Sun Rises Over Aspen's Bill Joy.

• Author: LANSON, SUZANNE
• Position: Brief Article

When the national media scrambles to cover a Colorado techie, that's noteworthy. Rarely has a local generated the buzz Bill Joy, co-founder and chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, drew from Why the Future Doesn't Need Us, a 20,000-word article he wrote for the April issue of Wired magazine. Its subhead: "Our most powerful 21st-century technologies -- robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech -- are threatening to make humans an endangered species."

Between March 13 and 17 Joy was on NPR, Charlie Rose, CNN, Good Morning America, CNBC, Fox News and CBC-TV (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.). Major newspapers also jumped in: The Seattle Times noted his "long-held computer-industry-guru status." Joel Garreau of The Washington Post called him "a respected creator of the Information Age." John Markoff of The New York Times dubbed him "an unlikely new doomsday prophet."

Another Coloradan causing buzz is Rick Levine, former web architect for...