As always, space remains an unforgiving frontier, and the skies overhead will surely present obstacles and setbacks that must be overcome. But hard challenges demand fresh approaches, and I'm optimistic that Stratolaunch will yield transformative benefits - not only for scientists and space entrepreneurs, but for all of us.
— Paul Allen
As more intelligent computer assistance comes into being, it will amplify human progress.
Seattle has a long tradition of celebrating local and non-local art - from the Burke and Seattle Art Museums to the Asian Art Museum.
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.
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?
Once you own a team for as many years as I have, and you root for that team for that period of time, you've got rooting for the Blazers in your blood, and the Sonics are one of our arch-competitors.
I'm on Twitter, and I have over 10,000 followers. Which is pretty modest compared to Charlie Sheen.
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.
Artificial intelligence... I've been following that since I was in high school.
I'm kind of a retired software engineer. I don't write code anymore.
I'd love to bring a championship here to Portland.
I've been on record many times in the past about the challenge of being competitive with NBA teams in smaller markets.
The computer is a very regular structure. It's very uniform. It's got a bunch of memory, and it's got a little element that computes bits of memory and combines them with each other and puts them back somewhere. It's a very simple thing.
The thing you realize when you get into studying neuroscience, even a little bit, is that everything is connected to everything else. So it's as if the brain is trying to use everything at its disposal - what it is seeing, what it is hearing, what is the temperature, past experience.
If Microsoft had never existed... The industry would probably be very fragmented.
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.
I just try to find things that either need to be done, should be done, or where I can make a difference in a significant way. And the things I've been able to participate in have been very, very exciting.
My quest to expand access to space began more than a decade ago, when I teamed up with Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites to build SpaceShipOne. This innovative air-launched vehicle was the world's first private spacecraft to carry an astronaut into sub-orbital space.
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.
I believe in the power of shared data and technology to help build a better future.
It's really amazing to stand in front of a work you haven't seen before and be almost overwhelmed by its beauty and the vision and execution of the artist.
In technology, most things fail. Most companies fail.
I find the function of the brain incredibly fascinating, and it's like trying to crack the toughest, most complicated problem there is.
There are so many websites I read; I look at everything from Slashdot to Ars Technica to the business technology sites, major newspapers like the 'New York Times,' and my local papers where I live, which cover the sports teams I'm involved with. There are about 20 sites we go to regularly, and I do use Twitter and Facebook as well.
I want to have a family.
Some of my first memories are waiting for my father to finish his day at work in the University of Washington library and come out and jump in the car with my mom and myself, and we'd be sitting there reading books, and then we'd go home.
I've always been interested in many different things.
I think if you look at, for instance, what the Seahawks - what we did winning the Super Bowl, that was with a very young team. So you have to blend the experience with young players and develop those as well.
There are people out there who don't see value in intellectual property, and so they're always going to have a problem if there are lawsuits involving intellectual property.
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.
Some people can vent their anger, take a breath, and let it go, but I wasn't one of them.
A big part of the success of Microsoft was that every year, the chips our software ran on got faster and cheaper. They doubled in capability every 18 months under Moore's law.
As quickly as it started, our business model evaporated. But while Traf-O-Data was technically a business failure, the understanding of microprocessors we absorbed was crucial to our future success.
The idea that, you know - when I was growing up - that everybody would carry around a portable communicating device, that was science fiction when I was a kid.
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.
In the university library my father helped lead, as the Associate Director of Libraries from '60 to '82, I spent hours and hours as a kid devouring piles of books so I could follow the latest advances in science.
Vulcan Inc. is a unique organization that unites commercial, philanthropic, research, policy, and technology innovation. Our goals are ambitious - from saving Africa's elephants to unlocking the secrets of the human brain to building sustainable communities and opening up access to space.
Our dream is to one day uncover the essence of what makes us human.
I think I've got such a diverse set of interests - movies, aviation, technology, sports teams.
All of us who care about the world going forward would like to engage the government more.
I'm not a video-game player at all.
The unique thing about Stratolaunch - one of the unique things - is it doesn't require a fixed launchpad.
I would go in the university stacks and pull out books like 'Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II' when I was 12 or something, and I'd spend hours reading about the engines in some of those planes.
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.
Continuity is important in sports.
I spent many, many hours in the stack at the University of Washington library just wandering around, when my dad was working, as a kid.
As an ex-programmer, I'm still just curious about how the brain functions, how that flow of information really happens.
Human beings are fragile things, and for the period of time it takes to get them to Mars and back, you have dangerous radiation from the sun and the galaxy. We have to think about issues like that.
When I was 7 or 8, I became fascinated with hot rods.
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.
