Most surprising technologies

The best tech minds from America's best tech companies weigh in. Preview from Fortune's iMeme: The Thinkers of Tech conference.

Lee Thorn
Lee Thorn
Title: Chair, Jhai Foundation
I think it is the growth and utility of the Internet. In 1998 I asked Pam Hardt-English, the founder of Resource One, where I met people like Lee Felsenstein in the early 70s, why I should help bring computers to rural villages in Lao PDR. "Why is it worth the expense?" I asked.

She thought a long time, then said, "Education and business. Through the Internet, most people will begin to imagine for the first time how wide and varied our world is. This wondering will lead to deeper education. And everyone will be using computers and the internet for business. If you cannot, you will be left behind."

My father worked with computers in the '50s. I had a small vision of how computers could be useful. But the Internet was unimaginable.

Richard Barton

Marc Benioff

Eva Chen

John Clippinger

Esther Dyson

Steve Fambro

Louise Guay

Bill Joy

Mark Lewis

Yusuf Mehdi

Harriet Pearson

Tomaso Poggio

Geordie Rose

Jonathan Schwartz

Sol Trujillo

Padmasree Warrior

Lee Thorn

Bruno Wu
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.