Visionary

With the resignation of Steve Jobs from the position of CEO at Apple the company, and by extension consumers, lose a true visionary.  I’m not exaggerating.  If you don’t believe me go on YouTube and look at some of the videos of lectures he gave upon his return to Apple in the 90’s.  One in particular that I was watching last night in preparation for a computer class I teach, showed a younger and more healthy looking Jobs discussing his view of the future of computing.  In it he talks about being able to save a document at his work computer and have instant access to that document at home or wherever else he is.  He goes on to describe a world in which the internet has become fast enough for us to store information on servers and access them as quickly, or eventually even faster, then we can if we stored them locally.  Sound familiar? We’re there or at least very close.  As companies shift more and more to the cloud they are doing exactly what Job’s foretold over a decade ago.  Another, smaller, example of his foresight is in something as small as the naming of the iPad.  When it was first announced the name was criticized everywhere for bringing to mind images of female hygiene products.  Now…well now even if you leave of the “i” and simply refer to something as a pad most people’s first thought will likely go to a tablet computer rather than feminine products.  He knew that iPad was the right name and he stuck to his guns. 

Why do I go on about Steve Jobs?  Well I was wondering where technology was going the other day and started to brainstorm.  While I’m no Steve Jobs, I want to take a stab at where I think things are headed and record it so that in 10-20 years I can come back and see how right I was.  And who knows…maybe someone in Cupertino will read this, like my ideas, and offer me a job…hey I can dream…

So stay tuned for my predictions on where technology will take us in the next 5, 10, and 20 years…