# Why does Project Loon feel fundamentally different than Starlink? # Why does Project Loon feel fundamentally different than Starlink Although they both roughly correspond to the bucket “global internet from the sky,” the recently discontinued [[Project Loon]] had a very different ‘feel’ than [[Starlink]]. Examining that contrast seems like a useful intuition pump. At first blush the difference seems coupled to the fact that Loon is aimed at delivering internet primarily to the global poor. While this is a noble goal — it makes no sense in the context of google. Sure, technically it would create more customers but those customers are the least desirable from a spending power standpoint. Starlink on the other hand, seems to be going after customers that at least nominally make sense. The other piece is that starlink has ambitions to actually improve internet for *everybody* — that is, they want to expand the knowledge frontier/create type I progress. On the other hand, project loon has no conceivable advantage over current ISP in developed countries which makes it the classic case of using technological progress to create type II progress. It feels like electricity-generating soccer balls, plastic bottle skylights, and merry-go-round based water pumps. Like a cute gimmick instead of just making the thing better and faster. [[Most attempts to create Type II progress directly through type I progress fail]]. [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Why+does+Project+Loon+feel+fundamentally+different+than+Starlink) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Why+does+Project+Loon+feel+fundamentally+different+than+Starlink)