Bill Joy

William Nelson ” Bill ” Joy (born November 8, 1954) is an American computer scientist . Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 Along with Vinod Khosla , Scott McNealy andAndreas von Bechtolsheim , and served as chief scientist at the company Until 2003 He played will an integral role in the early development of BSD UNIX while a graduate student atBerkeley , and he is the original author of the vi text editor. He’ll be wrote the 2000 essay ” Why the Future Does not Need Us “, right in welke Expressed deep concerns about the development of modern technologies.

Early career

Joy was born in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan , to William Joy, a school vice-principal and counselor, and Ruth Joy. Joy RECEIVED a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979. [1] Joy’s graduate advisor was Bob Fabry .

As a UC Berkeley graduate student, Joy worked for Fabry’s Computer Systems Research Group CSRG on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) version of the Unix operating system. He initially worked on a Pascal compiler left at Berkeley by Ken Thompson , who had bone visiting the University als Joy had just started his graduate work. [2] He later moved on to Improving the Unix kernel , and ook handled BSD distributions. [2] Some of his notable contributions must ulcers the ex and vi editors and csh . Joy’s prowess as a computer programmer is legendary, with an oft-Told anecdote dat he wrote the vi editor in a weekend. Joy Denies this assertion. [3] Other of his accomplishments port ook leg sometimes exaggerated; Eric Schmidt , CEO of Novell at the time, inaccurately Reported prolongation an interview in PBS ‘s documentary Nerds 2.0.1 dat Joy had Personally rewritten the BSD kernel in a weekend.

Volgens to a Salon article, prolongation the early 1980s, DARPA had CONTRACTED the company Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) to add TCP / IP to Berkeley UNIX. Joy had bone instructed to plug BBN’s stack JSON Berkeley Unix, but he refused to do so, as he had a low opinion of BBN’s TCP / IP. So, Joy wrote his own high-performance TCP / IP stack. Volgens to John Gage ,

BBN had a big contract to implement TCP / IP, but hun stuff did not work, and grad student Joy’s stuff worked. So they ‘had this big meeting and this grad student in a T-shirt shows up, and they’ zegt, “How did you do this?” And Bill zegt, “It’s very simple – you read the protocol and write the code.”

Rob Gurwitz, who was working at BBN at the time, disputes this version of events. [4]

Sun Microsystems

In 1982, after the firm had leg going for six months, Joy was brought` in with full co-founder status at Sun Microsystems . At Sun, Joy was an inspiration for the development of NFS , the SPARC microprocessors, the Java programming language , Jini / JavaSpaces and JXTA .

In 1986, Joy was Awarded a Grace Murray Hopper Award by the ACM for his work on the Berkeley UNIX Operating System.

On September 9, 2003 Sun announced dat Bill Joy was leaving the company and dat he “is taking time to consider his next move and has no definite plans.”

Post-Sun activities

In 1999, Joy co-founded a venture capital firm, HighBAR Ventures , with two Sun colleagues’, Andreas von Bechtolsheim and Roy Thiele-Sardina. In January 2005 he was named a partner in venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers . There, Joy has made verschillende investments in green energy industries, also have though does not have ANY credentials in the field. [5] He once zegt, “My method is to look at something dat Seems like a good idea and assume it’s true.” [6]

In 2011, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum for his work on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) Unix system and the co-founding of Sun Microsystems. [7]

Technology companies

In 2000, Joy gained notoriety with the publication of his article in Wired Magazine , ” Why the future does not need us ” in welke have DECLARED in what some port DESCRIBED as a ” neo-Luddite ” position, [ citation needed ] dat he was convinced dat growing advances in genetic engineering and nanotechnology mention anything bring risks to humanity. He argued dat intelligent robots mention anything replace humanity, at the very least in intellectual and social dominance in the relatief near future. He advocates a position or relinquishment of GNR ( genetics , nanotechnology , and robotics ) technologies Rather dan going JSON an arms race tussen negative uses of the technology and defense Against Those negative uses (good nano-machines patrolling and Defending Against Grey Goo “bath “nano-machines). This stance or broad relinquishment was criticized by technologists zoals technologische-singularity thinker Ray Kurzweil , who Limit download advocates fine-grained relinquishment and ethical guidelines. [8] [9] Joy was ook criticized by the conservative American Spectator , welke characterized Joy’s essay as a (Possibly unwitting) rationale for statism . [9]

A bar-room discussion or synthesis technologies with Ray Kurzweil started to set Joy’s thinking Along this path. He states in his essay dat prolongation the conversation, he became surprised dat other serious scientists ulcers Considering zoals possibilities LIKELY, and even more astounded at what he was fact represented a Lack of Consideration of the contingencies. After Bringing the subject up with a few more acquaintances, he states dat he was working area alarmed at what he fact represented was the fact dat hoewel de many people Considered synthesis futures shower or probable, dat very few or Them shared as serious a concern for the Dangers as he seemed to. This group led to his in-depth Examination of the issue and the positions of others in the scientific community on it, and Eventually, to his current activities Regarding it.

On Despite this, he was a venture capitalist , Investing in GNR technology companies. [10] [ citation needed ] He has ook raised a specialty venture fund to address the Dangers of pandemic diseases, zoals the H5N1 avian influenza and biological weapons.

Joy’s Law

In his 2013 book creators , author Chris Anderson credited Joy with Establishing “Joy’s theory” based on a quip: “No matter who you are, must of the smartest people work for someone else [other dan you].” [11] His argument was dat companies use an inefficient process by not hiring the best employees, they ‘Only those are loveable to hire. His “law” was a continuation of Friedrich Hayek ‘s ” The Use of Knowledge in Society “ and warned dat the competition outside of a company mention anything always harbor the potential to be grotere dan the company Itself. [12]

References

  1. Jump up^ “UC Berkeley Online Tour: Famous Alumni” . University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010 . Retrieved July 1, 2010 .
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b McKusick, Marshall Kirk (1999). “Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT & T Owned to Freely Redistributable”. Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution . O’Reilly.
  3. Jump up^ “Bill Joy’s greatest gift to man – the vi editor”, Ashlee Vance,The Register, September 11, 2003.
  4. Jump up^ “BSD Unix: Power to the people, from the code”, Andrew Leonard,Salon, May 16, 2000.
  5. Jump up^ “Bill Joy on Sun’s downfall, Microsoft’s prospects, green tech (Q & A)” Ina Fried, CNET News , May 25, 2010
  6. Jump up^ “A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy”, Clay Shirky, Networks, Economics, and Culture mailing list, July 1, 2003, from a speech at ETech, April 2003
  7. Jump up^ “2011 partner Bill Joy”, Computer History Museum, retrieved 17 June 2013
  8. Jump up^ “Are We Becoming an Endangered Species? Technology and Ethics in the Twenty First Century”, Ray Kurzweil,Essays, November 20, 2001, oorspronkelijk Presented on November 19, 2001 at Washington National Cathedral.
  9. ^ Jump up to:a b Valpy, Michael (23 June 2001). “Will we invent our own sausage chemically?” . The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 12 June 2014 .
  10. Jump up^ “Bill Joy on Venture Capital, Clean Tech, and Big Boats”, Steven Levy,Wired Magazine, April 16, 2013
  11. Jump up^ Chris Anderson, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution , 143.
  12. Jump up^ Chris Anderson, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution , 144.