The wonderful wizard Woz talks about his comics and tech convention on Tomorrow Daily

Hi everybody, we are here with the one and only Steve Wozniak. Yes and you are talking about Silicon Valley comic con. I've always loved fun things. I've always loved entertainment events. I've even put on musical festivals of my own in the past. Yeah? And so this is a big deal, yes. It's very exciting and we heard that this came from a fusion of two of the people that were most influential on my life. You and Stan Lee. Listen, I met Stan Lee about two years ago and he's a hero to me, and I'm a hero to him. We hit it off, and they couldn't stop us from talking to each other. We were so excited and we said, we gotta do something. We gotta come up with something. We didn't come up with it right away, but other people around finally Suggested let's put a comic con together, we know how it's done, we know how to do it, and Sam and I said go, let's do it. That's amazing. That is really cool, and one of the things we really like personally for Tomorrow Daily, what we like about Silicon Valley Comic Con is you're taking these really high concept ideas in technology and science You're kinda baking them into what is now mainstream culture. Being a geek isn't a weird thing anymore, you're not a weirdo if you're a geek, you're everyone. And so we really like this idea that you're bringing these things together. What made you think, okay let's bring in technology and let's have Bobbick from JPL come in and talk about space, or any of the other guests that you guys have. Yes, well the genesis of the idea was largely. We're in Silicon Valley. We have a lot of technical people. A lot of technical people like the fantasy of the movies and the science fiction and the comic heroes and that imaginative. And we're the people that turn imagination into products. But let's not make it a technology fair. There's a lot of technology shows. Let's only hand pick types of technology that go along with the pop culture. So it just made sense. And it was suggested at first because we're in Silicon Valley and we like doing things different. I don't like doing the same thing as everyone else ever. I like to be first at things. And we're also gonna do this technology plus pop culture idea in Silicon Valley Tokyo. We're working on that one too. That's awesome. Cuz it makes sense because Tokyo is known for a lot of people, at least in the past, that were really up on technology. It's the land of tomorrow. It's where tomorrow happens. There's robots there that I still would like to meet to this day. Like I know, we talk a lot about future technology on our show and we think it's really exciting and cool that you're doing this Comic Con as a way to kind of merge all of your favorite things like you said. But also a lot of other people's favorite things in a way that is not just Kind of pandering to the masses. It's like hey, we're gonna talk about one of the panels is you guys, super babies versus AI. Yes. Which is really cool. [CROSSTALK] Channel too? Well you know what? After reading the Martian and the way he keeps counting all the numbers on the flying to all the science. Seeing Andy Weir speak, the author of the Martian, that's gonna be good too. But really I think the one I wanna go to the most is AI versus Super babies because all the time we're focused on AI, where's the goods, what are the bads, how does it come out for humans? Yeah. And I'm on the real positive side right now. You're on the positive side of AI? Very positive. All right. OK. Tell us more about that. Yes, tell us about that because- Cuz I've gone through the negative side. I've gone through the negative side. If machines could think independently, program themselves better than we can program, advance faster and they get smarter than us Well economically they'll replace our best thinkers. Even our best scientists will be able to think better, a hundred times faster than us or something. For example, economic. The big financial trades of the world, 80% of them are computer to computer in milliseconds. Because if you put a slow human in the loop, you lose money. Right. Well what if you set up a company across the street from Apple building similar products? And you skip the slow humans, even a CEO and the company does better economically, could win. So that's a fear, what if they're replacing higher and higher levels of the real human brain? There is so much though to do to, robots, a quantity of them and running everything in the world and actually being able to be on their own, no, their existence is really gonna depend upon us For a long, long time, no matter how smart they are, and we're going to be working together. They're going to be helping us have a better life. We don't have to work as hard, we don't have to work as much, and maybe only one person has to work four days a week to own a home in Silicon Valley. That's my dream. That is funny. That was my dream when I was a kid, when it took one person five days a week I was hoping it would go to four but now it takes two people full time, stressful jobs, and maybe you can own a home. Maybe you can own a home, in San Francisco. [LAUGH] SO you would say, did you see the new updated Atlas that Boston Atlas getting the box out of his hands with a hockey stick? The guy had a hockey stick Pushing them- Poking them. Poking them, knocking them over and stuff. So you would be technically pro-robot in that scenario. You'd be like hey, stop pushing that robot around. [LAUGH] I don't know. But no, the robots I think are going to help us get a lot more done as human beings for a long time and they're going to realize that it's better to be friends to us. Now, Isaac Asimov had a law of robotics No robot can harm a human being. It sounds- Or by action- It sounds like a- Or by action alone. [CROSSTALK] It sounds good to people who think good and don't believe in harming people. It sounds good. But Isaac Asimov had it all wrong. A robot doesn't obey our rule of robotics, if it thinks for itself. A thinking robot- Right Feeling, consciousness, that rule is only one that was given to it. It's a slave to human rule. So, I have Woz's Law. No human should harm a feeling robot. When a robot has a feeling and knows you're killing it, turning it off, you should not because then they'll take us on as a type of enemy. Boy. I like that. Woz's Law Yeah. Don't hurt the machine. Don't hurt the machine. Once they know what's happening- [INAUDIBLE] will of course hurt animals. But these machines might be a little more than an animal. Yeah and well I mean I think they know if they were sentient AI that we talk about it a lot about in science fiction. And even now we're starting to talk a lot about Computing and everything, but- They should see us as partners, and also, I think that human beings look at the travails of the world, the hunger and poverty, wars and all that, I think it comes from our own lack of being thoughtful. So it's kind of emotional, and we react. And psychologists say it comes a lot from our inner conflict of We're mortality, mortality. Right. And we know that if I don't win a contest, I'm dying and he's losing, he's living. Winning, yeah. So that's why I say don't harm the robots, we don't want to give them a sense of their mortality even. Well we have a hard enough time treating humans well- Yeah. It's gonna be tough treating machines well, but I- Sure, but I think of machines as they're so much smarter than us They're not going make such a crumby world as we've made. I really want to believe in my heart that they are going to figure out ways to cooperate, find a lot more cooperation and much less of the [UNKNOWN] we have, and they'll find a way world without war, and they'll realize the importance of [UNKNOWN] and taking care of everything, including humans, that are a part this. Now we're talking about this. You brought up Issac Asimov. We're talking about this in very much science fiction terms. Were you always inspired by science fiction and fantasy in genre? Yeah. Always. I'd rather read and watch movies that are science fiction than most anything. Well, suspense is good too, but. Fully explains Silicon Valley Comic Con [UNKNOWN] the other. So aside from super babies versus AI, which I think is Probably one of the best panels I've seen in a con. What is one of your other favorite panel speakers happening at Silicon Valley Comic Con? I have always been very poor in anything artistic in the normal sense of art. Other than digital art. And I'm afraid to try it and show people pictures of something I've done, so I want to go to the cosplay events and find out what they do just as an observer, quiet- Well if you did cosplay what would you cosplay as? I was going to say, if you had all the skills I would be so scared, I'm so bad, I would be too scared of being Busted. [LAUGH] I think I could act the part well. Yeah, sure. I really believe that, but wearing a costume, I don't know [LAUGH]. Do you think that might be a good way for you to kind of get around on the show floor? Sort of like Adam does it as [UNKNOWN] Comic Con, he'll dress in an amazing costume and be able to not get mobbed. I'm gonna be totally open going around and meeting everybody the whole time. I want to meet the attendees. The attendees are the important people to meet. And I will catch a few of the panels that are important. That's really cool that you're going to be, that you wanna also be a fan of the concept that's happening. Yeah As opposed to just saying, hey, we're putting on this Comicon. I don't even know who runs Comicon. And you know what, [UNKNOWN] watching a lot of other people doing the cosplay and all that And I'll learn from that. And maybe I'll be ready for it someday. Yeah, hey listen. When you're ready to make your cosplay just let us know. We can debut it on our show. And maybe we'll do a how-to. You can show people how you built it. Because I think you seem to really dig the how of everything. [INAUDIBLE] Intellectually I'm ready but emotionally I'm so scared. Do you [INAUDIBLE] do you still tinker with stuff, do you still work on things? I wish I did but I have a very busy life. I have some technology companies going on and I have some speaking tours. I think that- I think about it all the time, though. And what can I do to bring that fun to other kids, and I love to see them doing it. Cuz I think that cosplay is an expression of that, too. That hands on craftsmanship. Right. You're into something, you're passionate. It's in your heart, and I'm gonna play it out. And I'm gonna be a big part of this. In my life and it doesn't even have to be worth anything. When we started with personal computers, it didn't have to be worth anything, just had to be something we believed in and wanted to do. [CROSSTALK] money. A big part of the show is VR, is that a technology that excites you? The VR Zone is exactly right for this because look at the, imagine images of comic books and the visual effects of movies And how powerful they are. And our computer have gotten better and better.ZRermeber eight bit games? yeah. But they look like little cartoon characters, barely like anything. And they got more and more real. They started looking like a little bit like characters in hand drawn cartoons. And then they start looking like real football games and real people and real movies. That's where we've gone with computers. But This whole room someday could possibly be a screen. Yeah. And I'm in a whole different world. And I could press buttons and walk through it and everything. Well that's what virtual reality does for us now. Yeah. I think- Occulus rift and- I think I can speak for us all when I say we're all kind of ready and willing for the Holodeck that's like the same as that one. Exactly, the holodeck is exactly what I am describing. yeah. Yeah. Yeah I love it.>> We can't wait. Yeah we can't wait. Thank you so much for talking to us about [INAUDIBLE]. It's this weekend or next weekend. I'm sorry. Next weekend. Yes yes. Is it next weekend? march 18, 19, 20. 18, 19, 20. It's in. Camel Bay Convention Center. And you can buy tickets, so you should definitely go. You get a chance to meet Woz. Yeah, you get a shot to meet Woz. You should definitely go to Super Baby [INAUDIBLE] I have a feeling you're gonna see him there. Yes, and a lot more. [LAUGH] Thank you. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.