There&#x27;s this weird pattern that happens to geeky types when they become rich and powerful. They suddenly buy into the whole command-economy top-down philosophy when their success and wealth only exists because of the largely decentralized nature of technological markets and tech&#x27;s low regulatory environment. All of sudden they think they can mastermind everything to perfection.  The 20th century had a horrific experiment with centrally planned masterminding that cost humanity 94m lives. This should give every central planner some pause.<p>Pie in the sky rich guy stuff like immortality (Page, Kurzweil) and central-planning stuff like robot run cities, AI controlled airports,  etc are just mindless futurism that either will never happen or will be too impractical or unethical to ever properly attempt. Heck, Page can&#x27;t even deliver a thermostat that doesn&#x27;t regularly fuck up in spectacular ways. He wants this cowboy engineering to run cities and fly planes?  Meanwhile, Google has competely missed the boat on some real futurist stuff that is actually panning out like VR or private spaceflight.<p>The only person I can think of who didn&#x27;t fall into this bizarre pattern is Gates, who just funds a foundation that hands out grants to various organizations, mostly non-profit and NGO, who might get things done. I think this is by far the wiser approach and the one that has the potential for the most change.<p>Live long enough to see yourself become the villain seems to be in effect here. Most super successful people don&#x27;t have a second act. They peak and either disappear or just become weirdos who have spent too much time around yes men and in  echo chambers.