Would you have allowed Bill Gates to be born?

MSNBC ^ | 12:33 p.m. ET May 31, 2005 | Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

[van_erwin]

  MSNBC.com

Would you have allowed Bill Gates to be born?
Advances in prenatal genetic testing pose tough questions

COMMENTARY

By Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

MSNBC contributor

Updated: 12:33 p.m. ET May 31, 2005

Who needs Bill Gates? No, I don’t mean who needs a gazillionaire corporate titan, a man whose company, Microsoft, took in billions of dollars last year by controlling nearly all the software used to run nearly every computer on the planet.

No, I mean, literally, who needs him? If you could go back in time and stop the birth of the world’s most famous nerd, would you?

You probably answered my question with a "no." Whatever Gates’ sins may be, he is the father of a computer revolution that has brought much good to many people throughout the world. Add to that achievement his current generous philanthropic activities supporting some very worthy causes, such as vaccine research and a center for autism research in Seattle, and the case for having Bill with us becomes pretty persuasive.

(MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

But what if I told you it’s possible that Gates has a medical condition that accounts, in part, for both his tremendous achievements and for his "nerdiness?" Gates is widely reported to display many personality traits characteristic of a condition known as Asperger’s syndrome. Asperger’s is a mild version of autism, a more serious condition that renders many children unable to talk, be touched, communicate or socialize...

[ElkGroveDan]

Great story. That one's a keeper.

[al baby]

maybe not windows suck

[tfecw]

Cool article. Gattaca(sp?) gets closer to real life every day.

[handy old one]

Windows got the autism gene.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

They should rename "Longhorn" to "Rain Man."

[Mr. Mojo]

If you could go back in time and stop the birth of the world’s most famous nerd, would you?

If I could go back in time? No, I wouldn't.

Then I'd wait until his company went public (in 1986) and load up the truck with MSFT stock at the $20/shr IPO.

[NormsRevenge]

DOS Capital :)

[cripplecreek]

I would allow him to be born. I return I would expect him to sign a legal agreement to hand over 25% of his lifetime earnings. (I would take 50% but i'm not greedy)

[dljordan]

" Then I'd wait until his company went public (in 1986) and load up the truck with MSFT stock at the $20/shr IPO."

Many's the night as I lay in bed dreaming of what I would do if I had it to do all over again I came up with the same scenario.

[rabidralph]

LOL! Wouldn't we all? And bet the house on Secretariat to win the Triple Crown.

[Useless_eater_on_steroids]

Would you have invested?

[ladyjane]

Autistic Pride Day? Strange.

[Old Professer]

Caplan aspires to be both the keeper of the womb and the grand reaper; he is a very dangerous man.

[lilylangtree]

Revise the question: Would you want Paul Allen to be born? The answer: No!

[Always Right]

Just think of the number of lifes that would have been impacted had Bill Gate's fetal spine had been used for research. Quadriplegics would be walking today.....

[Jaysun]

Very interesting. I was expecting some diatribe about his wealth, but I was pleasantly surprised. I once read something about a dice trick Warren Buffet tried to play on Bill Gates. Gates pulled a "rain man" and calculated the probabilities of this and that in his head, then told Buffet what he came up with. Buffet was very impressed and I remember thinking that Gates' performance was autistic in nature. Weird.

[Sam the Sham]

If people could scupt their children they would all look like Beverly Hills 90210.

But seriously, Bill Gates did not create the PC revolution. He was simply able to use the immense prestige of the IBM name to impose his standard on the marketplace. People forget that in 1980 80% of the computer industry was IBM mainframes. The rest was DEC minicomputers. If IBM said DOS, not CP/M, is the standard for PC's, then only a foolish IT manager would purchase a non-DOS machine. IBM had that kind of marketplace dominance.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

Looking over that picture, they should all be thankful they got rich. That is a group that wasn't getting laid without $$$$ if I ever saw one.

[Van Jenerette]

....pro human bing.

[KarlInOhio]

Then I'd wait until his company went public (in 1986) and load up the truck with MSFT stock at the $20/shr IPO.

Each one of those shares would be worth about $7,450 now after total stock splits of 288:1. Not too shabby: a 39% annual return.

[tophat9000]

Whatever Gates’ sins may be, he is the father of a computer revolution

Not this crap again!

Whatever Gates’ sins may be, he is NOT the father of a computer revolution

Gates had the right to someone else's DOS and got lucky went the CPM guy missed IBM's call

Then Gates got real lucky at IBM stupidity at letting Gates retain the right to the to sell his OS to other because IBM thinking the PC was, and would always be, a minor niche of the overall computer market (IBM's PC was in responses to Apple making a small niche in the business computer market)...besides IBM owned the IBM PC firmware(BIOS)

Then Gates got real real lucky when the courts let other get around the IBM copyright on the IBM PC BIOS...letting any one make a PC hardware platform that could run the app if they had the DOS OS that Gates could sell (The reality is the courts unwittingly handed the dominate control of IBM developed PC from IBM to Gates... IBM did not control the PC hardware, IBM lost control of the PC firmware... but Gates still had rights to the (DOS) software

Gates was/is a shrewd business man that leverage his opportunity's

[BlueNgold]

Is it just me or does that crowd look like they could just as easily be starting a porn production company... ?

[prion]

Hm. Generally pro-life, but for Gates I'd make an exception.

[holdmuhbeer]

If I could go back in time I would be as rich as Bill Gates so I wouldn't care.

[Incorrigible]

Bump

[Servant of the 9]

No, I mean, literally, who needs him? If you could go back in time and stop the birth of the world’s most famous nerd, would you?

You probably answered my question with a "no." Whatever Gates’ sins may be, he is the father of a computer revolution....

Father?
No, I don't think so.
Without Dollar Bill, the same revolution would have happened, and our operating systems might be more reliable.

More proof that abortion is no big deal.
Unless it was me.

So9

[KarlInOhio]

Is it just me or does that crowd look like they could just as easily be starting a porn production company... ?

They would definitely have to hire actors for their movies.

[Incorrigible]

Autism Bump

[CIB-173RDABN]

I know it is not the point of the article, but the assumption if it was not for Bill Gates we would not have a "Microsoft Operating System". While technically true (it would not be called Microsoft, we would have had an operating system.

The pieces were in place, and there were (and are) many actions outside the control of Bill Gates, that have got us to where we are today.

I am thinking if it was not Bill Gates, it could just as easily have been another person.

I am thinking the reason we are where we are today is more a lack of insight on the part of the IBM management then Bill Gates.

They made two decisions that openned up the world to cheap computing.

1. They let Bill Gates keep ownership of the operating system, and allowed him to license it to other companies, and (2) they allowed open architecture on some of their hardware.

Once the world had a standard operating system, and a standard on the hardware that anyone could and did engineer the world as we know it today was possible.

If IBM had followed Apples policy, keeping control of everything, then I think the world of PC would be different.

But, then I could be wrong.

[dhs12345]

BG has contributed tremendously to life as we currently know it. He helped push along technologies that would have developed at a very slow pace or not at all.

Even technologies that are not directly related to the PC benefited greatly from the PC.

Was he the only person responsible? no. But his contribution as huge.

A lot of Linux people like to gripe about BG. However, there probably wouldn't be a Linux if it weren't for Microsoft. Ironically, it is because of BG that Linux exists to counter MS Windows.

[hedgie]

Gattaca(sp?) gets closer to real life every day.

You said it all right there...It creeps me out.

[TASMANIANRED]

All swords have 2 edges.

[dhs12345]

It would have probably remained at the mainframe level. That only businesses and the government would be able to afford. That was the plan of the IBMs, DECs, etc.

Apple computers would be very expensive (more so than they are now without the competition).

I suspect many of us on this forum would be doing some other kind of work.

[Free and Armed]

Very interesting. Makes you wonder, huh? I for one would not agree to do genetic engineering unless it could be proven that my child was going to have severe retardations (not the types that can lead to genius in one particular area) that would just hold him back all his life. Anything milder than that, let it be. We can cope with it.

[Free and Armed]

Oh yeah, one other thought: with so many abortions going on since Roe v. Wade, I wonder if we've killed a genius along the line who could've risen to greatness and became our next President or find some kind of cure? I know we've already killed off a huge amount of ordinary folks like ourselves as well as would-be criminals, but sometimes I wonder what the country would be like if we hadn't legalized abortion.

[Sonny M]

I was expecting some diatribe about his wealth, but I was pleasantly surprised. I once read something about a dice trick Warren Buffet tried to play on Bill Gates. Gates pulled a "rain man" and calculated the probabilities of this and that in his head, then told Buffet what he came up with. Buffet was very impressed and I remember thinking that Gates' performance was autistic in nature.

There's a few stories about Buffet and Gates.

The 2 of them are friends, and like to socialize together every now and then.

Some stories are downright funny, like the one where the 2 of them were stranded near Buffets home in Nebraska, and neither one had a wallet on them.

[Sam the Sham]

IBM tried to keep control of everything with OS/2, the PS2 and the Microchannel architecture but then it was too late. They never really understood that the industry would be SOHO driven.

[Sonny M]

Gates had the right to someone else's DOS and got lucky went the CPM guy missed IBM's call

You mean the story where he was out flying planes, and IBM couldn't reach him and went to gates?

Its an urban legend, and one that Gates and others at Microsoft started.

His widow isn't amused to see it still told today.

[evets]

[Servant of the 9]

It would have probably remained at the mainframe level. That only businesses and the government would be able to afford. That was the plan of the IBMs, DECs, etc.

The Altair kits and CP/M were already on the market when Dolla Bill came along. In fact, if you dig out a period computer mag you will find hundreds of manufacturers of 8080, Z80 and 6502 based machines.

It was the Apple II and VisiCalc that took the personal computer into the office, years before IBM ever considered it.

The primary difference would probably have been in the adoption of 'Basic'. Without Gates, the industry would probably have gone with Pascal (or FORTH, given the omnipresense of HP calculators)as a beginning language.

So9

[Sam's Army]

I dunno, the pale one on the bottom with the dark glasses does somethin' for me.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

Strange tastes you have Sam.

[CIB-173RDABN]

Wasn't it the CEO of IBM (Watson I think his name was) who never thought there would ever be a need for more then a dozen computers in the world. IBM could be Microsoft, but they lacked something. Maybe that something was the special nature that makes up Bill Gates.

[Sam's Army]

It's only strange the 1st time.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

I saw a shirt that said Don't worry it's only kinky the first time.

[Sam's Army]

I feel like this is turning into a Pissant-style thread. Maybe I should get back to my usual spells of righteous indignation, I am losing my bearings here.

But really, nerdy chicks are underrated. Not that I'd know that anymore, though.

[Rytwyng]

I hope and pray my kids inherit my Aspie genes. Abort them? Hell no! I want as many as I can breed.

[Rytwyng]

Please add me to your autism/asperger ping list. Thanks.

We're here
We're Nerds
Get used to us
You work for us!

[Incorrigible]

When I was at Engineering School, the Business Administration majors used to tell me I'd be working for them!