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Avian Flu, Sweaty Shirts, And Love-Struck Bloggers At The Stanford Summit

Posted by , Jul 25, 2005 12:45 PM

Things got wild and wooly at Stanford University last week when tech author, supply-sider, and former Nixon speechwriter George Gilder squared off against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers director and Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy on a panel discussion on whether technology is making us safer. While parsing such sunny topics as bio- and nuclear terrorism, Gilder and Joy turned the panel at the Stanford Innovation Summit into a raucous, chaotic, hourlong slugfest of theories and barbs, while moderator Paul Saffo's role morphed into referee and third panelist Jaron Lanier hung on for the ride.

Free-markets advocate Gilder and noted futurist Joy, who once warned that nanotechnology could have us awash in self-replicating gray goo, didn't agree on much. Joy contended that technologies need controls--DNA sequences for diseases shouldn't appear on the Web, for example, and nongovernmental organizations and strong policy measures could prevent a pandemic of the bird flu, global warming, or a terrorist getting the Bomb. Gilder, gesticulating wildly and sweating visibly through his shirt, charged that too many years in Aspen, Colo. had made Joy's brain soft. Free societies are safest when technologies move fastest, said Gilder, often cited as Ronald Reagan's favorite author.

Gilder cited H-Bomb inventor Edward Teller's observation that the United States couldn't compete with Soviet rocket technology, since the United States classified its own. Instead, it dominated uncontrolled computer technology, which left the world safe for democracy. Gilder interspersed his theories with jags on centralized media versus the blogosphere and other seemingly unrelated topics. Joy's agenda, he said, would have suppressed air travel and the wheel. "One of the most valuable minds in the world," Gilder said of Joy, "became a menace to society and freedom."

Joy said his ideas are based on science, not "faith."

All the while, bloggers from the audience weighed in with comments posted on a giant screen beside the stage cheering Gilder on and speculating about the origins of Joy's corkscrew hairdo and possible past drug use. "A mind is a terrible thing to lose, Bill," one wrote, while Institute for the Future director Saffo shouted down Gilder from one of his rants and pleaded with the "blogger bullpen" in the back of the room for decorum.

But the bloggers at this Silicon Valley schmooze fest wouldn't be denied. Earlier in the day, Silicon Valley veteran and SpikeSource Inc. CEO Kim Polese appeared on a panel on open-source software, lighting up the big blogger screen with commentary. It wasn't on her business plan. "God, she's as beautiful as ever," one wrote of the woman once called "the CEO in the little black dress." Opined another, "Every time I see Kim Polese, I get the urge to dance."

At the Stanford Summit, the sideshow was as entertaining as the main event.

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