1995: David Letterman interviews Bill Gates: "What about this Internet thing -- Do you know anything about that?"

[jcgriff2]

Microsoft founder Bill Gates appeared on Dave Letterman's late-night comedy show in November 1995 (28 years ago).

YouTube clip (@14:40):

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[INDENT=3][h32]Letterman[/h32]: "Why don't I have a computer?"[/INDENT]
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[INDENT=3][h42]Gates:[/h42] "We need to find an application for you. Part of your problem is that you have[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]too many assistants."[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]<S K I P>[/INDENT]
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[INDENT=3][h32]Letterman:[/h32] "What about this Internet thing -- Do you know anything about that?"[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][h32]Letterman continues:[/h32] “What the hell is [the internet] exactly?”[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]“A place where people can publish information. They can have their own homepage,[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]companies are there, the latest information,” Gates says.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]“It’s wild what’s going on.”[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Letterman wasn’t sold.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]“I heard you could watch a live baseball game on the internet and I was like, does[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]radio ring a bell?” Letterman says.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Gates said unlike with radio, the internet would allow users to watch a baseball game[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]whenever they wanted instead of live.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]″[Do] tape recorders ring a bell?” Letterman asks.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Gates, who dropped out of Harvard at the age of 19 to start Microsoft in 1975, also told[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Letterman “you can find other people who have the same usual interests as you do,” by[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]searching the web.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]In addition to working to make computers a useful tool for connecting and for education,[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Gates predicted the advent of artificial intelligence; he told Letterman there might be a[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]way to make computers think on their own.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]At the time, however, Gates was not sure how that would work.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]“That turns out to be a very tough problem,” Gates says. “In fact, there has been[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]almost no progress made on it, so no one knows what that will happen. Some people[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]think it will never happen.”[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Gates called the idea of an intelligent computer a very “scary thought.”[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3](Twenty-four years later, Gates still has a similar view: In March, Gates called A.I.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]both “promising and dangerous.”)[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]So what were Letterman’s final thoughts on the web? “It’s too bad there[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]is no money in [computers and the internet],” he told his billionaire guest.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Gates also mentioned that his new house under construction is expected to be completed[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]sometime in 1996 and its total size will exceed 50,000 square feet in size![/INDENT]
[INDENT=3][/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]From Google (2021): "The average number of occupants in each home fell,[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]while the average size of a new single-family home ballooned - from just[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]909 square feet in 1949 to 2,480 square feet in 2021."[/INDENT]
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