[jfoster]

It did cross my mind that perhaps they should consider longer carbon nanotubes as a Google X project rather than waiting on someone else to do it for them. I imagine there are plenty of areas other than space elevators where they would be useful.

[dekhn]

My thought exactly. As an end-goal, space elevators are still science fiction even if you have the materials because the construction would still require a bunch of other technologies.

While better physical materials can be immediately applied to terrestrial problems.