"...can anyone think of a major technology that was not first used by the rich?"

Fire. Atlatl. Loin-Cloths and Capes. Stone Scrapers and other hand held Paleolithic tools.

I think we can push "rich" into the times before coinage, but once there are rich people on Earth, almost all inovations will be put to use in their vicinity. Being rich implies having a surplus of necessities. Humans without surpluses have little time or energy to inovate and experiment. The inovating individual may not be rich, but will likely try to use a successful inovation to trade to the rich person for some other desirable item, or status in their society or some such.

My preference, rather than bemoan rich celebrity interest would be to milk it for all it was worth, along the lines of the new space entrepenures. First drive the price down, then expand the market. Make the technique pay it's own way rather than beg the mighty for a slice of the tax pie.

Why Larry King? The guy's a dope. Replace him with Cindy Crawford or Natalie Portman... for affirmative action purposes, of course. They're celebrities, super-hot, and smart. Plenty of interesting stuff to be found therein.

LOL. No no no, Jessica Alba - much more instructive.

Yeah, they're missing the point.

My genome would be pretty flash too, and I'm up for it.

http://www.divine.ca/en/fun-and-...ica-alba- 1.html

"Jessica said '...The second somebody says no to me is the second I'm going to jump up and say yes.' "

No, Jessica! No!

The Rock

> No, Jessica! No!

Hey, those are pretty nails -- are they real? No? Well, they're still nice.

The internet was first used by college students/professors, who were not themselves rich, although they were part of rich institutions.

What a pathetic bunch of interfering, whingeing, snivelling, puritanical twerps. No wonder that the sage layman ignores almost everything that "scientists" find 'alarming'. Most of them probably can't even catch a ball or a joke. They have ugly wives and sporadic hair. Their children are cross-eyed and boring. Bah.

Jessica Alba - much more instructive.

But what if it turns out it really is full of cat dna? That would be so weird...

I'd still do her, of course, but it would be weird.

*All* women are made up of 50% cat DNA.

Where are the other 50% from?

Yeah, this is one of those "X always happens" statements that properly translates to "X often turns out in this way, in some broad sense." New technology that successfully sells as a luxury often sells to rich people first. Big computers, personal computers, PDAs, spreadsheet and word processor software, video games, laptops, these all sold first to "rich" people in the sense that starving kids in El Salvador don't get a lot of Nintendo, but not in the sense that the original market was only people who could afford a summer house in Nantucket or some such thing.

A lot of clever technology is available based mainly on where you are. Local electric or phone service chose its early adopters partly by location. If you want some cutting-edge cancer treatment, it helps to live close to a cutting-edge cancer hospital.