Bill Gates's Money

Thursday, July 3, 1997 by Dave Winer.

Software is a new art, the human race started running programs only a couple of generations ago. It's unlike all previous artforms, but it's having a huge impact on the other forms, borrowing from and remixing many (not all) forms of human creativity.

Microsoft is a media company. Smart move. The next wave of technology will be about integrating writing, music, drawing and logic. Software is assimilated into the arts. As a race we're ready to do this now.

When people say things are moving fast, they're right. Two generations! That's all and look at how far we've come.

And get this, one guy, Bill Gates, from a financial standpoint, has captured much of the value in this new direction.

He's a powerful guy!

Why is Bill Gates so rich? 

Why does he make more money when he already has so much? What is he doing? What's the plan?

With his cash flow, he could do some truly major stuff. He could encircle the planet with communication satellites. I think he's already doing this?

He could reforest the planet. He could buy large amounts of Central American coastline being destroyed by shrimp farming.

He could send a Pentium box with NT 4.0 and MSIE to Alpha Centauri.

How big does Gates think?

Dave Winer