Are we going to colonize outer space?

Esther Dyson: I think it is sort of like going to America back in the 1400s its totally crazy but I think it will happen and if you recall those first trips to America where commercial voyages, people are looking for golden Indian stuff like golden spices perhaps one of the big commercial drivers is going to be all the minerals in the asteroids and whether its Christopher Columbus where the internet all these things they are driven commercially and then have a huge impact way beyond with that original commercial enter this was.

Do you see us living in outer space?

Esther Dyson: All I think will turn outer space into inner space, but yeah we are probably going to well there is a reasonable argument that we are going to create a clean useful life supporting atmosphere on mars, soon at them we will honors because a mars we have no politics and we have no incumbent establishment, so its easier to experiment they are in get it right on earth, the moment you start changing things around you ran into people who like it better the way it was what have you.

What is the timeline for that? What would it take to get it started? 

Esther Dyson: Probably this century we will take 30 or 40 years to telephone wires.

Esther Dyson: Get a couple of doing in here is fund it because a government one and then its going to end up being more biology then it we are not going to put giant air blowers on mars, what we need to do is genetically engineered plans of various kinds that will take the minerals on mars and take the oxygen out of the compounds the oxidized compounds and stick it in the atmosphere and figure out what level of different kinds of gases you need to make it breathable to humans and to have the right light sensitivity that you will capture the right amount of solar energy to make that temperature habitable and so forth.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

Should the government be involved in healthcare?

Esther Dyson: Personally it’s a very very complicated answer, I think they should definitely be there, as a last result and probably for Catastrophic Health Insurance but I think there is the question where should the government pay for healthcare and if you say yes to that and think you solve the problem you haven’t because the question will come for how much healthcare should they pay for should they pay for the 80 year old lady who is expected to stay alive in other six months should they pay for the liver transplant of the 40 year alcoholic should they pay for the operation on the guy who refused to wear a helmet in the motor cycle our resources are final and we need to do a much better job is figuring out where we spend them and where we done and right now, we make a lot of these decisions of people if you are black and poor chances are you are not going to get healthcare at if you are rich and white and even if you didn’t pay your insurance chances are you know somebody, who know somebody amount sign I sure you are going to get better cancer operation you live in Iowa and there is the certain operation that might cure you but they offered only in Seattle, you are probably not going to get that operation and we never going to have world of equality of outcome but we should at least have a world of the quality of opportunity and but we shouldn’t kid ourselves that every life is infinitely more valuable and anything else we make trait offs all the time and we don’t feed children right in school, and we destroy lives much earlier are they when they show of them a hospital and so at the problems is we don’t like confirm these decisions just is you might not like to conform decisions about that I mentioned early about your personal life we are the society feeling comfortable with explicit rules yet those things get adjudicated all the time, just quietly. And I didn’t really answer your question but I think at the day today care, people should pay their own costs, but the real issue is how to design a system then send of us healthy behavior because most of the healthcare costs in this country or due to either end of life or what is essentially the results of bad behavior, heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, they are assigned that you being dead but they are aggravated by poor nutritional habits, lack of exercise all these things and if you could just get people to adopt much healthier lifestyles a medical cost with their down but I don’t particularly wanted the government monitoring what people lead either you said the challenge is had a change social noise without brain washing people. Let them understand their genetic information, educate them better at school and I mean it really the one that’s McDonald’s has a huge role the plan that’s just by what they offer people that if the food companies could start promoting genuinely healthy food rather than kind of what is it truthiness foodiness where you put chemicals into something and claim that its more healthy because its some kind of one piece of nutrition it like if you put please into something saying that is polite and this thing is still root, so its extremely complicated and more information is I start more information that the impact of that kind of food lead just as in the environment more information that the impact of that kinds of things we drive the stuff we use the cost of air-conditioning that kind of thing.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

What can personal genomic maps be used for? 

Esther Dyson: Well it can be very unedifying if you want to use it to determine paternity or something like that are determine lack of paternity you can overtime this is going to be very useful in healthcare but we are not selling on that basis now there are specific Genetic tests for fairly rare conditions where if you have the genes your 95 plus percent like where to have the condition though you may die it something else first so its never guaranteed those are not what we do we look for markets for conditions that are more common but not entirely genetically determines so I mean to some extent its utility is to say you have the tendency to be diabetic so eat well and the reality of it is you shouldn’t write anyway so but it makes it easier to behave better of if you have like we would have most of the things revolve around stuff people should do anyway which is eat better sleep more, drink less, don’t smoke get exercise, but the specificity of the information psychologically I think will make it easier for people to pay tension to that advisor I was talking all the US meet how do be successful as a woman, I don’t think genetic advice is very useful if someone says well I know what company you are in this is a negotiate the political source, that’s much more useful even though its usually the same advice there also overtime different drugs and the tabulize by different people, differently so it will be very useful in diagnostics and in determination fair of people right now its just not that useful in term to genuine healthcare, what we want to do it 23 near the time, is be involved in clinical trials and genetic associations studies and so for it, with are uses data with so concern the newest because right now we just don’t having enough genes to know what their correlated with. 

 Are there downsides to more access to genomic information?

Esther Dyson: Well are there any downsize to information in general it’s the same thing sure you may find out stuff you don’t want to hear, you may and is there is its sort of downsize for whom if you believing truth about everything, no if you believe in peoples are desired to live in ignore bliss then there the downsized is knowing stuff, there are things about relationships they can drive people together or they can drive people a part, ask anybody do you want to know that your husband is in fidelity well, maybe knowing better will make it front it and then your marriage own proof maybe knowing that it well, make you can find it and you get forced and so information its, it has its own power to be disrupted some people, many people, prefer after the fact, to know that they are likely to get clear to get something they can’t do something about it, because I feel for one is for an other people would prefer not to and so before doing this you should ask yourself if I don’t like the results tests, I don’t want to do it it’s the same is you find your kids diary do you want to open that diary I mean there all save the more dilemma of should you because it’s the kids, and people need to make one problem was more information’s people have more decisions to make in Russia under common its time that was really easy didn’t need to find a job you can need to decide what education you get this side wouldn’t even decide whether you should take swimming lessons or not or whether you shouldn’t depending on all these sure you telling and so things where wrong in your life, you can blame mistake and was much easier and now you have to decide should I take swimming lesson what career should I go after, should I find out about my husbands background, its we are face with many many more decisions than genetics is just one more of those.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

 What is 23andMe?

Esther Dyson: Well, you go our website, and you order a kit that kit comes in the couple of days, you spit into a tube, so that they collect your saliva, you send there is packing materials and so forth this is very much designed to be consumer friendly you put to back into the packaging material and its already preaddressed go to the lab where your sample gets handle by the web and we it produces a sample of your gene that’s about 500,000 snips little genetic variations long and then that’s gets sent to 23ME and then you are notify to come to the website and putting your password and so forth and find out the data about yourself, so then you can is I mentioned you can look it if you got in you fail in that I am just signup which is probably ultimate and viral marketing you can compare yourself to your family members I have 30 family members so that I bought gets for so that’s actually a lot of fun, you can look at what your genetic tendency is to this or that condition looking you taste the bitter and broccoli that kind of stuff and its tremendously educational if you studied it mean dealing genetics and then you look your family where you can just see it all working it’s amazing.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

 As an investor, what do you look for in an entrepreneur?

Esther Dyson: Yeah. Well I look for something because I invest I am an angel investor so invest really early and I look for things that probably wouldn’t exist, without that company or without my money, I want my money having an impact rather than and I wanted to have an impact on what I have invested in not just need personalize so if I put I may lot of money of Google which is great but Google would have done fine without my money, so that was a nice to look it investment for me that’s its not what I looking for when I doing angel investment which is something that other was wouldn’t have been the same, so I try to invest something is #1 that I personally like there a lots of really good investments like maybe this monster blog platform that just I am not that interested in till doing fine without need or I just don’t really care about them, so I try to find something that I am personally engaged by I try to find something where like for people, and wherever you investing you know that going to have problems, so you have to ask yourself the question where in they have problems well I think oh my god, I wish I hadn’t invested in these guys oh what are think toy I really want to help them fix this because I am passionate about what they are trying to do and so forth themselves you wanted the people and believe me I haven’t always been successful of making these judgments and be getting you want that people to be capable of changing that there is the point I mean adjusting is the market place tells in they got a wrong, and you look for a business model and all the usual things anyone people that integrity and blab blab blab that I tend towards the things that are slightly more intellectual and early and kind of slightly of the…

Which investment are you most proud of?

Esther Dyson: Well though but there is various ones I am very proud in that’s story which was the medical search with really a medical ontology company that we sold to Microsoft last year that being it was company of the check for public, that got sold to sun micro systems and I am now investing for this 3rd time with the guy if you founded that being lets see O’flicker is in obvious one that’s probably one of the most famous ones where I was more involved than just always in Google through eventual find that was in even directly the Google said, that’s flicker I spent time with the founders and try to be helpful so that was in a important point, right now involved in something called CVO group in the central eastern Europe which is an online recruiting company and in many of these things these would you don’t really realizing keep top in them a long and then suddenly 20% or something so which I don’t normally intend to do, I am an investor in top layer which is a sorry I am about become an investor and author which is along the lines are you mentioned is a site where you post your travel plans and sure them might your friends so end of course 23 a new is one of my favorites right now.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

What will be on the other side of the recession? 

Esther Dyson: Although probably be another foolish bubble but in the mean time where I am spending more my time is in health care in specifically personalized health. I was talking about this yesterday there is kind of professionally generated content then there is user generated content which was hot last year and is now maybe called but what’s really interesting is user through like user data, and because this is about specific users of course all these privacy and control issues apply that whether its your genuine or your personal buying have its or just your information, that that’s going to be really interesting I think a lot of the next generation tools many of them where going to be among where another mirrors tools that now allow people to look it information about themselves their trips, their books their collections their financial information their gene and their health information and that to me is the next exciting  area.

Which company is doing this?

Esther Dyson: 23 and they which among the board of we give people information about their and entry and then they couldn’t if they like compare themselves to family members or to people they know but comparing yourself to someone who is not a relative his probably going to pretty boring because you are unlike with have much over capital you can find out information of various inherited things everything from eye color and I was  just looking at somebody’s ears the other day and ears are actually very different from person to person to or like where to get different kinds of cancer what’s sorts of rhythm that kind of stuff and you can see your answers stray which is also kind of interesting, so there if you where unkind you can say some of this appeals narcissism but yeah so it does.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

 Is investment in Web 2.0 slowing?

Esther Dyson: I don’t know what where to point now it is of I do know that there has been way too much investment in the next new video there is a video that are video answer video whatever web 2.0 is basically is famed that somebody what is an investor to invest in is for an I can tell, and now everybody is claiming that they are actually web 3.0 of I think you are going to see right now there is still in over hang adventure money from last year that the investors are desperate to get invested but then I think your QMC quite to drop of going forward with the current state of the macro economy.

Could a recession be a helpful development?

Esther Dyson: I prefer I much prefer you invested when the markets growing down or is down because then if you make a good investment decision you can do that actively you can put your money in there something and how it make it work, and you faced problems but you are invested at the top of the market the only way you can make a good decision is to avoid investing and so that’s get it you can be smart enough to avoid investing that you can’t do much, and that’s kind of frustrating so I prefer down markets because you can make money but doing active yes missed up markets where you can make money by doing passive our by selling sure which I don’t like to do when you can so sure in private deals anyway its personally I am kind of looking forward to few years, been not I don’t want to sound to globe, because he is going to hard for a lot of people, but I think there is being way too much forth and there is just a lot of I think ignore and over out of mistake and species bus about a lot of things that are really just the last time around I call them body parts they are companies their things that people are creating to be sold to somebody else and now maybe is going to buying them.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

 Should Facebook open up its user platform?

Esther Dyson: No, because I don’t think the central is much more complicated than they how their application, face book is done it bring a job of opening up to a third party applications the issue is in opening up it platforms, it has more to do with the individuals user graph at social graph if you like we just who their friends are and when you start doing that you run in to these privacy issues it is fine for me to decide you can find out all about me but is it you find from me to usually you see who are my friends are may be my friends don’t want to be known it is my friends and so I shouldn’t necessarily have to write to reveal who are my friends are, one value site for that will example is supposed I am gay and supposed I am sensitive of about that okay. In theory you should mean of be sensitive of about it because it is okay but some people are and they have to be in their work of what ever and so if I have friends on my favorite lesbian site, they might not want need to open up my social graph to all my friends on space book you could then oh well, that is interesting yesterday it is all these gay friends, so people get out it by there is association with me, I mean there are it is very complicated thing and I mean have my own reasons for not wanting certain people they are knows certain things like I may have and ex-boy friend that I don’t want to see certain things but I mean new boy friend because rather than hating I don’t want to make him jealous I still like marry it is just well I may not want my mother to see pictures of my step mother not because of privacy, but because of certain delicacy again I have my own reasons for one you can control this information, it is not called privacy but it is not something where I want even my friends to plaster my information all of that the place so it is a complicated thing what face book did so growing why was they said we are not so much a single community their way to hard to be a community we are a platform on with people can build communities but now we don’t want to be a public utility we want to be a proprietary ultimately money making utility negotiation those shelves is really tough and face book hasn’t done without a bunch of errors on the way but they are basic this is what Yahoo should have done and failed to do and face book is doing it. It there are pioneering in there they are learning by trial and error in every little errors being viciously watched.

 Where did Yahoo miss the boat?

Esther Dyson:  Well, it is a millions small mistakes. I don’t know I mean the boats were all going by, face book jumped on it and I want to and then tried in a too much big about.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008

 Would you invest in Michael Arrington’s blog aggregate?

Esther Dyson: I don’t know enough of we depend on who was running there would depend on the business model, I tend to invest in small things in help them grow rather than some join aggregation but I don’t see I mean that the beauty of the blogs is that the decentralized and so it is probably not what I would do in doing other interesting things like how is scatter in space travel and so far it is not that I am saying will be a horrible investments just probably not in the investment I will do.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008

The Russian Media

Esther Dyson: Right, the media is not state muzzles they are state produced. So the state that you need to muzzle them. In China the government is muscling the media, in Russia it is simply owns most to the media and simply produces the news it wants and doesn’t pay attention to the other news so there is big distinction our state is interesting had different those two countries are. Russia does not employ a whole lot censors the way the Chinese government does so you can, you considered say you would like in online in Russia that if I have been to say something mean about the part of police in my village. I wouldn’t be worried about a censor. I would be worried about the police because they are not going to censor me they are just going to come and beat me up Which is different though the, it is a different way of abusing power.

What is the bigger threat to freedom of speech online, government or corporate interests?

Esther Dyson: Okay, first I have to disclose something here I am on the board of advisor has to live journal which is live journal was not just sold. In fact well, more complicated there is a Russian company called SUP which run live journal and runs live journal with in Russia they own that property slash that community which is a user community and this is one of the interesting things about the internet there is owning go the property mean really own the community you may own the commercial things but if you use are early you can prevent them for doing that so that Russian company SUP which is run by an American but primarily owned by a Russian call I was under them with, then acquired the US company live journal which is a technology company that creates the technology platform on which life journal runs both in Russia and out side Russia, so their interest is not in scorching the voices of these user it is very much to the contrary it is their interest is in this being the lively vibrant place that’s trusted in where people feel free to comment their interest is in making money said they are with some protest from some of the advisory board members including me they are changing their business models like we have but they are not censuring the content now the I have taught the new database about this and I said so can people say what they like in the answers are basically yes, they can say with their like if you critizes prudent usually some one else will jump all over you and say how great he is and so the authorities aren’t that worried about live journals it is against is free different from in China the authority is again they own most of the mass media are they controlled them in directly so it is, it is a different, it is a different situation. Now if a live journal became most people’s most people’s major source of news then live journal would probably face censorship by the state but it would not impose it self I mean there are every thing changes at a time but that is sort of the situation right now.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008

 Can China control information flow?

Esther Dyson: No, and it hasn’t been successful, it is fighting a losing battle and that is what makes me excited I mean the world is full of bad people but I think it is even full of good people and if you give powered individuals it’s probably at going to end up better than it was but you also need to get them education and again role models and understanding of the responsibilities and so far.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

 What are the biggest online threats governments and corporations face?

Esther Dyson: Other people also, just like every where it is other people doing bad things the internet gives them More tools and as I mentioned and they have more tools for self defense but it is again people going to spread lies about you they can find that about you if you are doing bad things they could find there and publish it we just add again this they always press your things was not on line but any one can be the world is getting more symmetrical you can vanish in to the security much more easily there are some one really wants to go after you. You have left much more of the trails and you put up in the past you can try to that you can pay cash you can avoid all the some one stuff but life gets more, more difficult because the general level of convenience in all put it. You can travel without a credit card you known the idea that is a different issue but people are simply much more trackable.

 What’s the solution?

Esther Dyson: Well, how the government deals with in China they have shut of you tube which I don’t think is the right response. The real way to deal with it is not to be people up and then you don’t need to worry about in critizes you should respond to the criticism by responding to the criticism not by shutting down the critics are but assuming you are benign institution you need good security on your web site you need all the stuff than in a security vendor will tell you, you need to keep your data security you need to keep your customers data security, you need to know whom you are employing and a question that means in waiting The privacy of the people you might employees so can the world is getting more transparent it is not all good but there is in the trade of send they the conflict we need to deal with.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

 How has technology changed the way you live?

Esther Dyson: Yeah, it has changed my life tremendously, the one interesting story the first time I went to Russia, I have sort of I had an MCI million camp but I didn’t use at my still more very many people to send email to and it was really unpleasant to use so I went to Russia met all these interesting people and discovered that it was impossible there is stay in touch with them by telephone because the telephone system was so bad where as e-mail you just send the e-mail in the might take a day or two to go through that but we get through, so I started using e-mail to stay in touch with to people I had met in Russia So that in a sense the existence of the internet enabled me to stay in touch with people would there fore made the travel more worth while and in my personal case it vastly increased my travel because it is you take a trip and kind of adds value to the trip by enabling you to maintain the contact after the trip and then you got to make another trip and so forth and that is one very specifically, a second and of course these are all very broad that I am trying to be concrete the second was I began my career as a fact checker in Forbes and I used to go to the Forbes library which is just huge cabinet place full of file dressed and file folders in find and probably at two year old annual report two or three fax press releases and may be a clipping or two bet any given company and I was all you had to go on, so then you would try and figure out the phone number for the PR guy then you get a big packet of the last years annual report in the male and I want with more press releases and then you just at the call around and find sources there is, it was actually really hard to do research and now it is just amazing you going to all need find it all have and you find the bad stuff and the good stuff in the entry stuff so the availability of information is just astonishing compared to what it is like in this speed with which you can get it all always change dramatically. In my own life, I used to remember phone numbers just in my head. But now I don’t any more of that mostly is that when you have been call people but if I do their opinion my self and most of what I do is by e-mail and then I will use e-mail to set up appointments In a sense I now loan operator it makes it possible for an individual to do things that previously we are possible only to an institution you can communicate with people directly you don’t need secretaries in all this infrastructure you can out source a lot of stuff your banking all those kind of things so as I mentioned earlier the erosion of the power of the establishment at the institution in favor of empowering the individual I still I am social if time but the amount that I can get done this stays of astonishing.

 Does that translate to politics?

Esther Dyson: Oh, yeah, in politics, the politicians haven’t recognized this yet but they are beginning to that there are really two things one is the increased transparency and among the board of an organization called the sun life foundation which is trying to, even leverage that tendency in first get congress people to become more transparent if they are not simply use the concept of research methods and mention to find stuff out in what real estate transactions happened next toward in then are you all the stuff and it is also changing people’s expectations they expect answers. They want to find the answers to their questions if they have a problem they expect some response and so people are beginning to expect two way communication rather than simply listening to the candidates speaking and then the podcast.

Recorded on: March 21 2008

 What does it take for a woman to be a leader in technology?

Esther Dyson: The same thing is in men and it is personality it is ambition, it is dedication all these things and then it can just be tougher for women going for a fold but it is not, the issue in the end as in technology it is management. I have never succeeded in a large corporate infrastructure I wouldn’t so I kind of by passed all that stuff but your name management hierarchy it is still pretty male environment and many places.

How can women compensate for that?

Esther Dyson: Well, I am not really here to give management advise and the fact is most advice is worthless unless it is specific to a particular person in a particular situation. So it is and the advise is no different whether you are talking that in a tech company or a steel company, in a cosmetics company the culture is more female and this probably easier but there is nothing I can say that is unique your special ways of you succeeding in the technology world.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008 

Why are there so few women in technology?

Esther Dyson: Because technology is like every other field Incumbents like to keep control and I was just in South Africa interestingly where there is an issue now between local South Africans especially black ones who come from typically a back ground where they didn’t have a lot of education and blacks and barbarian refugees who have a very good education and so they would get a lot of the IT jobs except that they can get working papers so who ever has got control of the resources is going to use what ever excuse they can to keep other people out and it is not men going of specifically and keeping the women out but the culture the are well boys club all these traditional things plus if you like learned of origin to technology and science especially among women and girls and so are these things interact.

 How do we change that?

Esther Dyson: A good role models and just time and there is a problem now with it is not just women it is, it is men as well not being interested in good solid scientific technical, mathematical education which is key for all of these.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008

 How can people manage their privacy online?

Esther Dyson: Well, first of all if you want to be really private don’t put it on line and if you are going to merge with some with in X don’t write about it because it will be out there digitally some where and some one can find it second there is a compact probably people make which is okay, I am going to be in public and people are going to say nasty things about me. The publicity here once understand that are they should in it is a compact they make more or less explicitly as people live thought they were sort of private go on line. They need to become more aware of that same compact it is like we go to cock tail party and you talk a lot usually what you say kind of just vanishes in to the air, but now it is all recorded and people need to understand that so the first role is, if you don’t want to repeat it don’t say it, the second rule is people may take pictures of you or write about you in some people will, you have to pick your friends because some people will take that and abuse it. There are more ways to abuse people stress now then the world in past but so you, you pick your friends, you decide what you are going to do in public and you realize it what ever you do with your friends is de facto now in public and you need to act accordingly on the other hand I think we need to have some kind of it is a pity because hypocrisy is not all bad it we need some thing to aspire to enough early it is pictures and all these people have feed of clay, it’s harder and harder to think that you ought to aspire to perfection We are losing some of the role model idealism in to lose much better than act of the I think as the bad things but the reality is that is what happening and the good news about that is I think people are being more tolerant of others failings, bad news is that become more tolerant of their own failings and not try to be better.

Should people try to remove things about themselves they don’t like?

Esther Dyson: It is a personal decision in fact this morning I just got some there is a particular guy who writes for the register who just for some reason has it in for me I think some how I most have inadvertently snubbed them long ago, so sometimes we are just [inaudible] mentioned me like if he is writing an article about somebody totally different and he will say so and so is kind of an idiot just like Esther Dyson and they go on and write about so and so and so today he kind of mentioned me the piece was about me and particular and he mentioned two things I had done one of which he misunderstood and so he said she is such a contradictory person she must be cleaning herself and I am trying to think should I go in and write to the publication not to him and say you misunderstood my point in the second instance or shall I abandon it, I don’t really know there is no, single answer depends on #1 I am kind of busy, do I really want to bother, #2 one zone sense of Dignity when is it one guy out of a hundred or fifty people misunderstandings and at some point you need to look yourself and say well may be I should explain my self better and may be I should stop doing the things are criticizing your what have you so it the internet just like real life the internet doesn’t have rules for judgment people need to develop those for themselves.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008

How would you update your 1997 book Release 2.0?

Esther Dyson: I wouldn’t update it that much which I am proud to say and sometimes I read stuff that people put out now is a new stuff and actually I wrote some of that back in ‘97 or even before that I think the one thing that has full surprised in to pointed me as how little people seem to take control of their own, their own persona on the net there is a lot of talk about privacy and back in 1997 and still now I think people should be more we are this more active in just take more time managing their presence on line, it is beginning to happen face book with it’s privacy controls lot of this controversy of that privacy now as making people understand that oh, there is such asset they should mange and you could say well I don’t want to bother to manage this asset, I want things to be the way they were, and same way I don’t want to keep all these records so that I have to pay taxes and I don’t want to manage all the paper work around my health care life is complicated. And life on line is complicated in that way too if you are going to scatter your presence out a minute then the either you are responsible for it or some one else can do what they want with it and it is, it is a new capability but every asset is a liability and disguise and every capability is a responsibility and discuss.

What has held true in the last decade?

Esther Dyson: The importance of stuff on line in the first place the excitement of the accessibility of information, the importance of two way it is not simply oh, I can go get information on the internet but oh, I can go post information on the internet I can communicate with other people, the erosion of central authority, the erosion of the official story whether it is true or not true it is cuts both ways and this whole thing about content will become de facto free not because it has no value but because it is so easy to get hold of and the way to make money then it is a think of new business models like services what personal attention what waiting for the accuracy and reliability of the information getting it quickly filtering all those kinds of things so it is the curation of the content rather than  the content itself that you can try toward and that has all come to fashions bits.

Recorded on: Mar 21 2008

Your father said your main advantage growing up was being neglected. Do you agree? 

Esther Dyson: In to some extent yes, wasn’t that I was yeah home was during the thing that I wasn’t guided, I wasn’t told what to do, I was given a lot of freedom and also lot of responsibilities, so when I was 13 I went to live in London on my with another family but out of my own family and when I was 15, I left home to go to college and then after a year of college I took some time often his like to round Europe and then went to live in Morocco with my boy friend and for each of these things they basically said if you want to do it, go ahead and do it, be responsible for what happens and bless you so I was in a sense encouraged but not manipulated. You could call that neglect, but I was pretty benign.

 When did you get involved in technology?

Esther Dyson: Yeah, well I got in to it. It was kind of I took it for granted and then realized there was no way I could compete with my mother and my father so I kind of avoided it in college and thought I would be a novelist and then I become a business journalist but then in the end I got back ended technology because it was the most interesting thing to write about.

Recorded on: March 21 2008