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Science fiction to become science fact?

Tags:
Sun Microsystems,
Bill Joy,
KPCB

Dawn Kawamoto CNET News.com

Published: 01 Apr 2005 12:55 BST

Science fiction to become science fact? Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun, recently joined a major venture capital firm. We talk to him about the reality of Star Trek-esque technologies, Dolly the sheep and Internet regulation

When Bill Joy joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner earlier this year, it sounded at first like an odd coupling.

Here you had Kleiner Perkins, perhaps Silicon Valley's premier venture capital firm, accepting into its midst a guy painted in some corners as the fifth horseman of the apocalypse.

But that would be a misreading of the famed developer, as well as of his provocative essay published five years ago in Wired magazine.

Joy caused a stir when he questioned the ethical aspects of pursuing research in emerging fields, like genetic engineering, where biology intersects with technology. But he approached the issue from the perspective of a veteran technologist — one with a long list of accomplishments.

As a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, Joy created what became a popular variant of the Unix operating system. He later co-founded Sun, where he led the development of the company's Solaris operating system as well as its UltraSparc processor.

Technically speaking, this isn't Joy's first go-around with venture capitalism. After leaving Sun in 2003, he formed a VC partnership with fellow Sun alumni Andreas Bechtolsheim (who has since rejoined Sun) and Roy Sardina to found HighBar Ventures. That company's one great claim to fame was email security company BrightMail, which got sold last year to Symantec for $475m (£251m).

ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com recently spoke to Joy about the use of technology in industrial societies and about venture capital prospects in the tech business.

Q: Since your Wired piece in 2000, have you come to any firm conclusion about whether technology is going to wind up as a force for good or evil in the 21st century?
A :It certainly seemed to have heightened an awareness of terrorism and also heightened the awareness of the possibility of the abuse of technology. Technology can also be a force for incredible good. We face a lot of problems that we'd like to address with technology, such as the threat of the flu endemic.

What is your biggest concern about the way technology is being used by industrial societies?
I think there has to be a balance between the profit motive, which drives a lot of creativity and ethical behaviour, and the responsibility to manage things, which can be abused. That balance is usually through the laws and regulations in the scientific societies, and it's important to emphasise that that balance needs to be maintained.

Since the terrorist attacks four years ago, people have become more aware of these dangers, and so there has been progress in the way people are thinking about these things.