Steve Jobs on the Home Computer Revolution
What Jobs talks about
In this CBS Evening News appearance, Jobs argues that the personal computer is moving from a specialized tool into ordinary life. He says the change will happen gradually, not all at once, as people are “seduced” into using computers through everyday needs.
The interview frames personal computers as a growing consumer and home market, with uses ranging from games and taxes to writing, learning, and communication. Jobs’s comments help explain why Apple believed the home computer era was about to take off.
The piece matters because it captures an early moment when computers were still novel, yet already beginning to become commonplace. Jobs presents the revolution not as science fiction, but as something practical, human, and unavoidable.
Barry Petersen narrates and introduces the piece; Jobs speaks in the interview segment.
In his words
“It's just going to be very gradual.”
“And very human, and will seduce you into learning how to use them.”
“Life is already seducing you into learning this stuff.”
“We're right in the midst of it.”
“It may be the world's biggest backyard fence to talk over before long.”
Key points
- Personal computers are becoming commonplace and people are starting to depend on them.
- The shift into homes will be gradual, not sudden.
- Everyday tools like calculators and ATMs are already teaching people to use computers.
- Small computers can be used for games, taxes, writing, education, and communication.
- The personal computer market is growing fast and becoming a major business.
- Computers are spreading into schools, homes, and even the arts.
Full transcript
The first reliable computer was built by an American about 50 years ago. Since then, computers have multiplied like fury, and they've also become far more reliable. More and more Americans rely on them. Mary Peterson has some of the story in San Francisco. Steven Jobs is a 27-year-old multi-millionaire whose large fortune is built on something little: the personal computer. It is becoming so commonplace that many of us are becoming dependent on it. How many calculators do you have? Two, maybe? Right. And you have to use the automatic bank telling machines, sure. So life is already seducing you into learning this stuff. It's not going to happen at once, and it's certainly not an 8 1984-ish vision at all. It's just going to be very gradual.
And very human, and will seduce you into learning how to use them. Jobs and a partner found Apple Computer a half-dozen years ago. The company expected to sell 300 million dollars worth of personal computer equipment in 1981, double that in 1980, to double that the year after. Industry experts say we're no longer on the verge of the personal computer revolution; we're right in the midst of it. Thank you. And it's gathering steam with more and more people jumping aboard every day. Random access memory. They talk their own language here, language of small personal computers, and if words like bits invite me nothing.
Try this one: money. That trade shows across the country, when manufacturers show off their wares, the house is usually packed. Small personal computers, selling from five hundred to five thousand dollars, are fast becoming a multi-billion dollar business and do everything: play electronic games, figure out income taxes, teach youngsters how to read or write, even store favorite recipes. Hollywood scriptwriter Melvin Shave Wilson is known for movies like April in Paris or The Five Pennies. TV shows like Make Room for Daddy. He now writes scripts on a small computer. "If I can turn it, to keep it doesn't belong in the home, I use it in my work every day." In more and more schools, small computers are taking over.
The job of teaching reading or math or foreign languages. A generation of children is becoming comfortable with computers. The idea of the small computer has become so big that the giant of computer companies, IBM, is busy marketing its new small computer. It plays bridge, it plays checkers, it balances checkbooks. It can be used for a typewriter, it can be used for word processing applications, it can communicate with other personal computers over the telephone line. And, you know, who knows, it may be the world's biggest backyard fence to talk over before long. Visionaries talk about personal computers the size of a book on the market by the end of the decade. The small computers even touch the world of the arts. Designers are creating computer pictures.
Musicians can make computer music. So these are the sights and sounds that are increasingly familiar, almost commonplace. "I have seen in the future," said one industry observer, and it computes. Terry Peterson, and CBS News, San Francisco.
From YouTube captions, lightly punctuated for readability. Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.