Google X and the Space Elevator

From the New York Times comes a story on Google’s X lab where top secret Google projects of the future are being researched. These are blue sky ideas that might some day pan out. One of the ideas being bandied about? The Space Elevator.
From the story Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams

“At Google, which uses artificial intelligence techniques and machine learning in its search algorithm, some of the outlandish projects may not be as much of a stretch as they first appear, even though they defy the bounds of the company’s main Web search business.

For example, space elevators, a longtime fantasy of Google’s founders and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, could collect information or haul things into space. (In theory, they involve rocketless space travel along a cable anchored to Earth.) “Google is collecting the world’s data, so now it could be collecting the solar system’s data,” Mr. Brooks said.”