(FORTUNE Magazine) – Bill Joy Chief Scientist, Sun Microsystems

In an article in Wired in early 2000, I wrote about how I feared accidents involving emerging technology, crazy people, and weapons of mass destruction. Now I'm writing a book about it. I was getting ready to work on it in New York on the evening of Sept. 10, unpacking books with titles like Anthrax, Plague Wars, Nuclear Madness, and The New Terror: Facing the Threat of Biological and Chemical Weapons. The country has gotten a big education in all these subjects over the past month or so.

Now networks are being attacked: the transportation and postal networks, networks that are vulnerable. If you send something that leaks through a network, the network gets contaminated, just as a [computer virus] worm replicates through the Internet and contaminates it. Anthrax is using the network to behave as if it's contagious.

Still, I'm not more scared than before. This problem existed. If we had done nothing, then the chance of catastrophe would have become larger and larger. But now we've become aware of it in a way that allows us to take action. I would call this a medium-scale disaster. Smallpox or nuclear would have been large-scale.

I felt after I wrote my article that there was no political will to address these problems. That's changed. We're closer to the discussion we need to have. We're not quite there yet.

We're uncomfortable because we're perceiving things we didn't see before. But they were there all along. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. People feel sad because they now know the way the world always was. That's sad but healthy.

Michael Eisner CEO, Walt Disney

This is a period of obviousness. It is obvious that you need more security, it is obvious you need to tighten your belt, it's obvious you need to be a cheerleader, to preserve your cash and capital, to have a strong balance sheet. People ask me if I'm going through a lot of pain and trouble in managing, but I think all the things you do in a dire circumstance are obvious.

In my opinion America is hated not because of our ideology but because of our freedom, our lifestyle, and our products. The more people around the world can't have those things, the more they hate us. So the solution is to make our things available around the world.

At Disney we try to have people all over the world consider our brands their brands. So in Italy, Mickey Mouse is Topolino. But people know we're an American brand, and they love that. Even in this moment of turmoil I'm meeting extensively with our European and Asian employees. This is the time. They want American products.

My take is that the economic slowdown, the recession I guess we're in, will end significantly earlier than most people think. And I believe our government will resolve these problems enough--say 90%--that we can go on with our lifestyle. I'm optimistic for three reasons: One, it's my nature; two, for hundreds of years we've resolved these problems successfully, so I believe in America's winning streak; and three, I can't believe that a group of insane people is going to bring down our country. I just can't believe it.

Madeleine Albright Former Secretary of State

I was at home in Washington that morning, and somebody called to say, "Are you watching TV?" I turned on my set and saw the second plane hit. Then, for reasons that are unclear to me, I decided I had to go to work. I drove in and heard about the Pentagon on the way. And I thought how glad I was that I had endured the criticism for putting up barriers around the State Department. Then I got to the office, where we have a great view of the Washington Monument. We watched it all day to make sure it was still standing.

I'm supportive of what President Bush is doing. I think his team has learned that a unilateralist policy doesn't work. What concerns me now is that they are going unidimensional--that they see all foreign policy through the lens of how to fight terrorism. They need to also be thinking about democratization and human rights and poverty and health and various economic issues.

They have not taken advantage of USIA [United States Information Agency, operator of Voice of America]. I'm a great believer in public diplomacy. Propaganda is not a nice word, but we need to get out the message that this is not against Islam, that we are trying to help the Afghan people, that the U.S. has given more humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan than any other country--to try to separate Osama bin Laden and the Taliban from the rest of Islam. It's not easy to do, but we have the machinery to do it.

[The Bush Administration] is in a very difficult position when it comes to trying to predict how long this will take. First of all, policymakers are not the ones flying the fighter jets, and accidents happen, like bombing the Red Cross. We hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, after all; that was not our finest moment.

Multilateralism is not easy. Keeping a coalition together requires lots of day-to-day retail diplomacy. As I said to Colin Powell, it's the best job in the world, and much harder than it looks. (Log on to fortune.com/newfuture to read an extended Q&A with Albright from the Brainstorm 2001 conference.)

Jerry Levin CEO, AOL Time Warner

This summer we were still living in a place where the U.S. had won the Cold War, and the 21st century was going to be the globalized century, and war wasn't either an option or a scenario. But history and the 20th century have shown us that underneath this thin veneer of civilized activity is the pathology to do great harm.

Now we've blown away all the superficial views that we were in a new Pax Americana. We tend to overlook the fact of our own mortality and that we're all on the razor's edge. This illuminates what's always been there. All leaders must recognize this and deal with it. Now is when some instinctive human compassion is required, combined with fierce determination to be focused on clear objectives. It's the soft side and the steely side coming together. You can't spin it--you can't have it handled by the communications mavens--it comes from the gut.

As a media and communications company, we need to define more precisely how we operate in the public interest. We are not just providing information; we have to provide insight and understanding. And we're also a communications medium--the Internet is in fact a worldwide community, a community to help deal with that grief.

On globalization: Just as there wasn't ever going to be a Pax Americana, there certainly wasn't going to be American cultural imperialism either. Understanding that is more important today than before. I want to use U.S. know-how to assist the development of truly local culture, so that what we're doing is not simply exporting American culture but trying to use some of our tools or developments to materially assist the talent in other countries. I've always believed that, and now I believe it even more strongly.

Juan Hernandez Minister of Migrant Affairs, Mexico

This is a moment for us to show what we're made of, to rise to the challenge. I'm going to travel more now, get on more planes, continue to work for a better U.S.-Mexican relationship--instead of being controlled by fear.

But yes, it is a new world, and it's very sad to all of us, especially those of us living in North America. This did not happen to a distant neighbor; this happened to family. At least 18 Mexican nationals were in the World Trade Center. What has happened to the U.S. happened to our 22 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans up there. That's the way we see it.

I've been to the U.S. every week since Sept. 11, and four times to New York. I don't see hardened hearts. On the contrary, I see a softer heart toward Mexico. California came to a decision after the 11th that even undocumented immigrants can attend the state university. The governor of Arizona told me recently she saw no reason they couldn't pass a bill there allowing the same thing. And the attorney general of Texas said a few weeks ago that he didn't see where in the law it says you need a Social Security number to get a driver's license.

Rosario Marin, the new Treasurer of the U.S., called me last week. She is a Mexican American. She wanted to come visit high-migration, poverty-stricken regions in Mexico. [Representative Richard] Gephardt and [Senator Tom] Daschle called the next day, also wanting to visit these regions. It's in the interests of both the U.S. and Mexico to bring development to these regions where people are leaving and migrating to the U.S.

I don't know if the new interest in this among U.S. government officials is motivated by the recent events. All I know is that I got those calls last week.

Marc Andreessen Chairman, Loudcloud

We spend most of our time now doing what we did before--building the business, trying to close the quarter, all the other things you do. We've got 420 employees counting on us to do that.

A lot of companies in Silicon Valley had troubles already. But recall what happened in 1998 when the Asian crisis hit--all of a sudden, when anybody missed earnings, it was because of the Asian crisis, even if they had no business in Asia. There's a bit of that going on. If asteroids started to hit Antarctica, that would become the new reason people are missing earnings.

Sept. 11 has changed the mood here. Two years ago anybody in the Valley could go anyplace and get any job at any rank at any salary anytime. That had already been shifting, and people felt pretty bad about it. But this has helped them put things in perspective. People are a lot less self-absorbed.

I think the world remains a good place for doing business, even if there's a continuing problem with terrorism. London lives with this every day, Israel lives with this every day, and they do just fine from an economic standpoint. It becomes a part of the environment, and applies equally to everybody.

N. Scott Momaday Author, and founder of the Buffalo Trust

More than nuclear or biological warfare, more than hunger or disease, we must fear madness in ourselves and in others, the kind of madness that in its blind, irresistible expression, destroys not only life but spirit. The madness of terrorism can only lead to hysteria, to social collapse, and to the murder of the human spirit.

Madness--that is, a pathological fear of the unknown, manifested in suspicion, hatred, and violence--has happened upon us suddenly and irrevocably. There was every reason to know that it was coming, but in our complacency we believed that we were secure. We cannot be blamed for it, perhaps, because complacency is a luxury we have been able to afford. We can afford it no longer.

The terrorist attacks upon us, on our own ground, have been extremely hurtful, but they have not been fatal to our spirit. Indeed, they have apparently given us a new patriotism, a new investment in the spirit of America. Our complacency, our investment in material, military, and moral superiority, has worked to our disadvantage and made us vulnerable to dangerous turns of history. We have become, in some measure, a reflection of the Roman Empire. We must take care to avoid the fate of Rome.

I am reminded these days of the warrior ideal of the Plains Indians from whom I am descended. That ideal was predicated upon firm principles: bravery, fortitude, generosity, and virtue--that is, appropriate behavior in all circumstances. Surely the role of Americans, redefined on Sept. 11, 2001, is to demonstrate bravery in the face of extraordinary peril, fortitude in a time of social and political upheaval, generosity in a world in which millions of our fellow humans live with poverty, plague, and blind animosity, and reasoned appropriate conduct in a context of barbarism and chaos.

Shelly Lazarus CEO, Ogilvy & Mather

I was in London when it happened. The moment I turned on the television, the four planes were down, and they said there were another 12 in the air. I said to myself, "It's World War III, and I'm never going to see my family again." It was horrifying. But I didn't realize the rawness of it until I came back to New York.

My view of the world used to be far away and intellectual; now it's become very up-close and personal. I'm asked frequently if I feel that we should be providing propaganda to the Arab world, explaining to them what actually happened in the U.S., what our way of life is all about. But the issue is so much more basic. Do these people have reasons to live? What sort of standard of living are they accustomed to? What is life worth to them? Can they even appreciate that there might be other views of life? So it goes back to these basic issues of giving them a stake in life, a stake in the world.

I'm actually working now on one of the more interesting marketing challenges I've ever undertaken. Chris Galvin, CEO of Motorola, has asked us to help figure out if you can stimulate demand in the U.S. There's a kind of lethargy about, so the question is, Can you use communications to return a population to normal? It's not just that people are afraid, or that they feel it's inappropriate to shop. It's not that. What people are saying is, "You know what? I just don't feel like going out. It's not that I think it's inappropriate or that I'm afraid. I just don't feel like it." And Chris says we've got to tell them, "That's what the terrorists want. I don't care if you feel like it or not--go buy a bra."

Dawn Meyerriecks CTO of the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Information Systems Agency

The main thing I see around me is a new sense of introspection. Our general presumption that we were immune and safe looks like incredible arrogance in light of Sept. 11. But openness has been key to America's educational and technological leaps.

If we get xenophobic, that's the wrong response. If we close down the borders, we'll lose the energy and impact we have on a world scale, and we won't gain from interacting with other cultures. If we withdraw, we'll cede the world stage to cultures that do not represent what we want for our children in the future. If we are forced to stop communicating in any way, whether in person or through PCs or mail, then we have lost part of what makes us a vibrant and viable culture.

John Doerr Partner, Kleiner Perkins

Yes, Sept. 11 was a disaster. But part of what it should do is get us out of our complacency, and focused on other disasters just waiting to happen. Here's a big one: The National Academy of Engineering tells us that if current population projections are correct, by 2050 the number of people living in cities of ten million or more will triple to six billion people. That means we are going to be building 400 huge cities over the next 50 years, or eight cities the size of Manhattan every year. Even if those projections are off, this an enormous challenge. Most of these cities will be built in the developing world, and they are going to be built in really unfortunate locations with really unfortunate choices about water, power, and transportation.

Today 65,000 people will die, and principally they'll die of dysentery because their drinking water was polluted by human waste. That's the single largest cause of death on the planet. We have the technology to fix that problem, provided we can get distributed power.

My partners and I are venture capitalists. We back entrepreneurs. The prospects for entrepreneurial innovation in clean water, power, and transportation are as exciting and important as the Internet. We are still investing in what comes after the Internet: the broadband, wireless, multiformat, always-on Web we call the "Evernet." But we are also investing in real-time systems and services, health care and genomics. And we're backing social entrepreneurs--some are committed to rapid, scalable improvements in public education. Others are working for the environment, and some are policy entrepreneurs taking risks for big change. We need to stretch our view of what entrepreneurship is and can be: doing more than anyone thinks possible with less than anyone thought possible.

Bill Clinton

President Clinton didn't comment for us after the Sept. 11 tragedy. But some of his remarks at Brainstorm 2001 spoke directly to the perils of living in a global economy. For the rest of his remarks, log on to fortune.com/newfuture.

The fundamental characteristic of this age is global interdependence: the globalization of the economy and of culture, the explosion of information technology, the advances in the biological sciences, climate change, and other problems--all are manifestations of a level of interdependence far exceeding anything that people who share this little planet have ever experienced.

So the great question of the 21st century is whether on balance this interdependence will prove to be positive or negative. What's my greatest fear? That the wealthy and educated people in the world who bear the greatest responsibility for developing this will fail to act on these ideas. And that people all across the world will be burdened with a world view, a sense of social psychology, that is simply too primitive for the opportunities and challenges we face.

Exhibit A: America's attitude about climate change, energy use, and the economy. Exhibit B: Why the hell didn't the Israelis and the Palestinians make a deal when they were 98% home and they knew the train was going to run off the tracks if they didn't do it? Exhibit C: Why are we having political problems in Northern Ireland now, when it is the fastest-growing part of Britain and when the Irish Republic is the fastest-growing economy in Europe? It's because real people make these decisions, and they confuse what's really important with stuff that's really unimportant, and they don't always have a sense of priorities that's capable of handling these kinds of global challenges.

REPORTING David Kirkpatrick, Christopher Tkaczyk