Bill Joy talks about greedy markets, reckless science, and runaway technology.

Q: Whatever happened to the book you were writing to follow up the article?

Joy: I’ve written two manuscripts. The first was a wake-up call – that’s obviously not the book we need anymore. The second was prescriptive, and the problem is, I’m not satisfied with the prescriptions that I have. You don’t get two shots at something like this, so I’m holding off.

Q: Meanwhile the markets continue to pour money into the fields that worry you — genomics, nanotechnology, and robotics.

Joy: Because they don’t have to pay the bill.

You mean the damages if something goes wrong?

Joy: Right. But I’m afraid we’re not going to have this discussion until there’s a really big accident, and maybe not even then. Assuming any of us are still around to have the discussion.