> While this is true, the evidence so far is that innovation (at least of the kind we have been engaging in) benefits the rich far more than the poor.
Oh yeah ? Do you ignore the fact that even in the poorest countries people have mobile phones and connect with online services though it ? This has completely changed how they network in the past 10 years. The West is not the only harbour where innovation stops.
1. Sure thing, but if you can choose between "faster computers" and "cure malaria" then I'd wager that's pretty easy - except of course when you're called Ray Kurzweil.
In many ways this was Rockefeller's motivation. He believed it was his Christian duty to earn as much money as he could and use it according to biblical principles.
Maybe he just feels he has a lot to give back after what he did in the business world ?