Look at yourself. You use a tape recorder. You are one out of 10 people in the journalistic profession that use this. It’s because you trust this. I mean, for the same cost you could get an iPod recorder, or whatever. But there’s satisfaction in knowing the tape’s rolling, and it’s being recorded, and you know this is a good idea. So I feel that these kinds of ideas need to be re-captured in the digital age, these simple ideas like this.
What is your earlier memory of a design that made an impression on you?
Uh, I think as a child, scissors. Do ever do that [motions his fingers like using a scissor], ch-ch-ch, ch-ch. It’s, like, amazing, you don’t get cut.
Some futurists hold out apocalyptic scenarios for the so-called singularity, the point at which artificial intelligence exceeds human intelligence. What’s you view of these theories? That’s why I came to RISD, actually. I mean, yes, if you look at the future of technology, yes, you’re going to put something in your brain. It’s going to do everything for you. You’re not going to think anymore. That’s what’s going to happen if someone wants it to happen. When it happens, what’s going to happen?
Not too cool, I think. So by coming here, knowing what’s coming in the future, I hope, will prevent what’s coming — which is basically the dehumanization of the entire world, which I don’t like, actually. It’s a bad idea, I think. So here, we will figure out a different role for technology that is understood by humans, for humans’ sake.
