I don't know why people are surprised at the "failure" of these ambitious projects. Complex systems of technology, culture, and political consent do not get bu

I don't know why people are surprised at the "failure" of these ambitious projects. Complex systems of technology, culture, and political consent do not get built from the ground up in a few years. If you bypass political consent, and the only culture that matters is the culture inside a hierarchical controlling organization, then of course you can impose anything and call it a success. It's frightening that Google (let's not get distracted by corporate name games) expected this, but perhaps it shouldn't be surprising. It's what they get from their users every day. All they wanted was to do in physical space what they did on the web: set up a system of technological surveillance and have people embrace it for the conveniences they could build on top.