Gates Package — page 109

There is no getting round the fact, however, that Gates often sounds at odds with the new generation of billionaire technocrats. He was the first to imagine that computing could seep into everyday life, with the Microsoft mission to put a PC on every desk and in every home. But while others talk up the world-changing power of the internet, he is under no illusions that it will do much to improve the lives of the world's poorest. "Innovation is a good thing. The human condition -- put aside bioterrorism and a few footnotes -- is improving because of innovation," he says. But while "technology's amazing, it doesn't get down to the people most in need in anything near the timeframe we should want it to". It was an argument he says he made to Thomas Friedman as The New York Times columnist was writing his 2005 book, The World is Flat, a work that came to define the almost end-of-history optimism that accompanied the entry of China and India into the global labour markets, a transition aided by the internet revolution. "Fine, go to those Bangalore Infosys centres, but just for the hell of it go three miles aside and go look at the guy living with no toilet, no running water," Gates says now. "The world is not flat and PCs are not, in the hierarchy of human needs, in the first five rungs." It is perceptions such as this that have led Gates to spend not just his fortune but most of his time on good works. Other billionaires may take to philanthropy almost as a mark of their social status but, for Gates, it has the force of a moral imperative. The decision to throw himself into causes like trying to prevent childhood deaths in the developing world or improving education in the US was the result of careful ethical calculations, he says. Quoting from an argument advanced by moral philosopher Peter Singer, for instance, he questions why anyone would donate money to build a new wing for a museum rather than spend it on preventing illnesses that can lead to blindness. "The moral equivalent is, we're going to take I per cent of the people who visit this [museum] and blind them," he says. "Are they willing, because it has the new wing, to take that risk? Hmm, maybe this blinding thing is slightly barbaric." << OLE Object: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) >> ©Sipa Press/Rex Features Gates, aged 25, photographed in 1981 with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen Through the stroke of pen on cheque book, Gates probably now has the power to affect the lives and wellbeing of a larger number of his fellow humans than any other private individual in history. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he set up with his wife in 1997 and where he has been working since leaving his full-time role at Microsoft five years ago, gives away nearly $4bn a year. Much of the money goes toward improving health and fighting poverty in developing countries by tackling malaria or paying for vaccination drives against infectious diseases. This is nearly half as much as the US government spent on global health initiatives in 2012. In many ways, Gates was the archetype for the successful tech entrepreneur, the driven nerd who created an industry with little more than foresight and drive. But to the generation of aspiring techno-visionaries who have followed, the arc of his career no longer has the allure it once did, even if his iconic status is assured. These include people such as Peter Diamandis, a serial entrepreneur who founded the X Prize, which in 1996 offered a $10m award for the first private sector organisation that could create a suborbital space rocket. He likes to think big, and his latest brainstorm involves trying to mine minerals on passing asteroids. According to Diamandis, the Gates Foundation, with its focus on alleviating the suffering of the poorest, smacks of the early 20th-century philanthropy of the robber barons -- men such as Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller, who built and then milked monopolies before spending their later years doling out cash to worthy causes. The latest wave of techno-visionaries, he says, is focused instead on creating whole new industries capable of changing the world. At the height of its powers, the way that Microsoft wielded its PC monopoly to maximise profits from the computing industry made it feared and hated by rivals and start-ups alike. Now, with the PC world on the wane and the company's leadership and direction in doubt, it is spoken of almost with disdain in Silicon Valley -- even though it remains the third biggest tech company based on stock market value, behind Apple and Google. Gates Foundation project Partnering with Coca-Cola and Ghana's health services << OLE Object: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) >> Coca-Cola is found in the remotest places on the planet. The foundation is working with the multinational beverage company to use their supply chain expertise to help Ghana's health service improve delivery of vaccines to the most difficult-to-access patients, including more efficient management of refrigeration systems. Gates fends off questions about Microsoft, though he says -- contrary to persistent speculation -- that he is not about to step back in to run it as Steve Jobs once returned to revive Apple. He also admits that the company is taking up a much bigger slice of his time than the one day a week to which he signed up after he left. As