In Lost 1983 Speech, Steve Jobs Predicts the iPad and Our Wireless Future

A lost speech Steve Jobs gave in 1983 has surfaced, and in it he makes some eerily prophetic predictions about the tech we're using today.

Speaking to the International Design Conference, Jobs outlined a device that would eventually become the Apple iPad: "We want to put an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you." And he imagined it'd be wireless: "We really want to do it with a radio link in it so you don't have to hook up to anything and you're in communication with all of these larger databases and other computers." He also calls out email, mobile computing, and even an experiment by MIT that is very similar to Google Street View. Jobs didn't come up with these ideas out of thin air, but he showed how they could impact and transform our society.

For some perspective, in 1983, the Apple II was the best-selling computer, Nintendo's Famicom went on sale in Japan, and Michael Jackson moonwalked for the first time.

[funkrafty]

this sounds more like an ambition than a prediction

[aryamanmehrotra]

fool show him speaking I don't want to listen you.. show him

[mjco]

What makes him different from everyone else you can envision is that he made it a reality. Yeah it's try anyone can say anything out of thin air but it means nothing unless you turn it into reality.

[ValenteFV]

Its not really surprising he wasn´t the only who said stuff like that, he is famous and just died not long ago so i guess people still want to remmeber him

[UnicyclDev]

iPad like designs for computer where around in the 60’s. Look of DynaBook, or watch 2001 space odyssey.

[thefranciswatts]

a gazillion people predicted such similar ideas.

[snowgw]

I don't believe Steve Jobs was the first person to predict a tablet -.-

[VTeixex]

You say "book" I think "laptop", not "tablet".

[Fieldofgoats]

How is this eerily prophetic... Put him on a higher pedastal.

[TwilightHian]

Are you kidding me? Generic statements becomes a prediction?

OK then, Ahem... "We will one day no longer watch our media but live it." Or how about, "Someday technology won't be around us, but inside of us." Wait I have more, "Sometime in the future a war between two sides will occur in which technology will play a huge role."

This is not directed at Steve Jobs but rather the people who just assume something based on generic statements.

[PauloConstantino]

Wow, predicting his own invention. Makes Sense bro.

[VancoisT]

And Micheal Jackson moonwalked for the first time

[toby]

Fanboys.... Go!!!! "The Jetsons" and "Flinstones" predicted even more! No Offence Jobs, Medias are at fault these days