View source for Bill Joy

{{Short description|American computer engineer (born 1954)}}
{{For |William Joy (fl. 1329–1348), the English architect of the Decorated Gothic style |William Joy}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Bill Joy at World Economic Forum (Davos), 2003-01 (cropped).jpg
| caption           = Joy in 2003
| birth_name        = William Nelson Joy
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1954|11|8}}
| birth_place       = [[Farmington Hills, Michigan]], U.S.
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| fields            = [[Computer science]]
| workplaces        = 
| alma_mater        = 
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| academic_advisors = [[Bob Fabry]]
| doctoral_students = 
| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = [[BSD]]{{•}}[[Vi (text editor)|vi]]{{•}}[[C shell|csh]]{{•}}[[chroot]]{{•}}[[TCP/IP]] driver{{•}}co-founder of [[Sun Microsystems]]{{•}}[[Java (programming language)|Java]]{{•}}[[SPARC]]{{•}}[[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]]{{•}}[[Network File System|NFS]]{{•}}''[[Why The Future Doesn't Need Us]]''
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| spouse            = 
| children          = 2
| awards            = *[[Grace Murray Hopper Award|ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award]] (1986)
*Elected to [[National Academy of Engineering]] (1999)
*Elected to [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1999)
*Fellow of the [[Computer History Museum]] (2011)
| education         = [[University of Michigan]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]])<br/> [[University of California, Berkeley]] ([[Master of Science|MS]])
}}

'''William Nelson Joy''' (born November 8, 1954) is an American [[computer engineer]] and [[venture capitalist]]. He co-founded [[Sun Microsystems]] in 1982 along with [[Scott McNealy]], [[Vinod Khosla]], and [[Andy Bechtolsheim]], and served as Chief Scientist and CTO at the company until 2003.

He played an integral role in the early development of [[BSD UNIX]] while being a graduate student at [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]],<ref>{{cite web| url = https://dl.acm.org/author_page.cfm?id=81100148022| title = ACM author profile page: William Nelson Joy}}</ref> and he is the original author of the [[Vi (text editor)|vi]] text editor.  He also wrote the 2000 essay "[[Why The Future Doesn't Need Us]]", in which he expressed deep concerns over the development of modern technologies.

Joy was elected a member of the [[National Academy of Engineering]] (1999) for contributions to operating systems and networking software.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-06-10 |title=Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems Ceo, To Speak At Institute For Advanced Study - Press Release {{!}} Institute for Advanced Study |url=https://www.ias.edu/press-releases/bill-joy-sun-microsystems-ceo-speak-institute-advanced-study |access-date=2022-10-16 |website=www.ias.edu |language=en}}</ref>

==Early career==
Joy was born in the Detroit suburb of [[Farmington Hills, Michigan]], to William Joy, a school vice-principal and counselor, and Ruth Joy. He earned a [[Bachelor of Science]] in [[electrical engineering]] from the [[University of Michigan]] and a [[Master of Science]] in [[electrical engineering]] and [[computer science]] from the [[University of California, Berkeley]], in 1979.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://berkeley.edu/tour/students/famous_alumni2.html|title=UC Berkeley Online Tour: Famous Alumni|publisher=University of California, Berkeley|access-date=July 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527100153/http://www.berkeley.edu/tour/students/famous_alumni2.html|archive-date=May 27, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

While a graduate student at Berkeley, he worked for [[Bob Fabry]]'s [[Computer Systems Research Group]] (CSRG) on the [[Berkeley Software Distribution]] (BSD) version of the [[Unix]] operating system. He initially worked on a [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] compiler left at Berkeley by [[Ken Thompson]], who had been visiting the university when Joy had just started his graduate work.<ref name="opensources"/>

He later moved on to improving the Unix [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]], and also handled BSD distributions.<ref name="opensources">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable|first=Marshall Kirk|last=McKusick|author-link=Marshall Kirk McKusick|encyclopedia=Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution|year=1999|publisher=O'Reilly}}</ref> Some of his most notable contributions were the [[Ex (text editor)|ex]] and [[Vi (text editor)|vi]] editors and the [[C shell]]. Joy's prowess as a computer programmer is legendary, with an oft-told anecdote that he wrote the vi editor in a weekend. Joy denies this assertion.<ref>Ashlee Vance,[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/bill_joys_greatest_gift "Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140603174753/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/bill_joys_greatest_gift|date=2014-06-03}}, ''The Register'', September 11, 2003.</ref> A few of his other accomplishments have also been sometimes exaggerated; [[Eric Schmidt]], CEO of [[Novell]] at the time, inaccurately reported during an interview in [[PBS]]'s documentary ''[[Nerds 2.0.1]]'' that Joy had personally rewritten the BSD kernel in a weekend.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08PmIv1l5LY| title = Eric Schmidt: At Berkeley, Bill Joy written and rewritten the kernel over a weekend. No human on the planet could do this except for Bill| website = [[YouTube]]}}</ref> 
In 1980, he also wrote <code>cat -v</code>,<ref>displays nonprinting characters, except for tabs and the end of line character</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://fossil.fuhrwerks.com/csrg/fdiff?v1=d6eb5fa5a41b9648&v2=7fb8837733dec112 |title=Computer Systems Research Group BSD Distribution: Diff |last=Joy |first=Bill |date=October 10, 1980 |publisher=[[Computer Systems Research Group]] |access-date=December 15, 2022 |quote=case 'v':}}</ref> about which [[Rob Pike]] and [[Brian W. Kernighan]] wrote that it went against [[Unix philosophy]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Program Design in the UNIX Environment |author1=Rob Pike |author2=Brian W. Kernighan |date=October 1984 |url=https://harmful.cat-v.org/cat-v/unix_prog_design.pdf |journal=AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal |volume=63 |issue=8 |at=part 2 |access-date=December 15, 2022 |quote=cat therefore shouldn’t transform its input}}</ref>

According to a ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' article, during the early 1980s, [[DARPA]] had contracted the company [[BBN Technologies|Bolt, Beranek and Newman]] (BBN) to add [[TCP/IP]] to Berkeley UNIX. Joy had been instructed to plug BBN's stack into Berkeley Unix, but he refused to do so, as he had a low opinion of BBN's TCP/IP. So, Joy wrote his own high-performance TCP/IP stack. According to [[John Gage]]:

{{blockquote|BBN had a big contract to implement TCP/IP, but their stuff didn't work, and grad student Joy's stuff worked. So they had this big meeting and this grad student in a T-shirt shows up, and they said, "How did you do this?" And Bill said, "It's very simple&nbsp;– you read the protocol and write the code."<ref name=salon/>|John Gage}}

Rob Gurwitz, who was working at BBN at the time, disputes this version of events.<ref name=salon>[http://www.salon.com/2000/05/16/chapter_2_part_one/ "BSD Unix: Power to the people, from the code"], Andrew Leonard, ''Salon'', May 16, 2000.</ref>

==Sun Microsystems==
In 1982, after the firm had been going for six months, Joy, Sun's sixteenth employee, was brought in with full co-founder status at [[Sun Microsystems]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hall |first=Mark |author-link= |date=1990 |title=Sunburst: the ascent of Sun Microsystems |url=https://archive.org/details/sunburstascentof00hall |location=Chicago |publisher=Contemporary Books |page=8 |isbn=9780809243686 |quote=he was Sun's sixteenth employee}}</ref> At Sun, Joy was an inspiration for the development of [[Network File System|NFS]], the [[SPARC]] microprocessors,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NPoFtCGuTs| title = SPARC: The Power of Ideas| website = [[YouTube]]}}</ref> the [[Java (programming language)|Java programming language]], [[Jini]]/[[JavaSpaces]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bill-Joy|title=Bill Joy {{!}} American software developer and entrepreneur|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2018-12-20}}</ref> and [[JXTA]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Peer to peer : collaboration and sharing over the Internet|first=Bo|last=Leuf|date=2002|publisher=Addison-Wesley|isbn=0201767325|oclc=1058000048}}</ref>

In 1986, Joy was awarded a [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] by the [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] for his work on the Berkeley UNIX Operating System.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://awards.acm.org/award_winners/joy_6968593| title = 1986 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award: William Nelson Joy}}</ref>

On September 9, 2003, Sun announced Joy was leaving the company and that he "is taking time to consider his next move and has no definite plans".<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/09/bill_joy_leaves_sun/| title = Bill Joy leaves Sun Microsystems| website = [[The Register]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.cnet.com/news/co-founder-joy-to-leave-sun/| title = Co-founder Bill Joy to leave Sun}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sun-microsystems-co-founder-bill-joy-to-leave-company| title = Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy to leave company}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Sun-sets-on-pioneer-Bill-Joy-Co-founder-2557959.php| title = Sun sets on pioneer Bill Joy / Co-founder, leading technologist resigns| date = 10 September 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/10/13/350901/index.htm| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060415102332/http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/10/13/350901/index.htm| url-status = dead| archive-date = April 15, 2006| title = Bill Joy After Sun With his corporate ties cut, the "Edison of the Net" speaks freely on the challenges facing Sun, the Net, and, of course, Microsoft}}</ref>

==Post-Sun activities==
In 1999, Joy co-founded a venture capital firm, HighBAR Ventures, with two Sun colleagues, [[Andy Bechtolsheim]] and Roy Thiele-Sardiña. In January 2005 he was named a partner in venture capital firm [[Kleiner Perkins]]. There, Joy has made several investments in green energy industries, even though he does not have any credentials in the field.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.cnet.com/news/bill-joy-on-suns-downfall-microsofts-prospects-green-tech-q-a/| title = "Bill Joy on Sun's downfall, Microsoft's prospects, green tech (Q&A)", Ina Fried, ''CNET News'', May 25, 2010| date = 25 May 2010}}</ref> He once said, "My method is to look at something that seems like a good idea and assume it's true".<ref>[http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050114020135/http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html |date=2005-01-14 }}, Clay Shirky, Networks, Economics, and Culture mailing list, July 1, 2003, from a speech at ETech, April 2003</ref>

In 2011, he was inducted as a Fellow of the [[Computer History Museum]] for his work on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) Unix system and the co-founding of Sun Microsystems.<ref>[http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Bill,Joy/ "2011 Fellow: Bill Joy"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103005111/http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Bill,Joy/ |date=2015-01-03 }}, Computer History Museum, retrieved 17 June 2013</ref>

==Technology concerns==
In 2000, Joy gained notoriety with the publication of his article in ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' magazine, "[[Why The Future Doesn't Need Us]]", in which he declared, in what some have described as a "[[neo-Luddite]]" position,<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Why the Future Doesn't Need Us|language=en-us|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/|access-date=2020-12-09|issn=1059-1028}}</ref> that he was convinced that growing advances in [[genetic engineering]] and [[nanotechnology]] would bring [[existential risk|risks]] to humanity. He argued that intelligent [[robot]]s would replace humanity, at the very least in intellectual and social dominance, in the relatively near future. He supports and promotes the idea of abandonment of GNR ([[genetics]], nanotechnology, and [[robotics]]) technologies, instead of going into an [[arms race]] between negative uses of the technology and defense against those negative uses (good nano-machines patrolling and defending against [[Grey goo]] "bad" nano-machines). This stance of broad relinquishment was criticized by technologists such as [[technological singularity|technological-singularity]] thinker [[Ray Kurzweil]], who instead advocates fine-grained relinquishment and ethical guidelines.<ref>[http://www.kurzweilai.net/are-we-becoming-an-endangered-species-technology-and-ethics-in-the-twenty-first-century "Are We Becoming an Endangered Species? Technology and Ethics in the Twenty First Century"], Ray Kurzweil, ''Essays'', November 20, 2001, originally presented on November 19, 2001 at Washington National Cathedral.</ref><ref name="globeandmail">{{cite news|last1=Valpy|first1=Michael|title=Will we invent our own worst enemies?|date=23 June 2001|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/will-we-invent-our-own-worst-enemies/article762002/|access-date=12 June 2014|newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]]}}</ref> Joy was also criticized by ''[[The American Spectator]]'', which characterized Joy's essay as a (possibly unwitting) rationale for [[statism]].<ref name="globeandmail"/>

A bar-room discussion of these technologies with [[Ray Kurzweil]] started to set Joy's thinking along this path. He states in his essay that during the conversation, he became surprised that other serious scientists were considering such possibilities likely, and even more astounded at what he felt was a lack of consideration of the contingencies. After bringing the subject up with a few more acquaintances, he states that he was further alarmed by what he felt was that although many people considered these futures possible or probable, that very few of them shared as serious a concern for the dangers as he seemed to. This concern led to his in-depth examination of the issue and the positions of others in the scientific community on it, and eventually, to his current activities regarding it.

Despite this, he is a [[venture capital]]ist, investing in {{Abbr|GNR|genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics}} technology companies.<ref>[https://www.wired.com/magazine/2013/04/bill-joy/ "Bill Joy on Venture Capital, Clean Tech, and Big Boats"], Steven Levy, ''Wired Magazine'', April 16, 2013</ref> He has also raised a specialty venture fund to address the dangers of pandemic diseases, such as the H5N1 [[avian influenza]] and biological weapons.

==Joy's law==
===Of management===
{{main|Joy's law (management)}}
In his 2013 book ''Makers'', author [[Chris Anderson (writer)|Chris Anderson]] credited Joy with establishing "Joy's law" based on a quip: "No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else [other than you]."<ref>Chris Anderson, ''[[Makers: The New Industrial Revolution]]'', 143.</ref> His argument was that companies use an inefficient process by not hiring the best employees, only those they are able to hire. His "law" was a continuation of [[Friedrich Hayek]]'s "[[The Use of Knowledge in Society]]" and warned that the competition outside of a company would always have the potential to be greater than the company itself.<ref>Chris Anderson, ''[[Makers: The New Industrial Revolution]]'', 144.</ref>

===Of computing===
{{See also|Moore's law}}
Joy devised a formula in 1983, also called ''Joy's law'', stating that the peak computer speed doubles each year and thus is given by a simple function of time. Specifically,
:<math>S = 2^{Y-1984},</math>
in which {{mvar|S}} is the peak computer speed attained during year {{mvar|Y}}, expressed in [[Million Instructions Per Second|MIPS]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The not-so-distant future of personal computing |author=[[John Markoff]] |journal=[[InfoWorld]] |date=December 13, 1993 |page=49}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Bill Joy}}
* {{TED speaker}}
* {{C-SPAN|85893}}
<!-- * {{Charlie Rose view|1268}} -->
* [https://ex-vi.sourceforge.net/viin/paper.html An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120507165453/http://www.bigpicture.tv/speakers/bill_joy Bill Joy], video clips at Big Picture TV
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140603174753/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/bill_joys_greatest_gift/ Excerpts from a 1999 Linux Magazine interview regarding the development of vi]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160316234314/http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/transcripts/003.html NerdTV interview] (video, audio, and transcript available) - 30 June 2005
* [http://video.mit.edu/watch/the-six-webs-10-years-on-9110/ The Six Webs, 10 Years On - speech at MIT Emerging Technologies conference], September 29, 2005
* [http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/user/listitems/answer_view/6439.page Bill Joy at Dropping Knowledge], his answers to the 100 questions at Dropping Knowledge's Table of Free Voices event in Berlin, 2006.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110420215435/http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1120598654 Computer History Museum, Sun Founders Panel], January 11, 2006

{{Sun Microsystems}}
{{Berkeley Software Distribution}}
{{Hopper winners}}
{{Existential risk from artificial intelligence}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joy, Bill}}
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:American billionaires]]
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:American computer scientists]]
[[Category:American electrical engineers]]
[[Category:American venture capitalists]]
[[Category:BSD people]]
[[Category:Computer systems researchers]]
[[Category:American futurologists]]
[[Category:Grace Murray Hopper Award laureates]]
[[Category:Internet pioneers]]
[[Category:Kleiner Perkins people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering]]
[[Category:Open source advocates]]
[[Category:People from Farmington Hills, Michigan]]
[[Category:Sun Microsystems people]]
[[Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni]]
[[Category:Unix people]]
[[Category:Wired (magazine) people]]