Some interesting feedback to the last chapter:
Will Carl’s knowledge, and what he does with it, change the future enough that his knowledge becomes useless? Or will he still be able to use that knowledge to make things better? Who knows?! Read and find out! Here’s something to think about, though. Carl is worth about $50 million at this point. Let’s say he does a Warren Buffet and grows his net worth to $50 billion. Many of the problems facing the country still can’t be fixed at that level. The U.S. economy is in the $10-$15 trillion dollar level (as of 2018). That’s another few orders of magnitude.
Neither Microsoft nor Bill Gates actually wrote DOS. Very true! Gates purchased it from another programmer, tweaked it as needed for IBM, and retained the marketing rights. (Yes, I know it’s more complicated than that, but you get the gist.) Is this critical to the story? NO! In fact it just adds a layer of confusion for his friends.
What was the name of the investment company Carl mentions? He couldn’t have forgotten E.F. Hutton, could he? You bet he could! Thanks for the reminder. I remembered the ad, but not the company!
Somehow I don't think Moore’s Law refers to beer “...In ten years' time, the size of the components will be a fraction of their current size, the price will be lower than now, even after inflation, and the power will be immensely lager." - Oh, if only Moore’s law applied to beer! The price of a six pack would halve every two years!
What is the name of the next book? The names of your books give hints about what is going to happen. “Lunar Orbit” Oh, wait that’s Book Nine, or is it Book Ten…
Could Carl have bought into Microsoft? Why not? In the real world, somebody did. I read the prospectus from 1986, and an outfit called Technology Venture Investors, a venture capital outfit from Silicon Valley, owned just over 6% at the time of the IPO. Why couldn’t Carl have done it? Maybe he managed to swoop in and get there first.