Joy, Bill

Bill Joy (William Nelson Joy, 1954-) is a computer scientist who is credited with developing significant advances in software, programming languages, and operating systems that continue to influence the field of computing, many made while he was a student at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in 1979.

Since 2000, however, he has become best known for popularizing K. Eric Drexler's 1986 “Grey Goo” scenario of molecular nanobots that destroy the earth in an essay he wrote for Wired magazine. Joy's essay has since become a ubiquitous reference in publications about the impact of nanotechnologies and is generally credited with beginning the conversation about the potential ramifications of nanoscale science and engineering in the United States.

Joy cofounded Sun Microsystems in 1982. In 1997, he was appointed co-chairman of the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee by the Clinton administration. In 1998, Joy had a conversation with futurist and author Ray Kurzweil that led to a cover story in Wired magazine by Joy titled, “Why the Future Doesn't Need Us,” in 2000. In the essay, Joy described how, after reading a prepublication draft of Kurzweil's 2000 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, an optimistic vision of the convergence of genetics with nanotechnology and robotics (GNR), he became increasingly concerned about responsible development of potentially destructive technologies. In a controversial move, Joy essentially called for a halt to research and development in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics that would enable dangerous applications, such as molecular self-assembly and replication as described in Drexler's 1986 book, Engines of Creation.

Joy's essay received worldwide coverage and more than 10,000 articles were published as a result. Responses ranged from accusations that Joy was alarmist, naive, and a Luddite, to the suggestion that if anyone knew what they were talking about it was Joy. Kurzweil suggested that Joy had focused only on the potential negative applications of the technological convergence he described in The Age of Spiritual Machines, while economist and author Bill McKibben said that Joy's essay should be regarded as a wake-up call to confront the dangers of emerging technologies before they are developed. Joy has [Page 382]referred to his 2000 essay as both a public penance and as a way of giving back after his success.

Also in 2000, Joy wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he set out a list of steps that could be taken to prevent disaster related to emerging technologies. These steps included implementing a Hippocratic oath for scientists, creating an international nongovernmental organization to assess emerging technologies, instituting stricter liability insurance requirements for companies, internationalizing control of knowledge of dangerous technologies, and relinquishing the pursuit of knowledge of dangerous technologies. In a 2003 interview, Joy said that he stood by everything he had written in his 2000 essay. He also said that he was concerned that serious conversation about the dangers of converging technologies would not take place until a catastrophic event occurs.

Since Joy left Sun Microsystems in 2003, he has become increasingly involved in efforts to address a potential pandemic. In 2005, Joy coauthored an oped essay with Ray Kurzweil that appeared in the New York Times in which they criticized the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' decision to publish the full genome of the 1918 influenza virus on the Internet, and called for more responsible conduct and better oversight of potentially devastating scientific information. Joy became a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers in 2005, and in 2006, launched a $200-million fund, the KPCB Pandemic and Bio Defense Fund, with the goal of preparing for worldwide pandemics and global health through funding scientific and technological innovation. Joy received the Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award in 2006 for this work.

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