Steven Levy Quotes

“Just as we have what used to be supercomputers in our pockets, our homes now require the telecommunications infrastructure of a small city.”

― Steven Levy

“Even though chess isn’t the toughest thing that computers will tackle for centuries, it stood as a handy symbol for human intelligence. No matter what human-like feat computers perform in the future, the Deep Blue match demands an indelible dot on all timelines of AI progress.”

― Steven Levy

“Every great device, gadget, electric car, and robot would be even greater if batteries didn’t suck so badly.”

― Steven Levy

“As an open system, Android is not under the tight control of its creator, Google.”

― Steven Levy

“After a few days with the iPhone X, I can begin to make out its themes. It’s a step towards fading the actual physical manifestation of technology into a mist where it’s just there – a phone that’s ‘all screen,’ one that turns on simply by seeing you, one that removes the mechanics of buttons and charging cables.”

― Steven Levy

“Wifi was never supposed to be a big thing and certainly not a thing that would become as vital to a home as indoor plumbing.”

― Steven Levy

“I am old enough to have grown up glued to a screen offering only three alternatives, each of which was an all-powerful national network that seemed permanently ensconced in the entertainment stratosphere.”

― Steven Levy

“As technology tries to maintain its dizzying ascent, one dead weight has kept its altitude in check: the battery.”

― Steven Levy

“There has never been an unexpectedly short debugging period in the history of computers.”

― Steven Levy

“The world is poised on the cusp of an economic and cultural shift as dramatic as that of the Industrial Revolution.”

― Steven Levy

“This paradox of vision – the genius of youthful ignorance – is nothing new. Had Bill Gates not been in diapers in the early days of computer software, he might have understood that there could never be a market for consumer software – but the 19-year-old Gates went ahead and cofounded Microsoft.”

― Steven Levy

“We were promised a society of philosophers. But the Blogosphere is looking more and more like a nation of ankle-biters.”

― Steven Levy

“Computer technology is so built into our lives that it’s part of the surround of every artist.”

― Steven Levy

“I think that the most beautiful thing lately hasn’t been in hardware or software per se but collaboration – the idea behind Napster, which uses the distributed power of the Internet as its engine.”

― Steven Levy

“The fact that biological, or ‘natural’ rules might help in the creation of a computer generated work of art is interesting, but even a wonderful work of art made in this fashion isn’t the same as a person, with all his or her experiences and emotions involved, making art.”

― Steven Levy

“Two thoughts occur to just about any parent whose child is about to enter college. The first is, ‘I can’t believe how quickly the years have gone by.’ The second: ‘I can’t believe how much it costs.’ As one of those parents, I did my best to get past the disturbing first thought and tried to calm my churning stomach while dealing with the second.”

― Steven Levy

“To political technocrats, 2008 marks the maturation of ‘microtargeting’ – a technique that, if things are as close in November as expected, may well affect who takes the White House.”

― Steven Levy

“Microtargeting, as its name implies, is a way to identify small but crucial groups of voters who might be won over to a given side, and which messages would do the trick.”

― Steven Levy

“Normally, my digital peregrinations take me to destinations like Facebook, YouTube, and boingboing.net.”

― Steven Levy

“When superpower countries like the United States and the former Soviet Union contemplated moving their conflicts to outer space, there was justifiable fear and dread.”

― Steven Levy

“The vast majority of Americans perform sophisticated digital tasks on a daily basis. Grandmas and grandpas e-mail digital photos of their cruise trip and IM their kids in school. So a politician admitting that he or she can’t bother to learn those things indicates a horse-and-buggy mentality.”

― Steven Levy

“No company has embraced the liberating aspects of the Internet as a ‘new marketplace of ideas’ more than the search giant Google.”

― Steven Levy

“Fast, cheap, abundant broadband is a fantastic economic accelerator, enabling breakout businesses and kick-starting new industries.”

― Steven Levy

“The myth of the peachfuzz billionaire has emerged. This new Horatio Alger typically launches his first start-up in middle school, and somewhere between the campus computer-science lab and a move to Palo Alto hacks up a Web site where users provide fun or useful content.”

― Steven Levy

“If you’re 19, you don’t know what can’t be done.”

― Steven Levy

“Technology writers are seldom subject to frenzied, Beatlemania-esque paroxysms of public attention. June 29, 2007, was the exception. I was in the wrong place – Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan – with the right device. The iPhone.”

― Steven Levy

“Apple’s iPod success led them to believe an even bigger breakthrough was possible with the iPhone. In some respects, the iPhone hype overwhelmed even Apple.”

― Steven Levy

“Is it possible for Apple or anyone else to rule in the mobile realm the way Microsoft did on the desktop? The way to do this is to go mass-market with a device that can do anything the others can do.”

― Steven Levy

“In the history of U.S. elections, the fall of 2000 is notorious for the debacle that occurred in the country’s attempt to elect a president that year.”

― Steven Levy

“Facebook has never been shy about its ambitions.”

― Steven Levy

“Who wants to broadcast the news that he’s bought a can of Sprite? And who wants to see that on a News Feed?”

― Steven Levy

“Everyone in the tech business, from Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr on down, says that the ruination of the industry, if not the entire country, will come from the inability to hire more brainiacs from countries like China and India.”

― Steven Levy

“Right after the keynote in which Steve Jobs introduced the iPod Shuffle, I went backstage with one question in mind: What makes an iPod an iPod? By then – January 11, 2005 – I had staked my own claim to iPod expertise, having written a ‘Newsweek’ cover story about Apple’s transformational music player, and I was writing a book on it.”

― Steven Levy

“My favorite thing to do with my iPod was to shuffle my entire music collection and marvel at what songs came next. Sometimes the segues would be so perfect that it seemed a genius deejay was behind the wheel.”

― Steven Levy

“The iPod Shuffle was something unique for Apple: a device stripped down to a single function.”

― Steven Levy

“Our chips keep getting faster, and our data rates keep climbing, but at the end of the day – or worse, by mid-afternoon – those power meters on our screens inevitably turn to red.”

― Steven Levy

“The rush into scripted video by tech giants is going to accelerate an evolution of entertainment that’s already underway. We’re already moving away from the idea that drama is a 60-minute exercise with four bathroom breaks.”

― Steven Levy

“Internet-centric companies have already begun changing the rules with binge-watching, flexible running times, fewer commercials, and crowd-sourced content. The brainpower – and just plain power – of the most valued tech firms will change things even more.”

― Steven Levy

“Just as the cable revolution overturned broadcast, the net is destined to become the dominant mode of video, both in terms of transit and programming.”

― Steven Levy

“All through the 1980s, Apple kept its prices high. There were many reasons Microsoft’s much bigger user base managed to resist moving to the GUI – but price was high among them.”

― Steven Levy

“Though the first iPhone was expensive, it was such a refreshing new product that early users flocked to it.”

― Steven Levy

“With the iPod – Apple’s first successful stab at market dominance – Apple had begun with a high price but quickly dropped it.”

― Steven Levy

“We might enjoy essays, TED talks, and even Facebook posts bemoaning our dependency on tech, but judging by our enthusiastic adoption of these services, we’re all in.”

― Steven Levy

“Twitter provides a platform that allows anyone on the planet – from a political activist in the Middle East to an intemperate golfer in the White House – to broadcast his or her thoughts.”

― Steven Levy

“Google serves all of humanity with information within milliseconds.”

― Steven Levy

“How do you show off the most anticipated product in years? That was my dilemma with the iPhone X. Since my unit was one of the first few released into the wild, it naturally drew a lot of curiosity when I pulled it out of my pocket and gave it a dewy-eyed glance to wake it from slumber.”

― Steven Levy

“There’s plenty to admire in the iPhone X straight from the unboxing. The biggest change stares you in the face: that screen, that screen.”

― Steven Levy

“Implanting a microchip inside the brain to augment its mental powers has long been a science fiction trope.”

― Steven Levy

“The iPhone was such a phenomenon that even the humble journalists chosen for an early look were thrust into a spotlight.”

― Steven Levy

“What made the days leading up to the iPhone launch even crazier was that Apple had pulled off the greatest disappearing act in tech promotion history. In January 2007, Jobs announced the long-awaited iPhone. But somewhere that winter, the iPhone vanished.”

― Steven Levy

“Since the iPhone, the most transformative products have not been gadgets but services. Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat have changed lives, but they didn’t launch to massive fanfare.”

― Steven Levy

“Steve Ballmer never used to be someone who let facts speak for themselves. In the 1990s, he was the hyper-energetic Microsoft exec yelling ‘Developers! Developers! Developers!’ at an all-hands meeting in Safeco field.”

― Steven Levy

“No one in Silicon Valley loves virtual reality or believes in its future as much as Clay Bavor.”

― Steven Levy

“It’s almost impossible to totally eliminate terrible content in a huge open network.”

― Steven Levy

“Generally, TED speakers are believers in the scientific method.”

― Steven Levy

“Every year, I come to TED prepared to roll my eyes a lot at the beginning, but knowing that at some point in the intellectual marathon, my brain will buckle to the cascade of ideas and bend to the painstakingly rehearsed presentations.”

― Steven Levy

“For many years, when people described how the Internet worked – whether they were talking about shopping, communicating, or starting a business there – they inevitably invoked a single metaphor. The Internet, said just about everybody, was a contemporary incarnation of the wild, wild West.”

― Steven Levy

“Through a mix of market forces and regulation, we’ve brought civilization to the electronic provinces.”

― Steven Levy

“Amazon is definitely serious about delivering its goods by an autonomous air force.”

― Steven Levy

“Because Facebook can’t exist without AI, it needs all its engineers to build with it.”

― Steven Levy

“Inevitably, we will spend a multiple of the amount we used to drop on a new router once the old one petered out. The New Wifi is the $5 latte to the standard cup of coffee.”

― Steven Levy

“Facebook takes it as a core truth that sharing and connecting is a force that will improve the world.”

― Steven Levy

“Barack Obama was a president who understood not only how technology could transform the way government services worked but also technology itself. He got it.”

― Steven Levy