In 1975, Paul Allen , a smiling, satisfied-looking man, convinced his boyhood friend to do something crazy: drop out of Harvard University to start a small business together. And it was not bad for them. The colleague was called Bill Gates, and the company was Microsoft. In 1983 Allen had to leave the software giant after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which he overcame months later after a bone marrow transplant. Since then, he has dedicated himself to investing the fortune he made with Microsoft in what he has most wanted. In addition to paying special attention to his philanthropic endeavors, through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation , he has continued in business and has become a patron of the sciences that rivals government agencies in influence. All this, without neglecting his great hobbies: music and sports.
His scientific patronage was passionate. In 2001, he promoted the SETI program to search for radio signals from an extraterrestrial intelligence with 11.5 million dollars. Driven by another of his passions, space, he invested $ 30 million in SpaceShipOne , which won the X Price award for being the first privately owned manned spacecraft. In 2003, he dedicated $ 100 million to the creation of the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences – Allen Institute for Brain Sciences – with the ambitious goal of unraveling the genes that govern the brain of a mammal. Scientists have already come up with a map showing the function of 20,000 genes in a mouse brain, and now they are going for the jackpot: the map of the human neocortex.
Paul Allen, a well-known philanthropist and businessman, died on Monday, October 15, 2018 at the age of 65 due to blood cancer (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma).
We rescue an interview conducted by the staff of Muy Interesante and published in 2007:
-Have you ever imagined a world without Microsoft?
-Wow, what a question! I guess the industry would be very fragmented. Many products have emerged since then, such as iPod, Google, YouTube, eBay, and Amazon. If the latter did not exist, others would sell books online , but with the same impact? What if there were five auction companies, instead of eBay? There would be a greater variety of things to choose from, but with a large company there are more opportunities for improvement.
– Does your experience with Microsoft have to do with the type of scientific projects that you support?
-In a sense, yes. In the computer industry, there is an interdisciplinary team of people working on a problem cooperatively, joining their results. Here’s how we did it with the mouse brain project.
-Your interest in the brain seems like a logical step for someone who started out writing software .
-Yes. If you get involved with computers, you end up fascinated by the idea of intelligence. The human brain works completely differently from a computer, it does some things much better and this will continue to be the case for the next 100 to 200 years. But why? I brought together a bunch of neuroscientists and asked them what I could do to help in the neuroscience field. His answer was: a mouse brain genetic database.
-The Allen Brain Atlas -Allen’s Atlas of the Brain- is a massive data archive project. Is it a new trend in research?
-It’s a kind of science on an industrial scale. We are already witnessing other similar efforts; I think there is a Harvard attempt underway to make a cancer database. Craig Venter – the biologist who sequenced the human genome – is leading a plan in which he collects seawater to catalog life in the ocean. But there are only a few dozen such projects. In a few decades this figure may be naive.
-What is the next thing you will do in your neurogenetic consortium?
-There are still aspects of the mouse brain to be explored, such as its embryonic development and the differences between the female and the male. We are beginning to enter the human brain, much larger than that of the mouse – the size of an almond. Larger images are needed, more digital capacity. Fortunately, there are no uniform varieties of human beings, as there are of mice; But we have a long way to go before we analyze genetics and brain structure in detail.
-What do you think is the probability of success of SETI? What are the chances of finding intelligent life outside of Earth?
-Scientists are optimistic. They think that, with better instruments, we could pick up waves at higher frequencies or deeper and find civilizations broadcasting out there.
If they found signs, would you be the first to know?
-First they would call the White House. They told me that I am the third or fourth on the list. I guess that’s one of the benefits of funding the project, but the phone hasn’t rung yet.
-What would that kind of discovery mean for you?
-Knowing that there are other beings outside to communicate with, intelligent aliens, would change our lives. We would have to ask ourselves a few questions. What the message says? Can we decode it and return an answer to you? Are they bipeds that breathe oxygen, or are they a cloud on a giant gas planet?
-You have also supported the more practical aspects of space exploration, funding SpaceShipOne . How did you experience the moment of your take-off?
-I remember that I was very nervous for fear that something might go wrong. He had never endangered a life. When a program does not work, an error message appears on the screen, but if something goes wrong with a rocket, the error will almost always have fatal consequences.
-What do you think about using the ship as a commercial product?
-It would be great if people bought a ticket to fly, see the stars and the dark sky. I would like to do it, but after others have flown a good number of times.
-Do you support NASA’s plans to send humans to the Moon and Mars ?
-Many argue in favor of these projects, that you have to have ambitious dreams. I’m always fascinated by technical challenges, but can’t we get the same data with a small rover running on Mars with a camera? Human beings are fragile, and from the moment they took someone to Mars until they brought them back, the astronaut would be under the radiation of the Sun and the galaxy. You have to think about that. As a species, we are discoverers and adventurers, and space and the deep ocean are the last frontiers. But I don’t trust that we end up buying apartments on the Martian beach.
-The projects you have sponsored cover many fields. What selection criteria do you follow?
-I ask myself what are the big questions of science at all times. There is little chance of picking up the phone and being answered by an alien, but in my opinion, tackling this investigation is invaluable. Other areas that interest me are the human brain and systems biology, that is, understanding how cells work inside. Also today’s topics: global warming and disease. And theoretical physics, although it basically consists of a bunch of geniuses in different parts of the world, and I don’t know how I could make them work faster than they already do.
-When you finance Atlas of the Brain or SpaceShipOne , do you think of them as investments or is it pure philanthropy?
-They are philanthropic projects, but I always wonder if there is some way that they can be self-financing. In biological research, this means creating patents or raising funds from foundations or the government. I believe that we will be successful with the Atlas of the Brain because we have demonstrated unique abilities. For now we have not patented the intellectual property of the project, although I do not exclude it. In most of the things that I have done, I try to capture its main value and develop it. And look at Microsoft. In 1975 we were three guys, and now there are 70,000.
-When you and Gates started, were you ambitious?
-We knew that microcomputers with software could have an impact. A large part of Microsoft’s success was due to the fact that each year the chips on which our software ran became faster and cheaper. They doubled their capacity every 18 months, as predicted by Moore’s law. When we started we calculated that, if we were doing very well, we would have about 35 employees. But in reality, we had higher hopes. Inside we were thinking: “if a lot of people bought a cheap computer …”.
-How did the two of you work together in the beginning?
-We divide the programming tasks. I was familiar with the software of the main units and the minicomputers to emulate chips, and Bill was working on the design of the Basic program. He focused his activity on external relations and business, and what attracted me was knowing in which direction the technology was developing. We were complementary.
-Now do you remember the old days together?
-Yes, and we laugh a lot! It’s hard to explain the incredible fun environment we lived in. Sometimes Bill slept on the office rug, and when the secretary came in, he would see her feet sticking out of the door. Our only leisure activity was watching movies. We could schedule until 2, 3 or 4 in the morning, get up late and start over. We loved it.
-You and Gates seem to follow parallel paths. Are you going to do philanthropic collaborations?
-We are always looking for common ground. After all, we have been very successful together. We recently talked about doing something on the frontiers of energy.
Since leaving Microsoft in 1982, Paul Allen has not stopped. And it gives the feeling of having taken advantage of his life and his enormous fortune to enjoy. As a student, he was mesmerized by 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jacques Cousteau’s The World of Silence. Thirty years later he was betting on scientific projects that seem taken from those movies. But in addition, he founded software companies, cable television and web industries; bought the Portland Trail Blazers -basketball- and Seattle SeaHawks -basketball- teams; he got hold of a yacht, the Octopus, and created his own rock museum. A regular on the Forbes list of the richest in the world, Allen is undoubtedly a lucky guy, but above all, with wit and concerns.
-What are the big questions you have in mind now?
-The health of the ocean and the problem of energy. That is why I have invested in a company to investigate nuclear fusion.
-What type of research on fusion do you carry out?
-The company is called Tri Alpha Energy and finances aneutronic fusion, a process that emits protons instead of neutrons, potentially more efficient. Nuclear fusion is expected to remain on the horizon for decades, so you have to think of alternatives. In recent years there have been many discussions about fission reactors, and I have participated in meetings on the subject. I think Bill is interested in this too.
-Computers, sports, boats, space, science and rock and roll. Do you have any childish wishes pending to fulfill?
-With 8 years I was fascinated by sports cars. Now I don’t like them as much as other things, so I won’t have a supermodel with flames on the sides. In life, you have to choose your weaknesses.
