"Peter F. Hamilton - Misspent youth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

edge of the village, with acres and acres of grounds, Tim went to

grandma was well taken care of in her nursing home. But it wasn't
an own-your-private-Caribbean-island style of wealth.

It could have been, Tim read with growing dismay. That was
the bigger part of Jeff Baker's fame. He could have had a fortune
that rivalled Bill Gates or Eleanor Pickard. Memory crystals were
universal: without them the entire world would crash to a halt;
there would be no information economy, no economy at all,
in fhct. The tiniest percentage royalty would have given him an
income of billions of Euros a year from the uncountable numbers
of crystals that were grown to feed the voracious global electronics
industry.

Instead, in an act of benevolence and philanthropy which was
essentially without parallel, Jeff Baker had refused to patent the
crystal structure. Instead, he published it on a Rutnet website, and
told anyone who was interested to go right ahead and make it.
The Rutnet server crashed for ten days straight due to the millions
of attempted hits from across the planet.

Jeff Baker, Tim realized as he read his own family history,
didn't have fame so much as respect. A billion datahead nerds
regarded his dad as more important than God. Very nice - but
what actual use was it? Tim would have much preferred him to be
a cable star. At least that way they would have got a constant
stream of invitations to glamorous showbiz parties, and he could
have mixed with celebrities. That would have done wonders for
his kudos at school.

'Is it true?' Tim asked that suppertime. 'Did you invent the
datasphere?'

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'Not really,' Jeff said, smiling gently. 'But my crystal idea

certainly helped it to grow up from being the Internet.'

'Why didn't you make money from it?'

'I did. I've got a whole load of non-executive directorships. And
my consultancy work pays for your schooling, as well as for your
mother's clothes. Just.'

Sue Baker narrowed her eyes to give him a cautionary look