One of the richest men in the world wants you to drink used toilet water.
Recycled used toilet water, at least. The “OmniProcessor” is just one of the kooky ideas to come from the brain of Bill Gates since he all but retired from Microsoft, the company he co-founded.
With an estimated net worth of more than $136 billion, Gates is one of the richest men in the world and also, at least judging by his habitual efforts to solve every problem facing humanity, one of the most knowledgeable.
That self-appointed expertise in dozens of matters has earned him plenty of scorn. Gates drew the ire of GOP Rep. Laura Boebert on Wednesday over his recent comments that “rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time.”
In response, the freshman lawmaker tweeted a picture of a porterhouse with the caption “Come and take it, Bill.”
Boebert’s tweet drew mockery, with many unsure what exactly she was referring to. But the apparent non-sequitur did speak to a broader question on the minds of many: Who, exactly, does this guy think he is?
Particularly since the COVID-19 outbreak, Gates is seemingly everywhere. In November of last year, he launched a podcast with Rashida Jones called “Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions,” which features the pair tackling topics ranging from wealth inequality to whether “people can change.”
Gates can, at the very least. The former nerdy, somewhat secretive prep-school educated tech guru with a temper (who at one point patrolled the Microsoft parking on weekends to see who showed up for work) has transformed into an outspoken advocate for a range of health-related and politically liberal causes.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been credited for dramatically reducing malaria cases in Africa, saving hundreds of thousands of lives each year. To celebrate the impressive feat, Gates unleashed a swarm of mosquitoes on the audience during his 2009 TED Talks event about the topic.
“There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience,” Gates said.
But his charity’s work in providing medication and millions of mosquito nets didn’t satiate Gates’ philanthropic itch. Instead of accepting success, Gates has funded the creation of genetically modified mosquitoes to kill off others that carry disease. Already, 750 million of these new lab-designed bugs have been released into the United States, with one critic calling the effort a “Jurassic Park experiment” that could permanently disrupt the ecosystem.
Gates’s efforts to play God extend to his plans for the atmosphere as well. Last year, tests began for a Gates-backed venture to dim the sunlight by spraying microparticles into the sky in an effort to avert climate change by changing the earth’s temperature. Environmental groups sharply attacked the idea, saying the potential downsides far outweigh any alleged benefits.
“This is as much an experiment in changing social norms and crossing a line as it is a science experiment,” environmental activist Jim Thomas told Nature.
For all of his hope that science will bring humanity to new heights, Gates remains a consistent pessimist on the topic of COVID-19 and alleged the death and despair inflicted around the world is merely a sneak peak for the “damage that climate change will inflict.”
Already, Gates surmises that the public will potentially be compelled to get a third vaccine, citing concerns about mutated strains.
“All five of the companies that have U.S. vaccines are looking at making that modification and adding that in so that people who’ve already had two shots might need to get a third shot,” Gates said Wednesday in an interview with CBS, despite mounting evidence that current vaccines largely protect against variants found in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
In the meantime, Gates remains a champion of lockdown policies. In December of last year, he lamented that bars and restaurants must remain shuttered over the next “four to six months.” As for full sports stadiums and concerts, Gates predicts those won’t return to normal for potentially a year.
“Even through early 2022, unless we help other countries get rid of this disease and we get high vaccination rates in our country, the risk of reintroduction will be there,” he told CNN. “And, of course, the global economy will be slowed down, which hurts America’s economy in a pretty dramatic way.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated nearly $2 billion to vaccine distribution and development, with a focus on poorer nations, and is regularly interviewed by news stations for his thoughts on the country’s COVID-19 response. He has called the inquiry over China’s alleged responsibility for the pandemic a “distraction” and erroneously suggested that mask-wearing in the U.S. is worse than in other countries.
His efforts to educate the public extend to his work on funding various initiatives for schools around the country. One of the Gates Foundation’s latest projects is creating “an anti-racist math practice” through an organization called “Equitable Math,” which seeks to root out “white supremacist” teaching methods such as showing your work in math problems.
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“White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,” a lesson from the group says. “Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.”
