On this week’s NeoFiles podcast, RU Sirius and co-host Jamais Cascio interviewed Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak about living the prankster life and ethical hacking. The Woz has been in the media lately promoting his new book co-authored with Gina Smith, “iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon.” From excerpts of the interview posted on 10 Zen Monkeys:
SW: I have these professionally printed stickers that I’ve had made. They’re done with this sort of foil-type stuff in the exact OSHA style and the OSHA colors. And it says, “Danger: Do Not Flush Over Cities.” And I put ’em in the bathrooms on airplanes…They’re red with a black-shadowed airplane picture. The bathroom has a little seat fold-down. I fold that up and there’s a sign in the middle of it saying, “Don’t throw trash here.” And I put my two little stickers behind it, so the stewardesses won’t notice it right away. If they notice it right away they might realize that somebody put that there. But after a while, if they slowly get used to it, they’ll stay on for years…
RU: In Robert Anton Wilson’s book, The Illuminatus! Trilogy, there’s this character, Markoff Cheney, who leaves weird bureaucratic commands in offices and places like that just to sort of boggle people’s minds.
SW: That’s almost like what I read about in the The Pentagon Papers – the psychological warfare. You kind of put out a message saying one thing, but it implies that something horrible is going to happen just because you’re saying that it isn’t going to happen. It triggers bad thought in people’s mind.
RU: Cognitive dissonance…
SW: Yeah!
RU: …is a great weapon of war, and also of…
SW: … comedy!
Link to transcript excerpts Link to podcast, Link to buy iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon
Previously on BB:
• Steve Wozniak interviewed by Pesco Link
• The Woz lines up for an iPhone Link