Woz: 'Awareness of Machines Is Getting Very, Very Close'

Speaking at a business congress on Australia’s Gold Coast, Apple Co Founder Steve Wozniak said machines are rapidly becoming “the superior beings”, making us less relevant.

America’s favorite geek, the Woz opined, “We’re already creating the superior beings, I think we lost the battle to the machines long ago.”

“We’re going to become the pets, the dogs of the house. Every time we create new technology we’re creating stuff to do the work we used to do and we’re making ourselves less meaningful, less relevant,” he said.

“Why are we going to need ourselves so much in the future? We’re just going to have the easy life.”

The Woz said he was merely following up on his comments that the machines have long been winning the battle for supremacy. We’re just not aware of it yet, he said, but conceded to partially joking about the severity of the situation.

"You don't realise it's happened until it's there and I think that awareness of machines is getting very, very close and we're getting close to where a machine will really understand you," Mr Wozniak said.

"My comment about the machines winning the war is partly a joke, but we've accidentally already put so much in place that we can't get rid of from our lives.”

"Once we have machines doing our high-level thinking, there's so little need for ourselves and you can't ever undo it - you can never turn them off," Woz added.

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak will be interviewed next week live, on stage at the 48th DAC edition.

DAC is the premier event for the design of electronic circuits and systems, and for electronic design automation (EDA) and silicon solutions.

Wozniak promises where to offer unique insight on a wide range of topics, including the ‘joy’ of engineering and following your passion to convert innovative ideas into reality.

The event will be hosted at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California, from June 5-10, 2011.