How Technology Changes Our Lives

October 7, 2010

Interview with Nick Bilton, author of the book I Live in the Future & Here's How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted

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Mike Carruthers:
Computer and Internet technology has a lot of people worried about what it’s doing to our children and our society in general.

Nick Bilton:
Well, I think there’s been a lot of negative press and a lot of negative books saying the Internet is bad for us and that it’s ruining our brains – and I just didn’t buy it.
 

Nick Bilton, author of the book I Live in the Future & Here's How It Works, says people have worried about new technology every time it’s been introduced.

When the train first came out scientists in the 1800’s believed that if we traveled on a train over 20 miles an hour that our bones could explode. The New York Times article about radio and about the telephone said that people would never leave their house again and they would never communicate with each other and it was going to destroy society and so on. And I think we’re kind of going through the same kind of fear experience right now.

The Internet has definitely changed the speed at which we get information and the type of information we want to get.

Recently Steve Jobs stood up on stage and talked about the new Apple TV. He said that consumers want professional content, they want Hollywood professional media, they don’t want amateur hour. But the numbers all say the complete opposite. People want to be able to watch video clips that their friends have uploaded to Facebook and along with the mainstream content too. And they also want access instantaneously.

Nick Bilton is confident that all the worry and concern about the Internet will soon fade.

It’s kind of analogous to electricity; when it first entered the world, it was a huge disruption. And now we don’t think about the fact that we flick on that light switch and the light comes on – and the same thing's going to happen with the Internet.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here