

Apple's Steve Wozniak: 'We've lost a lot of control' - Garbage
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-08/tech/steve.wozniak.computers_1_computer-whiz-computer-history-museum-apple-shares?_s=PM:TECH

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dominostars
> "All of a sudden, we've lost a lot of control," he said. "We can't turn off
> our internet; we can't turn off our smartphones; we can't turn off our
> computers."

How is this a loss of control? Using technology to make our lives easier or
more enjoyable doesn't force you to relinquish control of your actions. If
anything, it gives you greater control because you have more options and
flexibility. For instance, GPS enabled phones allow me to walk or drive
wherever I please without much thought, because it's so easy to get directions
back.

Before my brother bought an android device, he was afraid that always having
access to work email would be a big burden. What he found was the complete
opposite; instead of being tied down to a computer, he now had the flexibility
to move around, without being anxious about missing an important message.

In many ways, technology gives us more control of our lives, not less.

> "You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts
> with g-o, and it's not God," he quipped.

What if you don't have access to a smart person? What if this 'smart person'
isn't smart? What if this smart person is manipulative? With the internet, the
collective knowledge of millions of people are a mouse click away, and it's
nearly impossible for any one person to control this information. How on Earth
is this something to be afraid of?

He then decides to complain about Slingbox. He claims that because it has
bugs, and because all software has bugs, all computers will fail. But all
technology ever created by humans is faulty, so I'm not sure what's so
significant about this. I'm betting Sling Box breaks less than a record
player.

There's nothing insightful about this. He's just rambling about how the times
are changing, without citing anything substantial.

~~~
sz
<http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html>

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sigzero
"You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts
with g-o, and it's not God," he quipped.

I saw a quote once and it went something like this: "Genius in the future will
not be determined by what you know but by if you can find it."

I can see part of his point about the "loss of control"...just try and take an
X-Box away from a teen. It will only get worse as technology encroaches more
and more but there is the flip side that some technology frees us up to do
other things.

~~~
pistoriusp
You still need to be able to understand it.

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meadhikari
>>"You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts
with g-o, and it's not God," he quipped.

What he mean by this? Is he not daring to say he use google or is he trying to
say Google is not God or entirely something else that I am not getting.

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nodata
He's saying you used to ask an expert. Now you Google until you find an answer
(I say: not necessarily the same answer..)

He doesn't want to say Google, so he's saying g-o instead. The g-o joke is an
allusion to Google being similar to God in some ways (everywhere, source of
infinite knowledge, etc).

~~~
meadhikari
Thank You.

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estel
The source article seems to have disappeared from the original link. Does
anyone have a copy of it?

~~~
seltzered
[http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/08/steve.wozniak....](http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/08/steve.wozniak.computers/)

