Do you think Silicon Valley should factor more considerations into the equation before they come up with new technologies?
It's not the case that any one person can deal with the consequences of what they're doing necessarily when they're doing it. It has to come from a collective responsibility. For example, in biology, where a lot of new powerful techniques are being created, it's very important that everybody pays attention to the work in their field and comment on different things in their field — not just their own work.
Do you think there should be limitations on what technology gets sold? Some nations, like China and Saudi Arabia, have made use of advanced routing technologies to limit what their people can see on the Internet.
In general, technology is a very powerful force for openness and change. Any such rearguard attempts to limit what people can read will ultimately fail.
Where is the industry in terms of the technology creation cycle?
There's a lot of creativity out there right now. There were a number of years where PCs were the thing, and then networking was the thing, and then the Web was the thing, and so on. But now there are really many different themes... there's a raft of different innovation going on in different areas. You can't pin it down like you could in the latter part of the 1990s.
What do you think accounts for the change?
It's just a change because of where the scientific and technical progress is right now. It's moved past just being about Moore's Law.
But there are so many different places it could be. Science and technology are advancing in ways in which surprises are going to occur. You know, when they cloned the sheep Dolly, everyone was surprised. Everyone knew about cloning as a possibility, but no one thought it would actually happen.
There are a lot of things which sound like "Star Trek" or science fiction, and some of them will actually happen. That's the stuff that's really surprising — not that someone could think of it, but that someone could actually do it. I think we're going to see a number of those in the next few years, because we're just at that point in the cycle. Just as radio or electricity or cars were all surprising, so these will be surprises of an equal size.
And what do you think it will take to make those kinds of things a reality rather than a general theory or concept?
Well, I don't know. Just think of a "Star Trek" DVD at the store, and you'll see all sorts of stuff on there that we don't have. Which of those will occur? That's not really possible to say.
I'm not saying we are going to have time travel — I am not sure it is that useful anyway — but I think, especially in the area of medicine, we will see some spectacular cures for diseases we didn't think would ever get cured.
