Dreamily inventive billionaire Bill Joy, the cofounder of Sun Microsystems, has predicted doom for the human race in the pages of Wired. He has a new reason for pessimism: A Manhattan condo he put on the market for $40 million has reportedly sold to Australian actor Hugh Jackman for $21 million — down from a previously rumored sale price of $25 million. The five-bedroom, three-floor condominium has a view of the Hudson River. We have a theory on why Joy sold, even at such a discounted price.It's not like he needs the cash. But we don't think Joy, who joined Kleiner Perkins three years ago, as a partner in the once-storied venture-capital firm which funded Amazon.com and Google, among others, has much time to enjoy the place. Kleiner, like much of the venture-capital business, is struggling, especially with its bets on cleantech which have been battered by both the credit crunch and falling oil prices which make alternative energy sources less profitable. Better to unload it at any price — and invest in real estate closer to the office. As for Jackman, we figure the X-Men star simply knows a bargain when he sees one.

♦ Tommy Mottola and his wife Thalia have reportedly sold their 12-acre Westchester estate for $15 million. The 15,000-square-foot Aspen-style home in North Salem was first listed in 2006 for $21 million. [NYP]
♦ Hugh Jackman has closed on the triplex apartment at 176 Perry Street he was in negotiations to buy late last month. Jackman paid between $20 and $23 million for the 11,032-square-foot pad, which was previously owned by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. [NYO]
♦ NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein and his wife, Sony exec Nicole Seligman, are about to close on the Sag Harbor home of author Harry Hurt III and his wife, chef Alison Becker. The price is reportedly $2 million. [NYP]

At yesterday's Web 2.0 Summit, Kleiner Perkins whiz John Doerr — a man so successful he can get away with wearing the same three ties for ten years — told attendees that Barack Obama should skip over Googlers Eric Schmidt and Vint Cerf, and instead hire Kleiner Perkins partner and Sun co-founder Bill Joy as his national chief technology officer. Obama's job description was focused more on counter-terrorism intelligence and IT supremacy. Doerr thinks that's misguided: “The most important thing he's got to do is kick-start a huge amount of research and innovation in energy." Energy tech is Doerr's current focus at Kleiner, of course. But it's unclear to me whether Joy is now a leader or a dilettante on the topic. Doerr also suggested the U.S. "staple a green card to the diploma" to keep foreign-born engineering students from going back home after graduation. Throw in a fixed-rate mortgage for gossip bloggers, and I'll endorse the whole package.

♦ Hugh Jackman has reportedly gone into contract on a triplex apartment at 176 Perry Street for more than $25 million. The 11,032-square-foot spread, which was originally listed for $40 million and later dropped to $33 million in April, is owned by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. [NYO]
♦ Tech exec/art collector Roy Judelson and his wife Mary paid $10.5 mil. for a four-bedroom spread at 33 East 70th Street. Their new neighbors will include Joan Didion and Marina Rust Connor. [Cityfile]
♦ Now that he's settling in at 15 CPW, Dan Loeb has put his carriage house at 7 MacDougal Alley on the market for $7 million. The 4,000-square-foot home features a roof deck, media room, and wine cellar. [Curbed]

You too can own a piece of the dystopian future! Bill Joy, the grimfaced Sun Microsystems cofounder who likes to muse on humanity's demise, is putting his $40 million triplex in Manhattan's West Village up for sale. He never even moved in. The future does not need humanity. Nor does a 11,000-sq. ft. condo, apparently.

• The Sun hosts an exclusive Webchat with Marissa Mayer, Google's Director of Consumer Products. Our first question for the lovely Marissa: Google bitching aside, just how miffed is she that we excluded her from our Web 2.0 Hotties Competition? [The Sun Online]

Former Paypal CEO Peter Thiel recently joined the board of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a transhumanist org seeking to "help ensure a safe Singularity" by ushering in an age of self-aware computers. But he's not the only Valley exec investing in weird dreams of a super-intelligent race. Here are the top three: