Sometimes, the innovations of modern technology are hard enough for us to grasp. Imagine how crazy computer things seem to a 97-year-old woman who grew up riding in a horse and buggy and lived through the Depression. Olive Horrell's recent visit to Google's Mountain View campus must have been mind-blowing. CNN Money tells the story of how the company treated Horrell to a vision of "the future," fulfilling her Wish of a Lifetime dream.
The program, which is like Make-a-Wish, but for seniors, counts Google co-founder Sergey Brin as one of its biggest individual donors, so it must not have been too hard to convince the company to open its doors to Horrell. There, Google treated her to a trip in a self-driving car and another excursion via its Project Cardboard virtual reality headset. She was particularly impressed by Google Photo's face-detection feature. "This is very mind-boggling for me," Horrell said.
Maybe they were doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, but this whole field trip is actually a brilliant idea. Horrell went into it with a wish to "see the future" and understand the Cloud (or at least why it's "up there"). She came out with all that information and her own Google doodle, which she was allowed to color herself. Google's employees got the chance to see all their technology through truly fresh eyes. It's a fantastic pairing on all sides.
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