Steve Jobs is 28 years old, and seems a little nervous as he begins his speech to a group of designers gathered under a large tent in Aspen, Colorado. He plays with his bow tie and soon takes off his suit jacket, letting it fall to the floor when he can’t find anywhere else to put it. It’s 1983 and he’s about to ask designers for help in improving the appearance of the next wave of personal computers. But he will first tell them that these computers will disrupt the lives they have led until now.
“How many of you are 36…over 36?” he asks. It’s the age of the computer, he said. But even the youngest people in the room, including himself, are in some ways “pre-computers,” members of the TV generation. According to him, a new generation is emerging: “In their lifetime, the computer will be the predominant means of communication. »
Quite a statement at the time, considering that very few spectators, according to an impromptu survey by Jobs, own a personal computer or have even seen one. Jobs told designers that they not only will they will soon use one, but it will be indispensable and deeply woven into the fabric of their lives.
The video of this speech is the centerpiece of an online exhibition titled The objects of our lifebrought to you by Steve Jobs Archive, the ambitious historical project dedicated to telling the story of the legendary Apple co-founder. When the exhibit went online earlier this month – after the discovery of a long-forgotten VHS tape in Jobs’ personal collection – I found it not only to be a compelling reminder of the late CEO, but also relevant to our times, when another new technology has arrived with as much promise as peril.
The occasion of the speech was the annual Aspen International Design conference. The theme of that year’s event was “The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be,” making Jobs the ideal speaker. Although much of the discussion focuses on his views on creating beautiful products, the underlying message is straight out of this Bob Dylan tune: Something is happening and you don’t know what it is. He told his audience things that seemed absurd: that in a few years, more computers would be shipped than cars, and that people would spend more time with those computers than driving those cars. He told them that computers would be connected to each other and everyone would use something called email, which he had to describe because it was such a strange concept at the time. Computers, he insisted, would become the dominant means of communication. His goal was to make all of this happen, to get to the point “where people are using these things and wondering, ‘Wasn’t that the way it’s always been?’ »
Jobs’ vision seemed to influence his audience, which earned him a standing ovation. Before leaving Aspen that week, Jobs was asked to donate an item that would be placed in a time capsule to commemorate the event. It was to be unearthed in 2000. Jobs took the mouse off the Lisa computer he had brought to the demonstration, and it was sealed in the capsule, along with an 8-track cassette of the Moody Blues and a six-pack of beer.
The speech itself is a sort of time capsule. Jobs was right when he said that one day we wouldn’t be able to imagine what life was like before these new tools he was introducing into the mainstream. Those of us still here who were, in Jobs’s term, “born pre-computers” often amaze young people by describing how we did our jobs (manual typewriters! carbon copies!), communicated with each other (telephone booths!) and we had fun. (three TV channels! Bargain!) before computers became our virtual appendages.
