Bill Gates: money isn’t everything

Bill Gates, the multibillionaire co-founder of Microsoft, has said that a million dollars is enough for freedom – and that retina projection will replace screens.

Speaking at the University of Washington, Mr Gates is reported to have said, “I can understand wanting to have a million dollars - it’s freedom. But once you get beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger.” He explained by saying “Dick’s doesn’t raise their prices,”, referring to the Seattle fast-food chain, but added “being ambitious is good.”

In an unusually wide-ranging session at the University’s Computer Science & Engineering Department, Mr Gates was also asked about his thoughts on American healthcare, computing and science cuts.

He said that although he still visits Microsoft, his primary focus was on his charitable Gates Foundation, “helping poor people and helping the education system”.

Mr Gates added, however, he thought much of the world’s future could be shaped by technology such as robotics, and said that future modelling of disease patterns would have a significant impact on mankind’s ability to tackle illnesses. “Although my full-time work is Foundation work, I find myself coming back to people like you and saying help me, give me some computer science to solve these problems, and I’m optimistic that you’ll deliver,” he told the students.

He said he was optimistic about poverty reduction, saying “The world at large is less inequitable today than at any time in history. The number of people in abject poverty, as a percentage, is at all-time low. Innovation means it will continue to go down. I do think in most problems time is on our side.”Mr Gates said that technology of the future would be based on a new approach to screens: “The difference between a phone and a PC is the size of the screen and the input technique,” he said. “The next generation is either a screen that you can fold out to any size you want, like a scroll, or more likely it’s simply projecting on to your retina. Eventually people are going to laugh at weird contraptions called screens. All you’ve got to do is put something on your eye.”