George Gilder is one of the most prolific speakers of technology. After having much influence in the industry for decades, read more about the Tech Prophet and George Gilder net worth.
Long before the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, could claim the title of TechKing, the twentieth century had already hailed its Tech Prophet. For decades, influential people who stood at the helm of progress have relied on George Guilder’s wisdom to keep industries and finances afloat.
One of Gilder’s biggest contributions is co-founding the Discovery Institute, a politically conservative and non-profit research facility. It is an invaluable institution where the most extraordinary minds gather to “think outside the box” and explore possibilities, debunk theories, and educate the modern world.
Gilder’s scope is so vast and his analysis so rare that his pseudoscience is regarded as valuable information. He earns a fortune from engagements, but Gilder is also an author.
He published the book Wealth and Poverty in 1981 and released the 21st-century edition in 2012.
But a great man like him didn’t just pop out of nowhere. He has triggers and influences that brought him to his current standing. What about George Gilder net worth? Anyone would pay for a piece of advice from a brilliant mind like his, but how wealthy is the famous Tech Prophet?
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George Gilder Short Bio
George Franklin Gilder was born on November 29, 1939, in New York City but pretty much grew up in Massachusetts. He is the great-grandson of designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. He was the only child of Richard Watson Gilder, a United States Air Force soldier who fought in WWII.
He was just two years old when his father died during the war. George then spent most of his growing years with his mother, Anne Spring, and stepfather, Gilder Palmer. This new family led the mother and son to a fairy farm in Tyringham, Massachusetts, where George was raised.
Despite Richard’s early passing, George grew up with respectable male role models. Firstly, Palmer had his stepfather, also the late Gilder’s close friend. Then there’s the business tycoon, David Rockefeller of the Rockefellers, who happened to be young George’s godfather.
George Gilder Education
George Gilder attended New York’s Phillips Exeter Academy, one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the United States. He then went to Harvard University, where he graduated in 1962. Years later, George returned to Harvard and moderated the forum for the Ripon Society.
George Gilder’s Career
Speechwriter and Spokesperson
From the 1960s, Gilder was the middle person between the leading personalities of the country and the common people. He wrote effective speeches for candidates like Nelson Rockefeller, George W. Romney, and Richard Nixon, which helped gain massive support.
For a time, he worked as a spokesperson for liberal Republican Senator Charles Mathias. Unfortunately, dealing with anti-war protesters proved too much for the aspiring influencer and eventually led George to move to Harvard Square, where he continued his career as a writer.
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George Gilder on Economics and Technology
George Guilder’s first book in the realm of economics was called Visible Man, published in 1978. The book tackled his theories between the balance of wealth and poverty, a reflection on supply-side economics that was formulated eight years before the release of his work.
Then by 1981, Gilder followed up his literary contributions with the book Wealth and Poverty, which turned out to be a best-seller.
Gilder eventually became a contributor to The Wall Street Journal editorial page and Laffer’s economic report. He also served as Chairman of the Lehrman Institute’s Economic Roundtable, as Program Director for the Manhattan Institute, and aided the development of supply-side economics.
In the following decade, George Gilder shifted his focus on technology and the internet. He expressed his full support to the then little-known horizon of the dawning digital world through several books and his newsletter, the Gilder Technology Report.
The Tech Prophet
Before we go further, have you heard of the term Digerati? The word pertains to the fathers and founders of social media, content marketing (example: e-books and webinars), the computer industry, and online communities (examples: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.)
“Thank you for the trivia. What about it?” The term was first used on USENET in 1992, referring to an article written by Gilder.
In short, George already had an inkling of what the new age had to offer over a decade before Mark Zuckerberg started coding Facebook. That was way ahead of Chen and Hurley, who formed the idea of YouTube in 2005—two years before McKenzie Scott’s ex-husband Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.
George Gilder’s Chronicles on Technology
Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution In Economics And Technology, his book published in 1989, was about the scientist Carver Andress Mead and the CMOS microchip revolution.
American billionaire scientist TJ Rodgers published an article with the Harvard Business Review in 1990. He reflected on Gilder’s book, Microcosm, and described it as an intellectual landmark. Rodgers critiqued the elements of Microcosm, praising the logic as ambitious yet plausible.
IBM, DEC, and INTEL once dominated the market with special-purpose chips. But they were practically destroyed when Japan and small startups tossed the costly standards to run computers and came up with flexible, high-performance yet low-cost alternatives.
This cheaper and better alternative has been in existence since 1969. If thinkers like Gilder knew its potential, major players in the industry are sure to have the information. Megacompanies thought they could control the market if they stuck with their expensive processors, and the heavy loss resulted from greed.
Telecosm: The World After Bandwidth Abundance, published in 2000, foretold the development of fiber optics. Perhaps, Gilder’s logic of the material’s potential was based on the fact that these glass-drawn fibers had been around and utilized since Roman times.
The material was also used by historical geniuses like the Chappe brothers in the 1970s for the first invention of the optical telegraph. Successful experimentations were performed in the mid-1800s on light and wave travel by physicists Daniel Collodion, Jacques Babinet, and John Tyndall.
Alexander Graham Bell patented an optical telephone system called the photophone in 1880. The attempts and list of famous names go on, proving the potential of the glass-drawn fibers.
Eventually, it was proven that fiber-optic cables enable a much steadier bandwidth transmission at much longer distances and a much faster rate. Also, consider that the main component is based on glass, a product of sand that can be found everywhere on earth.
Gilder released two books of The Silicon Eye, published in 2005 and 2006. The books describe advanced technological features that have become part of our lives a decade or so later.
- The end of the clumpy analog era and the fruition of the digital age.
- Going past 2-Dimensional experience.
- Magnetic codes on paper checks.
- Notebook computers and touchpads.
- Adding Foveon X3 sensors to digital cameras and smartphones.
Foveon X3 sensors enable digital cameras and smartphones to process an environment or subject, detect color and process the information. And at the mention of image sensors, we come to the subject of the once much-debated theory of AI or self-analyzing machines.
George Gilder Net Worth- Frequently Asked Questions
How Much is George Gilder Net Worth?
George Gilder net worth for the current year is $7 million. The 83-year-old best-selling author, investor, and economist started his career in the early 60s. He was the man behind the rousing speeches of prolific political figures, Nelson Rockefeller, George W. Romney, and Richard Nixon.
What was George Gilder’s Prediction for 2020?
George Gilder predicted that the (BSV) blockchain would restore global money over the next 5-10 years. And just as he foretold, the crypto market began another historic bull run, with Bitcoin’s price leaping from $19,000 to almost $67,000 in 2021.
What is George Gilder Famous For?
George Gilder became famous for his theories that foretold our current state in technology and economy. He has shared his wisdom in several fields through his books, speaking appearances, and articles. He is also co-founder of the non-profit think tank, Seattle’s Discovery Institute
George Gilder Net Worth – Final Thoughts
Imagine if at least half the world’s population would make an effort to think outside the box? Guilder was born five years before the first colored television ever existed, yet he could visualize world progress decades ahead of his time.
Today, MacKenzie Scott’s famous ex-husband has declared the possibility of space travels for everyone. The TechKing took it up a notch with self-driving cars, projects for underground “hyper tunnels” to avoid traffic, smart homes, and the development of neuro link technology.
People like Gilder, Musk, and Bezos have often been considered eccentric because of their wild ideas. But looking in our history, don’t we owe so much of our current level of convenience to strange, babbling men (and women) who turned out to be geniuses?
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