Looking for a laugh? In the technology industry there is one person whose antics often generate such a response – even when he’s not trying to.
At an Australian business event Friday afternoon, Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder alongside Steve Jobs) suggested that humans would "become the pets, the dogs of the house." Wozniak was speaking to over 2000 business professionals at the Australian Chambers Business Congress on Australia’s Gold Coast.
‘The Woz’ (as Steve Wozniak is often affectionately known) has long been known as an eccentric character and his latest claims certainly back that up. In what must have sounded like a speech from Sarah Conner – an apparently fictional character in the Terminator movies and The Sarah Conner Chronicles TV series – Wozniak went on to claim "We’re already creating the superior beings, I think we lost the battle to the machines long ago".
Fortunately The Woz did slightly temper his crazy comments about a SkyNet like problem by stating "My comment about the machines winning the war is partly a joke, but we’ve accidentally already put so much in place that we can’t get rid of from our lives." And then strangely, he ranted again by stating "Once we have machines doing our high-level thinking, there’s so little need for ourselves and you can’t ever undo it – you can never turn them off."
The comments came to light in an article by Tony Bennett published by the Sydney Morning Herald shortly after the speech. We certainly look forward to hearing what The Woz will rant about next and many of us will secretly be wondering whether, he is, in fact correct. Are we at the brink of a new age where machines will rule the world – and we’ll simply sit back with nothing to do?
You can keep up with more of my rants and opinions by following @paulspain on Twitter.