I want to take a minute and reflect on the leaving of Bill Gates.

I'm sure you've read all about the last moments of Bill Gates' reign at Microsoft. I'm sure you've read that he'll still sit on the the board part time (is that even possible?). And I'm sure you've read that it's a great time to leave Microsoft as Google grows. But those are not the things I want to reflect on. I want to reflect on our civilization. I was reading recently an article on the
cave paintings from 26,000 years ago. The article went on in awe about these painters and the circumstances for which they were tagging the caves. Essentially, the cave artists (who have some modern-era curators, btw) are a camp in and of themselves. We don't know who they are or what their species is. Are they homo sapiens? Are they the cornerstone of European civilization?

I will say this, though: I would love nothing more than to isolate myself in a deep, dark cave listening to the pulse of the earth with complete darkness around me. I'm sure some sort of trance state would ensue. It seems like the perfect state to be in to create or to think or to tap into the deepest states of being. A peyote-less trance state. This, it seems, is to be a nature of artists. Of creators... of innovators.

Which brings me back to Bill Gates. In the 1970s--before the idea of a personal computer existed, he carved a place for himself in a very vulnerable, uncertain future. Perhaps he had the aid of pot, of peyote, of acid, speed or cocaine. Something, I'm sure--to program in those days endlessly for a computer that did not exist. They were creators, innovators. They arguably had their finger on the pulse of human desire/needs. Sounds romantic, doesn't it? It is in some respects. There are many who are also romantically driven by their intuition. They may never become the richest (or third richest now) man in the world but they create... for themselves. For society. For civilization. I bow my hypothetical hat to you, Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates who will now bow down from entrepreneurship into philanthropy. A funny round-about if you ask me... Perhaps this is now our spiritualisms--this capital induced trance state. Perhaps this is how our civilization has evolved. From having a one tier-ed spiritual structure of shamen, of artists/healers to having two tiers. One for the creators/artists and one for the technical innovators. Or maybe we are in a transition state of importance from the creator/artists to the technical inovators. Or maybe it's still one tier. Maybe all of those physicists today hacking at the idea of quantum computing are really artists. Like the cave artists.

Perhaps today's Bill Gates was 26,000 years ago's cave painters.