Seconds later, deGrasse Tyson turned out to be the least of the problem. Apple also trots out McKinsey’s James Manyika in the video, who starts off his quote with a phrase that should never be heard at tech conferences: “If you think the industrial revolution was transformational…”
I wasn’t in San Francisco for WWDC, but I can only imagine the crowd at the keynote either fell silent or started howling uncontrollably as he finished that sentence: “…the App Store is way bigger.”
It requires a special kind of chutzpah to compare any innovation to the industrial revolution. But to actually suggest that a collection of apps – a million or so fart soundboards, greedy casual games, and programs that help you get through you email a fraction faster – is anywhere close to the industrial revolution is beyond delusional.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who did a triple-take when this was said in Apple’s App Store video last night. If this is truly how Apple feels about its contributions to the world – and everything points in the direction that it does – then the company has lost all sense of perspective and has transcended its usual playful arrogance towards full-on insanity.
Very disappointed in Neil deGrasse Tyson, too, for making similarly outrageous claims in this video.
Immediately reminded me of when Yahoo compared themselves to the code crackers of Station X, because they released a new mail webapp http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1004023/yahoo-downplays-bl…
Tech companies do get quite delusional some times.
Eh, and nobody remembers earlier Polish successess in deciphering Enigma… :p
Neil De Grasse Tyson’s comments were obviously about most of the people on the planet having access to the total of mankind’s learning in their pockets. He’s talking about how revolutionary that is. I don’t think his comments were about the App Store specifically, even if that’s the context Apple put his comments into.
“most of the people on the planet having access to the total of mankind’s learning in their pockets”
And what was so special about what Apple did to make that happen again ?
Let’s be clear: without the Internet none of this would happen.
And: most people on this earth don’t even have a smartphone yet but many do have access to that information.
It doesn’t matter how you slice or dice it, it is still ridiculous.
Apple didn’t invent the smartphone or the appstore, they did help popularize it.
It’s like saying Apple invented the GUI or the mouse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Capitan
Just because the name of the rock is in spanish, you don’t have to jump into the “latinamerican drug lord” bandwagon. Spanish is just another language spoken by tons of people, most of them innocent, and a whole lot of them hard-working ones…
Yeah, anyone who has suffered through Star Trek V should know what El Capitan refers to.
Drug lord? I thought The Captain was what you would call a communist dictator, so OS X Fidel Castro edition edition.
Fidel Castro is “Comandante” not “Capitan”.
True but that doesn^aEURTMt change the fact that what most people will think of when they see “El Capitan” (especially with the capital C) is not hard working Spanish speaking people but drug lords, dictators and communist (or right-wing) rebels.
I’m not defending Apple, or saying that Apple deserves deGrasse Tyson’s praise, I’m saying that deGrasse Tyson’s comments were used out of context – he was making a general comment about technology, which Apple used in such a way that implied he was talking about the App Store. Saying that, I didn’t re-watch the clip, and I may be misremembering.
You’re correct. Neil deGrasse Tyson has made the same comment a number of times during interviews, speeches, and on StarTalk Radio when speaking about the advancement of technology and the impact its had on our world. People falling for Apple’s spinning of the comment I guess is a win for them since people are obviously falling for it.
That’s kind of the point though. Apple doesn’t invent things; they take existing things and make them accessible to everyone. Before the iPhone came along, my mom was not downloading and installing apps on her own, not even on her computer. When the app store came out, millions of people like her suddenly had this kind of thing easily available to them. That’s pretty huge if you ask me.
It’s not like he credited Apple for it, though. He didn’t credit anybody. He just said Apps + handheld devices are having a huge impact on society.
Which is true.
Perhaps but the context it is presented in is clearly designed to make exactly that impression: that it’s all thanks to Apple.
Like the old saying goes. “Legends in their own lunch box”.
Apple invented everything, just ask them!
But how foolish are we to even acknowledge their hubris and help spread their propaganda?
Really? Apple took something, spun it, then made it look like it was about them the whole time?
Maybe that’s what he mean but surely he would be aware that context and presentation is what makes the message and that Apple would certainly try to spin what he said.
Out of context – yes!
Based on an interview I heard him do last week on Charlie Rose, where he specifically commented on another set of comments he made along the lines of
“there are bigger problems in the world then can be solved with your app”:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/13/neil_degrasse_tyson_society_has_big…
At most, he was softening a position he had taken previously to include the idea, that, yes, sure, apps can be helpful. In the interview I heard, he was challenged on the initial statement, as if he had said Apps were a largely useless activity distracting bright minds, and he clarified that, yes, software and Silicon Valley has made some useful contributions, but we have much bigger problems to solve. And he specifically called out Elon Musk (I would guess to counterbalance the impression that he was just ripping on Silicon Valley’s insular culture) as someone trying to change things in a meaningful way (addressing carbon and transportation infrastructure).
These comments happened in the context of a larger dialogue – with him starting with a very, very different position, and diplomatically softening it, as the media, as per usual, blew the initial comments out of proportion.
So yes, context matters here. A little sad that Apple re-contextualized and commercialized his attempt to stay balanced and focus attention on real problems, and not get caught up in a sideshow debate.
More sad that Thom bought Apple’s re-contextualization
(yeah, I know, I only caught on to Apple’s sneak by luck, wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t popped up on a show on my audible APP on the train ride to work)
I was a little surprised by that. You’d think Thom would’ve learned to spot when a company moves things out of context in an effort to bend the meaning of what was said for PR-purposes by now. I thought it was pretty obvious. Kind of scummy on Apple’s part, but eh, not unexpected.
It is a sales pitch… just that!
Yes, and a pretty bad one. I prefer something more humble that’s closer to reality. Hyperboles are used a bit too often these days which has the opposite effect on me. “Ah, just another salesman with his head in the clouds, let’s ignore him. Yawn.”
Exactly, and not only that: the pitch was about the speed of development and progress, not a comparison of the importance of the various progressions.
Nothing to get worked up about.
Whenever I hear El Capitan I picture some South American drug lord. I’m pretty sure that’s not what Apple want me to think about though.
Uh… El Capitan is in the United States. ???
But it’s only a few thousand miles from central California to South America, so I can see where the confusion comes from.
The number of people outside the US of A that knows that El Capitan is a rock formation in the Yosemite Natonal Park is pretty damn small.
meanwhile, at the corner of ignorance and xenophobia…
Wow, well, I am *SO* sorry that I, as a non-American, am not aware of every single landmark in your country.
Xenophobia or not, I can guarantee you that the majority of the worlds population is not going to think “oh, it’s that rock formation in that national park that I have never visited or even heard of”. They’re gong to think “That sounds like some drug lord or maybe a dictator. Could also be a rebel of some kind”.
It’s a small mountain (about 7,500/2300m) in Yosemite National Park. It’s very popular with rock climbers and BASE jumpers.
It’s in an incredibly beautiful area, too. I hope Apple sticks with the California landmarks theme for a while.
California in general is at the top of my wish list for my next US trip. After Texas (2001), Utah/Arizona/Nevada (2012), and New England (2014), I hope I can convince my friends to go to California next year.
You might want to wait a couple of years. Right now we’re in the fourth year of a helluva drought. Most of the most beautiful places are extremely dry for the most part. Driving up the Pacific Coast Highway is still a gorgeous thing to do, though. I’d still recommend Santa Cruz. I’m not sure how well Yosemite is faring right now.
Along the Pacific coast in the northern part of the state is still beautiful – almost all the precipitation comes from coastal fog, so the redwoods are getting plenty of water.
But, if you like the desert, well, it’s always a good time.
EDIT: Who knows. If you come next year, maybe the rain will follow you
Edited 2015-06-09 19:26 UTC
Good advise. Its crazy weird right now. Wait for the drought to end in five – seven years.
I’m sure it’s beautiful but most people would have no idea about what El Capitan really is and years and years of American movies and tv series have made sure that we will make a very different mental connection.
Well, drug lords tend to be well off, so we can’t really blame Apple for appealing to their target market, in that sense.
edit: wrong place
Edited 2015-06-09 19:25 UTC
Welcome to the Apple world.
It has to be the biggest thing since sliced bread, because everybody, and their dog, that works in media uses Apple products…
…is nothing to sneeze at. That’s 14 and change DL’s per person on earth. You can throw google in there as well as they ripped off the iphone and app store.
Do you remember the “Think Different” campaign of the late 90’s? They compared things like the civil rights movement to Apple computers. Comparing themselves to the industrial revolution isn’t that far of a leap. At the time, I sent letters of complaint to any magazine that published them as well as to apple and Jobs himself. Never got a reply.
It’s because Apple has drunk its own Kool-Aid – they actually, delusionaly, believe that they’ve done more for humanity than events that you and I or any other rational person would put on a timeline. Unfortunately, they’ve also convinced most of the world’s media that this is true, and anyone criticizing them is promptly shot down as a Microsoft hack, a Google fanboi, or a hater or whatever term they’re using now.
What irritates me most of all are the “journalists” who cover Apple for a living. They literally swallow the BS whole and then when you call them out on it, they either ignore you or name call – yeah, because really you’ve been using OS X since 2007 and us Mac users from the 80s aren’t fans of the company.
I’m a fan of many of their products, but the community is so toxic now that I’m considering abandoning the product. Ugh.
Few years back I stopped recommending the products to not be associated with those people…
Apple changing the world?
Maybe when they release computers that not only the top 1% earners can afford. But even if that happened, what type of task can I do on OS X that I can’t in Windows? I mean not small stuff but stuff that can “change the world”. CAD, Audio, Design……
Nothing.
Apple’s changing the world is almost as laughable as Bentley saying they same. Just that Bentley will never be so daft to actually spin that to their customers.
Edited 2015-06-09 22:42 UTC
I’m a fan of the agricultural revolution myself.