Bill Gates Isn’t Like Those Other Tech Billionaires
The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist is taking a break from the future to examine his past — and mulling where the billionaires now fit in.
The older he gets, the more Bill Gates is surprised by what the world dishes up.
Take billionaires. There are many now from the tech industry, quite a few with politics that skew forcefully right.
“I always thought of Silicon Valley as being left of center,” Mr. Gates said. “The fact that now there is a significant right-of-center group is a surprise to me.”
Or take the evolution of technology in the decades since he began Microsoft and made it one of the world’s most valuable companies.
“Incredible things happened because of sharing information on the internet,” Mr. Gates said. That much he anticipated. But once social media companies like Facebook and Twitter came along, “you see ills that I have to say I did not predict.”
Political divisiveness accelerated by technology? “I didn’t predict that would happen,” he said. Technology being used as a weapon against the broader public interests? “I didn’t predict that,” he said.
Mr. Gates is a techno-optimist but he has limits, like cryptocurrency. Does it have any use?
“None,” he said. “There are people with high I.Q.s who have fooled themselves on that one.”
