Last Thursday, Nathan Myhrvold was the keynote speaker at the second annual Social Innovation Fast Pitch (SIFP) at Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion. During his lecture, er, speech, he reportedly said:
“The tech industry – which I love, I’m a part of and am totally guilty of this – is about making tools and toys for rich people. … And frankly, everyone in the United States is rich compared to the world.”
Everyone? Has Nathan been to the mountains of Appalachia? The ghetto’s of Detroit? The shacks in the Central Valley of California that immigrants live in? Ludicrous.
Myhrvold encouraged inventor to “invent miracles” that will change people’s lives:
“It’s great you can kill aliens with Xbox at a faster rate than ever before, but we didn’t really need our lives changed,” he said. “The fact is, there are people that do need their lives changed.”
A noble thought indeed. But, it does seem to raise a question: Why isn’t he doing this?
Anyway, see this link for more about the speech: http://www.geekwire.com/2012/nathan-myhrvold-completely-fine-failure-thinks/