Steve Jobs' 1983 speech predicted maps, mobile communication

Steve Jobs / Justin Sullivan/Getty Images via CBS San Francisco

The Next Web recently reported that a reader found a recording of Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs giving a speech at a small event called International Design Conference in Aspen (IDCA) in 1983.

What's peculiar about the 54-minute recording reveals Jobs talking about advancing technology and the future of how we communicate.

At one point, Jobs describes electronic mail and "portable computers with radio links." He went on to say that in a telephone call, both parties have to be present to communicate. With electronic mail, the recipient of the message can read the note at a later time. Jobs went on to say that eventually, that person could probably walk around while receiving the transmission.

"The process of communication itself changes as the medium evolves," he said. Jobs went onto say that computers are a medium, pointing out that the evolution of mediums is an adjustment period. He continuted to suggest that the early days of television were like radio, but with video.

About 13 minutes into the speech, Jobs describes an experiment by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aspen, Colo. that sounds a lot like methods used by Google to create its mapping service.

"MIT came out to Aspen," Jobs said. "And they had this truck with this camera on it. And they went down every single street, photographed every single intersection."

He went on to describe a computer hooked up to a video disc that reproduced the streets of Aspen, much like Google street view.

"It's an electronic map," Jobs said.

Listen to Jobs' full speech below.

Talk by Steven Jobs - IDCA 1983 by LI0NS

[someinternetdude]

Steve jobs invented the Alphabet too, Who care about Steve Jobs.


Hey Jobs, Android still rules.

[hypnotoad72]

Sci-fi was doing that long before he did.

Back when sci-fi was doing that, he was dropping out of college and leeching off of campus... free meals, sleeping there when he shouldn't, and it was a liberal arts college too... noting vitriol aimed against liberals, maybe they taught him how to be unethical... or did the religion he read up on, given his antics as CEO show him to be a self-aggrandizing diva with no respect for any of his workers, or anyone else except for his precious self...

http://www.fastcompany.com/3001441/do-steve-jobs-did-dont-follow-your-passion

I could put up a dozen articles about how uncivilized that person was in real life. Especially involving patents, including some that are so vaguely worded they cover standard technologies widely used in the 1980s (communication protocols, etc, poorly reworded to describe wireless devices but left open to encompass any number of things... how they got passed is amazing; our judicial system is definitely not ran by anyone even remotely technology-savvy...)

I can't agree that this article was oh-so-great.

And given the big gaffe about Apple Maps from a few days ago, one has to admit the timing of this article might be a bit off... or the attempt for another Apple advert being a bit off, rather...