The departing Bill Gates will leave a gaping hole in the halls of technology titans still at work. Leaving Microsoft in the hands college friend Steve Ballmer and Lotus leader Ray Ozzie, the loss of Bill Gates has left technology pundits pondering a very relevant question for the future of technology: Who will take his place? Not at Microsoft. We’re talking as the face of the computer revolution. We have not seen someone as iconic in technology as Gates since he arrived on the scene in the 70s. Heck, we may not have seen someone as downright legendary as Gates in nearly a century.
The closest, most recent comparison is probably Henry Ford. He and Gates are two men from different eras with starkly separate personalities. However, what Henry and Bill have in common more than anyone else is that they pioneered their respective industries. Ford didn’t invent the motor. His success, and Bill’s, sprung from the ability to popularize a new technology so people would adopt it, eventually require it, and become part of culture. Their monopolies were founded on this path, one walked by all historic entrepreneurs.
Who will become the next industry icon? None of the new web companies will spawn someone of Gates’s intelligence or dominance. The Google boys, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are probably the closest pick, having launched both a search engine and advertising service that have broadened everyone’s access to unlimited knowledge in an organized fashion and enabled small web publishers to profit from their content or advertise across the net on the cheap.
I don’t think anyone from the current status quo can become as iconic as Gates. More than likely, the Google Boys have shown us about all they have to offer the world from a technological standpoint. If Gates was the future Henry Ford or Sam Walton, I suspect the next prophet will rise from another industrial revolution. Biotech, medicine, and alternative energy are by my estimates the industries most in need of another major pioneer, someone to take a breakthrough drug or fuel source to the public. Like Gates, this person will likely be young and, most importantly, appear from nowhere.
No matter who it is though, Bill Gates will keep his spot in culture as the icon of the computer age.
In my mind, it seems that the next new icon will appear, or will need to appear, as part of an energy saving team. I’m not merely talking about small “go green” ideas that, when employed everyday, could help earth last a little longer, but an entire new system of life that is sufficiently more efficient than our current lifestyle. With higher gas prices and rising food prices our cities will begin to condense, if not in size, in transportation. Public transportation will be a must in coming years, as well as living closer to one’s place of work. Being a cyclist, I’m hoping bicycles will come into style, but that would require more legislation on extra lanes and remaking the current traffic laws.
The Henry Ford comparison was spot on. Though it makes me wonder if in a hundred years Microsoft will be struggling to survive through declining sales against higher quality Japanese (or more likely Chinese) operating systems….
A biotech prodigy would be AWESOME. I can’t wait for the visionary who can beat back the obsolete ethical stigma and pave the way for a human race that would be effectively immortal.
lol, immortality. wow, i’ve never really thought about who or what would be seen as iconic in the future. it would be great to have a bill gates-type in the science world though! i’m all about medical advances and … immortality and such! haha
I agree partly with Alec. Certainly the next revolution will be bio-tech, but I think the end result will not be near immortality, but complete functionality. By integrating processors with the brain, one could sync up a literal collective consciousness, seperate from the individual. Of course, this would be in a while. I think that Alec Miller’s prediction is in the much sooner future than mine.
If one such person where to take over as the next “Bill Gates”, I would think two things. One, the person will not come out of America, or more than likely have heavy American influence. Also, I don’t believe it will be in “Computer Tech”, but rather in biotech. These two would be interlocking as current policy is against. Think of mini Elephants, bio enhancements, make humans live longer, more powerful. However, the military would try to have a huge influence. It’s a delicate balance, but it will be much more harder for a single person to take over, rather than a group of people.