Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wonders if society’s growing collection of tech gadgets – from smartphones that speak to us to devices that track our vital signs – is hurting more than helping.
“We’re going to be like the family pet … building all the stuff that takes care of us,” said Wozniak half-joking to a crowd of about 3,000 at the National Association of Music Merchants conference Saturday at the Hilton Anaheim hotel.
He was interviewed by Joe Lamond, president and CEO of the music trade organization.
Wozniak, 64, exhibited whimsy and self-deprecating humor as he hopped from one tangent to another. He discussed his mixed feelings about today’s technological advances, company highlights and lowlights while he was with Apple, and ways he’s reinvented himself throughout the years. Fittingly, he also dished on music, specifically his love for guitar and Bob Dylan.
It’s not lost on Wozniak how helpful technology is to users. We use our phones to guide us to unfamiliar destinations, and when we need answers, there’s Google.
But he pondered if people are letting devices have too much control, making his point with “Her”, a film about a man who falls in love with an operating system.
“Machines won the battle 200 years ago,” he said. “Everything we built with them, every step we take with them, we can never go back to something before.”
He reminisced about the days when non-techies, including housewives, were willing and able to troubleshoot problems with their electronics. Nowadays, consumers tend to toss their faulty equipment without investigating and fixing the cause.
Wozniak, who’s credited with designing the first personal computer, the Apple I, said he was motivated by making the technology simple and easy to use.
He added a keyboard to emulate a familiar tool, the typewriter, and worked toward removing unnecessary computer chips.
As Apple gained momentum, the company ran into hurdles.
Looking back, he blames Apple II’s failure to the fact that it only allowed users to play games. He said chips were installed to disable its business tools, which users actually wanted. Apple III, he said, missed the mark because it lacked accompanying software and didn’t get to the market quick enough.
His run at Apple, which he created with Steve Jobs, officially ended in 1986.
Thereafter, in his usual tinkerer fashion, he embarked on several projects, including teaching fifth graders computers and going back to school himself. He got his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from UC Berkeley, under the pseudonym “Rocky Raccoon Clark.”
He did so to avert the media.
“I didn’t want people to say, ‘The guy who started Apple isn’t getting A pluses,” he said.
Contact the writer: lleung@ocregister.com
