Back to the Future Past – David Sax, Author of The Revenge of Analog Real Things and Why They Matter – Our Growing Cultural Desire for Analog Things of the Past
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2019
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Sax, author of The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter, provides a fascinating overview of the technology and how we yearn for the physical products of days recently gone by.
David's book considers the new analog revival. In a world of digital technology, people are now craving much of what we've been told was obsolete. In a sort of reverse revolution, more and more independent bookstores are popping up in spite of e-books' supposed decimation of all things 'print,' record stores with real vinyl are rebounding in spite of our downloadable empire of digital music, and people are even beginning to write actual letters again—on paper, believe it or not. The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter reveals the hidden truth of our society—that people like things.
David talks about his background and how an old turntable with real records intensified his interest in music, which got him thinking about technology, analog products, and our desire for the tangible things of the past. His curiosity about this stirred him to write his book, The Revenge of Analog. As David states, the world is physical, so it is only natural that we relate best to physical things that give us a deeper connection and appeal to all our senses. We love three dimensional, tangible items, and it should come as no surprise that we are yearning for the past in some ways.
The historical tech guru explains why our current technology is leaving us feeling less enthused. He talks about his own personal connection to modern technology and how he tries to limit his exposure somewhat, in an attempt to really connect to family and friends without the technological interruptions.
David discusses technology's rise to power in regard to its promise for making lives better, but as he states, technology is messy and is never really that Star Trek version we might have expected it could be. He says that our future is never really as we predict, and that skepticism of coming technologies is actually a smart behavior, that we should evaluate technology and understand how it works for us, and whether it is truly enhancing our lives in ways that are healthy and productive.
Lastly, David talks about his upcoming book that takes a hard look at entrepreneurship. He discusses the reasons why people become entrepreneurs and how their goals motivate them to build and create.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the Future Tech Podcast with Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:09.0 | Future Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, |
| 0:11.8 | Stem Cells, 3D printing, gene editing, |
| 0:14.6 | Bitcoin, blockchain, the microbiome, quantum computing, virtual reality, and exploring space |
| 0:21.0 | are much closer than you might think. |
| 0:23.0 | In fact, many early versions of these technologies are in play right now, |
| 0:27.0 | and the companies that are using these technologies |
| 0:30.0 | to the focus of this podcast. |
| 0:32.0 | My goal for you, the listener, is to learn from these |
| 0:34.4 | podcasts. You may very well learn something that may change the course of your life |
| 0:38.2 | for the better, steer you towards a new career, or give you insight into |
| 0:42.4 | addressing a thorny medical problem. |
| 0:44.6 | Remember, this podcast and its content is informational and nature only. |
| 0:48.6 | No medical, tax, legal, financial, or psychological advice is being given. |
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| 0:58.0 | Thank you. Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Future Check Podcast. My guest is Adrian Schmitt, CEO of Bouquet |
| 1:11.8 | that's the website bouquet that AI. So Adrian thanks for coming. How you doing? Hey rich. Thanks for having me |
| 1:20.8 | So it's like a bouquet of data applications actually. |
| 1:24.0 | Oh, that's true. What about a cornucopia or is that too long of a name? |
| 1:30.0 | That could be something, does it even fit in a twir in a tweet? Well actually yeah if you |
| 1:36.0 | come out with you know related products maybe you'll call one the cornyacopier version |
| 1:40.1 | if it's you know maybe that's the professional or industrial version of bouquet, you know, just to finish out the bad joke. |
... |
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