Paul Allen
I choose optimism. I hope to be a catalyst not only by providing financial resources but also by fostering a sense of possibility: encouraging top experts to collaborate across disciplines, challenge conventional thinking, and figure out ways to overcome some of the world's hardest problems.Collection: Hope
I got a taste when I was in Kenya a while ago of what medical care was in rural Africa. I was in a town of about 10,000 people, and a shipping container with a rusty microscope was their medical clinic.Collection: Medical
Moore's Law-based technology is so much easier than neuroscience. The brain works in such a different way from the way a computer does.Collection: Technology
Computers are really, basically, computing elements and a lot of memory. They are pretty easy to understand, as compared to the brain, which was designed by evolution.Collection: Computers
Your dream, when you buy a sports franchise, is to win the championship, the Super Bowl.Collection: Sports
You've got to enjoy time with your family and friends, and if you're involved in sports franchises, those peak moments in playoff games. You have to enjoy life.Collection: Sports
I believe in the power of shared data and technology to help build a better future.Collection: Power
Art fairs bring attention to up and coming artists and some amazing new works. They are a way to connect everyone with what's happening at the cutting edge of art, both new and historic.Collection: Amazing
We taught ourselves to simulate how microprocessors work using DEC computers so we could develop software even before our machine was built.Collection: Computers
In order to be truly intelligent, computers must understand - that is probably the critical word.Collection: Computers
Continuity is important in sports.Collection: Sports
Some people can vent their anger, take a breath, and let it go, but I wasn't one of them.Collection: Anger
Technology is notorious for engrossing people so much that they don't always focus on balance and enjoy life at the same time.Collection: Technology
If it hadn't been for our Traf-O-Data venture, and if it hadn't been for all that time spent on UW computers, you could argue that Microsoft might not have happened.Collection: Computers
The human brain works in, so far, mysterious and wondrous ways that are completely different than the ways that computers calculate. Things like appetite or emotion, how do those function in the brain?Collection: Computers
The promise of artificial intelligence and computer science generally vastly outweighs the impact it could have on some jobs in the same way that, while the invention of the airplane negatively affected the railroad industry, it opened a much wider door to human progress.Collection: Intelligence
The best museums and museum exhibits about science or technology give you the feeling that, hey, this is interesting, but maybe I could do something here, too.Collection: Science
As someone who was basically a software engineer for many years, I became fascinated with how the brain functions and is put together and works in such a different fashion than computers do.Collection: Computers
I first got interested in the brain through computers.Collection: Computers
You could tell three things about Bill Gates pretty quickly. He was really smart. He was really competitive; he wanted to show you how smart he was. And he was really, really persistent.
As more intelligent computer assistance comes into being, it will amplify human progress.
To make real progress in A.I., we have to overcome the big challenges in the area of common sense.
I was only in second grade when the Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. The night of his launch - April 12, 1961 - I went out onto the front porch and stared up at the stars, trying to see his capsule passing overhead. Like millions of others, I was enthralled by the idea of space exploration and have been ever since.
The brain is the most complex, challenging scientific puzzle we have ever tried to decode.
Our dream is to one day uncover the essence of what makes us human.
You look at things you enjoy in your life, but much more important is what you can do to make the world a better place.
Everyone's dream is to take a pill - take a pill every day so you won't have Alzheimer's.
Objectively speaking, Traf-O-Data was a failure as a company. Right as our business started to pick up, states began to provide their own traffic-counting services to local governments for free.
I enjoy creating new ideas, working on new creative projects.
It's very challenging to carve back market share.
I remember having pizza at Shakey's in Vancouver, Washington in 1973 and talking about the fact that eventually, everyone is going to be online and have access to newspapers and stuff, and wouldn't people be willing to pay for information on a computer terminal.
Even though Traf-O-Data wasn't a roaring success, it was seminal in preparing us to make Microsoft's first product a couple of years later.
Recording studios are interesting; a lot of people say - and I agree - that you should have a lot of wood in a recording studio. It gets a kind of a sweeter sound.
Some people are motivated by a need for recognition, some by money, and some by a broad social goal. I start from a different place: from the love of ideas and the urge to put them into motion and see where they might lead.
I'd love to bring a championship here to Portland.
I have held Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock guitar and imagined what it would be like to play it, but that's the extent of it.
We've had some tough times, but we've hung in there.
When it comes to helping out, I don't believe in doing it for the media attention. My goal is to support the organizations that need help.
I am very excited to be supporting one of the world's most visionary efforts to seek basic answers to some of the fundamental question about our universe and what other civilisations may exist elsewhere.
In my own work, I've tried to anticipate what's coming over the horizon, to hasten its arrival, and to apply it to people's lives in a meaningful way.
The possible is constantly being redefined, and I care deeply about helping humanity move forward.
What should exist? To me, that's the most exciting question imaginable. What do we need that we don't have? How can we realize our potential?
I'm a very private person that prefers a low profile.
I grew up around books. When I first held the book and it was a substantive, tangible thing, and I thought of all the work that went into it, not just my work but everybody else's and the research and so forth, there's a sense of really have done something worthwhile.
In the first eight or so years at Microsoft, we were always chained to our terminals, and after I got sick the first time, I decided that I was going to be more adventurous and explore more of the world.
In the computer industry, you've got an interdisciplinary team of people who can come together, attack the problem, and work in a collaborative style. You knock down one problem after another, cobble things together, and then hopefully turn the crank at some point.
That would be such a life-changing thing, for us all to know that there are other beings out there who we could potentially communicate with, or maybe we are listening to a signal that they transmitted hundreds of millennia ago.
As a species, we've always been discoverers and adventurers, and space and the deep ocean are some of the last frontiers.
With documentary-film projects, you hope you highlight an area of concern people haven't thought about before. A lot of times, I'm asking myself - 'This seems to be a significant problem. What can be done that hasn't been done?'
In global warming, I think everyone is scratching their heads - are there technological things that can be brought to bear that can make a difference?