularly impressed from a few brief searches), there is a high risk of that changing opaquely in the future...
I was pleased.
Me thinks it's Mike Adams of Natural News that started it.
Satoshi is the one true tekk god.
"both types?"
For the youngins who don't get the reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSZfUnCK5qk
This is hubris; strong stuff.
I am not sure what frightens me more...the apocalypse or the return of Billy Ray Cyrus.
I thought that WAS the apocalypse?
He was outdone by his daughter though. He might have given us an Achy Breaky Heart, but she gave us an Icky Sticky Cunt.
pods
Lol..... awesome.
I dont normally use that word (and even downvoted myself for it) but sometimes it just is fitting.
Dont tell my.............. My Icky Sticky....................... I just don't think It'd understand.............
:)
I am going to have this fucking song in my head all day now. At least with your version I can laugh it off.
Which of the gods aapl is tempting with the crop circle?
They say apocalypse is revealing the truth...so the impact of iPhone on human bodies and minds , hummmm?
There are signs...
if only...:
I finally got my own TV show coming out as a replacement show this fall. It's not a talk show. Don't worry. It's a half hour weekly show that I will host entitled Let's Hunt & Kill Billy Ray Cyrus. Thank you. It's fairly self-explanatory. Each week we set the hounds of hell loose, we chase that jarhead, no-talent, cracker idiot all over the globe, until we catch that fruity little ponytail of his, pull him to his knees, put a shotgun in his mouth....kkkkhh...and we'll be back in '94 with Let's Hunt & Kill Michael Bolton.
Bill Hicks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y6j2LF6SSU
Bill Hicks died way toooooooo young.
He was primed to move into Carlin's space with his routines.
Cable TV companies still have a lock on high speed internet services for Residential and Busines accounts. That isn't going anywhere any time soon.
People are dropping HSI via cable in densely pop'd areas - free WiFi is available to >25% of urban dwellers, i.e. a large chunk of private HSI is completely redundant and will disappear as money gets tight and non-techies start to figure it out...
Yes, but... Are they going to raise rates in September...?
TRS-80.
What the heck was the 80 for?
Mattel Intellivision
don't worry....all this is done to add value to shareholders, because all the employees and executive leadership consider shareholders their number one priority. Just like we were taught in business school. It took a couple of decades for me in big business to realize this was total BS...and Fortune 500 companies are really just unions of employees and VIPs who care little about shareholders.
You own a lottery ticket with a company name on it. You aren't an owner. Get real assshole! Many tried to test this theory and vote down excessive pay packages and the vote didn't mean shit. Play the lottery or don't, but stop with the illusion of "ownership".
that won't come from tech, it'll be wall st - jamie dimon or lloyd blankfein will stumble across a rerun of "history of the world - part i" where the frech king (mel brooks) is having peasants catapulted into the air as skeet targets. the good news - homelessness in manhattan will sudenly/markedly decline! the bad news - you know how we all keep asking whether there's anything a bank exec could do to actually get prosecuted? as the saying goes perhaps you should stop asking questions to which you know you won't like the answers...
Seems everybody wants to build a temple these days.
The building of the 3rd Temple as mentioned 1,000s of years ago that it will happen is the key.
.
Then you know shit is for real when they start building it...they just need to 'remove' the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque before they begin.
Blotto: Might not need to remove the Mosque as it is not a certainty that the 2nd Temple was built at that location. Also, for 40 years in the desert the temple was a tent (temporary tabernacle). Erecting a tent would not take that long.
Just need to find the Arc of the Covenant...
We need the guillotines in place to lop the heads off the X-ian's.
It's in that big warehouse...
"Queen to Bishop 6, check..."
I don't think Sebastian realized just how terminal his ending chess move would be.
Yes. Modern Haikal SUlaimans
I beg to differ nodebt, looks like a lot has been sacrificed . Tower of babal , babbling on and on.
We are only sacrificing something we really never had, except the aspirations for. The vision we hold up for ourselves as our goal or ultimate expression of humanity is just denial of who we are.
Who we really are is on display every day, and is used to give cause for all of those seeking to use the power of our delusions to oppress us. The cycle continues. The real fear is that through technology we really do come up with the final solution. Humanity tells us that the greatest desire for sacrifice is to be satisfied by "others".
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair.
nothin like one side sanded BDX plywood to give one that warm, cozy. homey type feel.
Normally I would agree, however you are talking about four companies who are heavily involved with the NSA, so my guess is that funding will not be an issue.
Is that a gay flag dripping from the office walls?
they prefer "fagflag"
Can we all stop looking for a top or a bottom? The narrative is driving us all insane. It may not arrive in our lifetime or may arrive tomorrow. Most data and charts are lying; the CBs are in absolute control.
We have lost a lot of good posters around here, because they got too emotionally attached with the idea of a collapse. It will not collapse; it will degrade gracefully or disgracefully.
Yes, the fossil record is pretty clear on the decline of "civil societies"... it starts out slowly, then everything is lost all at once...
watch the supply lines.
same as it ever was...
Well said.
I made the mistake, early on in my awakening, of thinking the crash was coming (since in reality everything is fake and insolvent), when in fact TPTB are playing all this just to keep the population destabilized.
TPTB intend to continue this BS game FOR EVER. There will always be more new BS politicians to replace the current lot, and there will always be either more money for Apple/Google/etc. or new replacements with new names (and the same old dirty money).
The fucking money printers have TRILLIONS of dollars to waste every fucking year. Their dysfunction is not about to stop anytime soon.
Your post indicates a "top" is coming soon.
Great use of investment funds. Why don't they try buying those buildings with profits? Oh yeah, they can't. Dumbfucks.
No, eventually it will be hollowed out and look like a moon Crater in which vehicles can cork-screw lower or higher or use elevators and vertical space craft.
It turns out Crater is the optimal shape for constructing cities, buildings, natural cooling and heating efficiencies, thermal heating, allowing efficient distribution of goods, services, utilities, food, and can jointly be located along rivers, sea routes, and airports.
Craters are the cities of the Future, but we have a long way to go.
Here is a drone-cam view of Apple's spaceship campus under construction:
http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2015/apple-HQ1.png
There are two key signs that point to the top in a company's fortunes:
1. Move HQ to make it more convenient for top executives and away from customers or base of productino.
2. Build the "perfect" HQ facility. This often means the company focus changes from being on the product and the customer to being on the employee. Great companies grew by adapting, making due with less that perfect conditions but achieving great things.
Looks like China to me....big empty buildings....soon to be turned into a Christian Church after the default...
The Chinese "ghost cities" came to my mind also.
As painful as a reset will be for all of us, I kind of hope it hurries up. The sooner we take our medicine, the less painful it will be.
Plus, I truly can't wait to see how dumbstruck 90% of the population will be. Serves them right for scorning and mocking people like me for buying land, gold, guns, food, etc.
Tick tock, tick tock...
Kunstler ripped on the Google office building designed, but he hates anything with a "modernist" appearance.
"Looks like it was designed by the late Thomas Kinkaid for a creation museum diorama."
http://kunstler.com/eyesore-of-the-month/march-2015/
Hubris and arrogance has taken over in just about all walks of life in America today. Look at Washington, look at Wall Street and all that entails and lets not forget about your everyday men and women. Humility isn't a familiar word or feeling to them and such an ugly attitude just about everything and everyone.
Apple's HQ looks like another watch.
Uh oh.
That's not really their HQ....it's really the home button for the new larger screen iPhone7. If you zoom in on the bottom right of the photo, you can see people already lining up to buy it.
"Apple's HQ looks like another watch."
Or the beggings of the words largest iPod. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:6G_iPod.svg
"....a long history of crashing back to Earth when the TRUE BELIEVERS least expect it.
There is a great song for that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsoGbyoq0wE
Apple's gone from $100 to $130 in almost 3 years too, you see how that selective timeline works?
Jun 09, 2014: 7-for-1 split. It's up about 30% in a year, so there's your selective timeline, for ya.
I'd feel more comfortable about a tech company if they spent the money on R&D and got creative with using shipping containers for quarters....
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
Note to Apple: Prior art motherfuckers...
I know a lot of people at Apple and the idea for circular buildings originated from me when many of us worked at SUN Microsytems.
Standard Disclaimer: Damn, I forgot to put the drawing down on a cocktail napkin, but the rest of the story is true.
This is big. It can't be cheap. This going to be temple celebrating gluttony, impertinence and madness with Apple disciples praying to Jobs corpse immersed in Liquid nitrogen tank. Details are being worked out.
And all of them will be praying to Steve to retire before Cook ruins everything and send them to poorhouse. Which could be sooner that they think.
iWatch just iflunked.
Other Apple eternal aphorisms:
iPhone therefore iSpeak.
iPhone therefore iHear.
iPhone therefore iAm.
This same repeat fro iPad.
Do you smell madness in the air tonight?
https://sostratusworks.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/smell-of-silicon-madness/
To spend a billion dollars on a building, just to house "collaborative space" that looks like an abandoned warehouse decorated by aging hippies is perverse. I guess I'm saying the buildings are too cheap. Also, to be building them in congested, expensive Silicon Valley is nutz.
It's not the buildings... it's the people. It's the products. It's the goals. It's easy to see now where all these megacorps will end up eventually: on the scrapheap of history.
not soon enough!!
NSA should quit paying them so much!
The architects and interior designers need work, too.
My question on appl temple would be: where will the Baphomet worship hall be located?
The main question facing the California Bay Area is:
How difficult will it be to convert
these "magnificent buildings"
into low income housing??
The Facebook interior decor is every bit as trashy
as YaHoo in its starting heyday.
real innovation/magnificent architecture??
HP's and Apple's initial offices
were their family garages.