Top 50 Tech Visionaries

WithNapster,Shawn Fanningintroduced the technology that, some doomsayers warn, could spell the end of the Internet. Today traffic from peer-to-peer programs consumes an estimated70 percentof all broadband bandwidth, and AT&T says that   peer-to-peer is a major reason why it will have to radically upgrade its infrastructure if it is to avert  the collapse of the Internetas we know it by 2010. All of this because a guy was looking for an easier way to share a few tunes with strangers? Sheesh.

Gordon Moore (#11) to Michael Dell (#18)

You can't go wrong with a guy who's got his own scientific law, can you? Moore's Law, posited in 1965, three years beforeGordon Moorefounded a little company called Intel, predicted that the number of components on a computer chip would double every year (later, he amended it to every two years). As Intel notes, Moore's Law remains the "guiding principle for the semiconductor industry"; but, in truth, every field of high-tech--from hard drives to TVs--validates to some degree the almighty Law of Moore. Moore remains involved with Intel, which--at 40 years old--may be   number one on the list of companies that Silicon Valley could not exist without.

Mouse up to your PC's File menu, open a new window, and thankBill Atkinsonfor being able to do that. His early ideas regarding user interface design elements like the menu bar became  graphical user interface  standbys not just on Apple computers (where he worked), but on every major operating system that has followed. As a programmer, Atkinson designed MacPaint,QuickDraw, andHyperCard, a sort of proto-Web system that clearly inspired the creation ofthe World Wide Web. After starting his own company, General Magic, Atkinson mostly retired from tech to work as anature photographer.

Don't laugh. The brainchild of  Steve Case, America Online was a big deal back in the early 1990s. The timing was perfect for a service that   offered online training wheels for millions of intrigued but trepid people looking for an introduction to the World Wide Web. AOL pioneered more than just the chat rooms for which it became infamous. Case launchedNeverwinter Nights--one of the first MMOs (massively multiplayer online games)--was an early champion of user avatars, and (most notoriously) started the blending of online and big media by selling out to Time Warner in 2001.Not such great timing there, alas.

Quick, check your pockets. Whether you're toting aniPhone, aRazr, or an  enV, you owe a debt toMartin Cooperand his 1973 patent   responsible for   the mobile phone as we know it. His invention, created during his tenure at Motorola, weighed just shy of 2 pounds, and ten years would pass before mobile phones broke the 1-pound barrier. Cooper is still active in the telephone business. His company ArrayComm develops antenna technology so today's 2-ounce phones can reach their network.

Atariis synonymous with video gaming--so much so that the name remains in use (though now far removed from founderNolan Bushnell, the undisputed father of video gaming)   36 years after it originated. Bushnell's inspiration--a world where everyone could play games in the comfort of their own home--is a rare instance where the vision panned out almost exactly as envisioned. Though no one is thrilling over Atari's consoles any more, Atari and Bushnell paved the way for every video game platform that has followed.