2001: A Gates Odyssey

A close look at Bill Gates' vision of how new technologies will guide the way we work, play and live in the future.

It is often said that if the past howls too loudly in your ears, you won't be able to hear the future. For many, what has gone before either continues to haunt them or provides a cosy collection of thoughts which leaves the individual without the necessary appetite to tackle future challenges.
As you would imagine, though, none of these states of mind applies to Bill Gates – founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, the world's most successful software company and one of the richest men on the planet. This bespectacled man from Seattle has almost single-handedly revolutionised the world of computing.
Gates' past is a story of success which began at the age of 13, when he first started programming computers to play noughts and crosses at High School. By the age of 19, Gates had met Paul Allen at Harvard University and the two of them had decided to leave those hallowed halls of learning to face the harsher challenges of the business world.
While the majority of people in the computer industry at the time devoted their energies to achieving success on the hardware front, Gates and Allen made a conscious decision that they would pursue the software route and duly formed Microsoft in 1974.


Platform for success
The product which built the platform for Gates' future successes was MS-DOS® (Microsoft Disk Operating System), the most user-friendly operating system available at the time.
From that solid foundation, Microsoft went on to produce improved versions of the software on a regular basis, but the process of having to type in commands to get the computer to behave as required meant that computing as a whole was still thought of as being strictly off-limits to the majority of people.
Because of this, Microsoft began working on a graphical equivalent of MS-DOS. The resulting product was Windows, the software package which truly opened the doors of computing to the general public.
Today, of course, Microsoft publishes not only operating system software but a vast array of business, leisure and reference packages. An estimated 90% of PCs around the world now use Microsoft programs.


What next?
All that, of course, is history. What matters to Gates most now is the future. This is so important to him, in fact, that he has written a book about the subject. Entitled The Road Ahead, the book puts forward his views on how new technologies will guide the way we work, play and live in the future. Gates begins with a brief look at the development of the information age, before turning his attention to the information highway, which forms the main focus of the book. He envisages the day, believing it to be in the not too distant future, when we will be able to conduct business, study, explore the world and its cultures, call up any entertainment, make friends and show pictures to distant relatives – all without leaving our desks or armchairs. According to Gates, the Internet as it currently stands is an important hors d'oeuvre but the main course of the information highway is yet to arrive on our dinner tables. When it does appear though, it will provide for everybody and eliminate the hunger for information which currently exists the world over. "A direct precursor is the present Internet, which links computers and exchanges information using current technology. But today's Internet is not the information highway I imagine, although you can think of it as the beginning of the highway. Indeed, we can no more imagine what the information highway will carry in 25 years time than Stone Age man using a crude knife could have envisaged Michelangelo's David in Florence," he says.

Personal services
One of the many beliefs that Gates holds is that it is not only the computer-literate who will be affected by the information age which is currently developing before our very eyes. He believes that soon virtually everyone will carry what he calls a "wallet PC". "What do you carry on your person now?" he asks. "Probably keys, money, a watch, credit cards, chequebook, address book, appointment book, notepad, reading material, camera, pocket tape recorder, cellular phone, pager, concert tickets, calculator, photographs and so on. "You'll be able to carry all these and more in a wallet PC. It will display messages and appointments, and also let you read or send electronic mail and faxes, monitor weather and share prices, and play both simple and sophisticated games. At a meeting you might take notes, browse information if you're bored, or choose from among thousands of easily accessible photographs of your kids. It will also store money in electronic form and will eliminate the queues that are so prevalent at airports, theatres and other places where people traditionally have to wait in line for tickets."

Business matters
Gates also has a plan for the development of programs used in the office. In the future, work will be organised by project on the desktop of the computer. Those projects will be easy to access without the complication of thinking about directories or wondering which application to use. Software will become tailored to the user's needs, it will adapt to different working styles, anticipate commands and automate routine tasks. What Gates describes as the "personalised, connected office" will come about by taking advantage of the revolution in communications which is taking place at the moment and which will have a fundamental impact. Very much a part of this revolution, of course, is the Internet, which will allow much of tomorrow's business to be conducted far more quickly and cheaply than ever before by providing the means to create a truly global network.

Smaller businesses
Smaller businesses will benefit because they will be able to connect on an equal basis with their larger counterparts. Employees can be alerted when their financial data shows an irregularity, or when a customer has a particular request. The changes that are bound to take place in the way people use software and the dawn of a new telecommunications age will provide many benefits, but probably the most important is that of flexibility. People will be able to work wherever they are and still be in touch with their colleagues, whether they want to work as a telecommuter, on the road, on a part-time basis or as a consultant. Indeed, telecommuting will become increasingly popular, easing the current stress on urban infrastructures and resulting in changing property values and more efficient transportation.

Back to the future
As Gates sees it, the new tools of this information age — innovative software applications and information appliances that will resemble today's PCs, televisions and telephones – promise to change the way we make choices about learning, working, buying and socialising. The onus now, however, is on each and every one of us.

" We can no more imagine what the information highway will carry in 25 years time than Stone Age man using a crude knife could have envisaged Michelangelo's David…" – Bill Gates in The Road Ahead

" I don't necessarily have all the answers, but the book is my way of getting us all to start thinking about the opportunities and challenges ahead. Society, and not just its technologists, must set the pace of change." – Bill Gates in The Road Ahead

The Road Ahead – about the book
The Road Ahead was published in the UK on 24 November 1995 by Viking. It is available from all good bookshops at a recommended retail price of £17.50. The book is available in more than 20 languages in over 30 countries worldwide. It was released simultaneously on CD-ROM and audiobook. The CD-ROM includes the complete text, hundreds of multimedia hyperlinks, a video interview with Bill Gates, video simulations of future technology and a World Wide Web browser. The audiobook is an abridged version and includes a question and answer session with Gates himself. The proceeds which Gates makes from the book will fund a grant to encourage the use of technology in education; supporting teachers worldwide who are incorporating computers into their classrooms.