BILL GATES Chief Software Architect, Microsoft

Immortality can be bought; Alfred Nobel used his 'will' to do it. What would Bill Gates do? Would the world's richest man use his 'will and final testament' as the ultimate software tool to empower the human individual? Would his claim to global leadership, eventually, be less about the man-machine interface, and more about the mind he devotes to his legacy?

Gates' is a mind that has given him $46.6 billion (over Rs 2 lakh crore) in just a quarter of a century. He owns about a tenth of Microsoft. He has three children, Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe-and he intends leaving them $10 million (Rs 45 crore) each in his will. About 0.02 per cent, each. "I don't think it would be very useful for my children if they learn about life having so much money," Gates is on record as saying.

The man also hopes to give away most of his wealth during his own lifetime, to make the world 'measurably healthier'. Here's a businessman, you'd think, who considers his own do-good efforts more effective than anything 'the people' can undertake. But in 2001, Gates intervened with a resounding 'No!' in the debate raging in the US over whether 'estate tax'-by which the government takes more than half a wealthy person's wealth upon demise-should be abolished. Pay the country back, he urged, for enabling your wealth. "A hypothetical case may illustrate what I mean: suppose two foetuses are summoned to appear before God, and he tells them that they are the next two births on Earth and will go-one to Ethiopia and one to the US. He goes on to say that his treasury is running a bit low, and he wants them to help replenish it, so he is going to auction off the opportunity to be born in the US. He asks each of them to write down and hand him a sheet on which they set forth the per cent of the net worth they will have when they die which they will commit to bequeath to God's treasury. He promises that the one who writes down the highest number will be born in the US. Would either of them put down a number as low as 55 per cent?"

A cleverly reasoned argument. But of obvious US-conception, ironically. In poor countries, giving children a headstart is needed just to give them a global 'equal start'. So, will Gates' notions of a good legacy win a global following? It's still open to debate. Hypothetically, it would take something that can resound with true intellectual power for long after he's gone.