Steve Jobs Rare Footage from 1980
April 23, 2014, 11:44 am
In this rare 1980 footage, 25-year-old Steve Jobs discusses how he views the potential computers may have in the future, particularly how Apple will be a catalyst for user-friendly computer hardware and software. "It looks like the timing is right for that to occur," Jobs predicts.
Jobs and his "bicycle" for the human mind
In this archival footage taken in the months following Apple Computer's 1980 IPO, Steve Jobs offers a lucid and compelling depiction of his views on the potential of computers. Having co-founded Apple Computer four years earlier at the age of 21, it is striking how what Jobs has to say on the topic of computers rings true today.
In this presentation, Jobs discusses how delighted he was to read a Scientific American article from the early 1970s that compared the efficiency of locomotion of many animals, from birds to mammals. Of all the animals researched by the article, the condor demonstrated the most efficient locomotion. Man, says Jobs, showed poorly on the list, coming in about a third from the top.
"But," says Jobs, "someone at Scientific American was insightful enough to test a man on a bicycle. And a man on the bicycle won by a long shot -- about twice as efficient as the condor."
The value of this insight, continues Jobs, is that man is a toolmaker with the ability to make things that amplify one's natural abilities. And therein lies the genius and unparalleled potential of the computer to serve as the "bicycle of the mind" -- helping the human mind massively improve its efficiency and expand its boundaries.
Says Jobs, "In general, we're buildng tools that amplify human ability...just like how the industrial revolution amplified sweat."
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