Bill has proven himself more discriminating. By aligning his image with DaVinci's, Gates casts himself as a renaissance man and seeks to enter the pantheon of great thinkers and tinkerers. Ford's middle class sensibilities prevented him from conspicuous consumption of art. But Ford knew a good idea when he saw one and refined mass production into an art. Change it to a more peaceful French Impressionist day.
Art becomes the object of immediate and coldly technical gratification.
In Bill's house, empty signifiers replace the real thing. Moreover, Bill does not tread lightly with his massively wasteful house. He pays lip service to environmental harmony, but there appears to be no effort at solar technology or energy efficiency. The house faces west to the sunset, not south to the sun. We'll seed the estuary with sea-run cutthroat trout, and I'm told to expect river otters.