The day Bill Gates predicted the future of PCs on Jô Soares’ program

This week I downloaded the new bet app from SBT. The free streaming service +SBT.

In addition to allowing you to follow the TV channel’s open signal, similar to what happens with Globo with Globoplay, +SBT is a true time capsule, allowing you to rewatch some iconic programs produced by the channel created by Silvio Santos.

As a big fan of the Talk Show format, I was excited by the fact that the platform features episodes of the legendary Jô Eleven and a Halfan interview program led by the late Jô Soares, aired from August 1988 to December 1999.

Given my age (31 years old), I have many more memories of the Jô interview program on Rede Globo, shown between April 2000 and December 2016. However, over the years, I watched several episodes on YouTube from the time of Jô Onze e Meia, which holds the title of the first talk show in Brazil.

Just like in the best years of the talk show, Dave LettermanLate Show, Jô Onze e Meia is full of iconic moments. Several personalities came face to face with Jô.

Initially, my goal was to watch Tim Maia’s interviews on the program again. All of them with the ability to make any politically correct activist’s hair stand on end, but with an abysmal dose of sincerity, sarcasm and a somewhat awkward style that was characteristic of Maia.

Unfortunately for me, I found that these episodes are not yet available in the +SBT catalogue. Content is added weekly, and a lot is still missing.

At the time of publication of this article, 39 editions of Jô Onze e Meia are available to be watched, programs spanning the years 1996 to 1999.

A chat about the future of computers

Among the options, to my surprise, I came across an episode whose original air date was November 27, 1995. The guest: Bill Gates.

Through a satellite connection, with his image projected on a good old tube TV, Jô had a chat lasting just under 10 minutes with the co-founder of Microsoft.

In addition to Windows 95, that year Gates was promoting his first book, titled “The Road Ahead”.

Jô announced him as the owner of a computer empire, and the book, according to Gates, pointed in the direction of some predictions for the technology market. The Microsoft mogul explained that the book was about “about how the increase in computer power would have a direct impact on different aspects of society, such as work, learning and leisure”.

“The idea that we use the computer to find people who are selling something, people with whom we have common interests. We can work together in video conferences, work together on the same document. It’s an incredible advancement in communications that will, in essence, make the world smaller. It will change the work, the successful business. In general, I predict a very positive picture… But I also talk about the challenges it will bring”, stated Gates.

It is interesting to remember that 1995, the year this interview was aired, was also the year in which the commercial internet began to operate in Brazil. An important step so that access to the web could scale and act directly on the capabilities and advances that Gates highlighted, with more people having access to a whole new set of possibilities.

Another curious point, considering the context of the time, and which is even asked by Jô, was how Gates was working to make people lose a certain fear when dealing with computers. Jô even uses books as an example to reinforce the question:

“You know better than anyone that our generation still has problems dealing with computers. You made this easier for everyone. But still, almost everyone in our generation, the first time in front of a computer says: Argh! What is this?.. I’m not even going to touch it, it might break!

Do you believe that over time, with new generations, everyone will operate a computer the same way we operate a book? Just open and read.

With a smile on his face, Gates replied that he believed the computer would play the same role as the telephone.

“We have a lot of work to do to make it easier. Attract people to work with him. Young people like it, but we have to make older people like it too, for it to work. The way is to find apps that are more enjoyable. Whether it’s writing, gaming, learning something new. By interconnecting computers we will be more effective in bringing you the subject that interests you”, said the tycoon.

Gates also mentions in the interview that computers would be carried in your pocket. The idea of ​​miniaturizing hardware, which was so important for advancing the development of the PC, also made it possible for the era of smartphones to emerge, maintaining the need to continue looking for ways to make apps and devices more accessible and connect people from different generations.

In his second book, released 4 years after this interview, “Business @ the Speed ​​of Thought” Gates reinforces this idea of ​​mobile devices as a business catalyst, going far beyond a tool for entertainment. We have an article speaking precisely about some points mentioned by Gates in this second book.

Returning to the chat with Jô, the last question was about how many computers Gates used in his daily life.

Gates said that his main machine was a portable, a notebook, which allowed him to be transported, as well as allowing him to be interconnected with other PCs at work or at home. “The laptop covers 90% of what I need”he stated.

Analyzing the entire development of technology from 1995 to now, notebooks and even more portable options of “computing power in the palm of your hand”, such as smartphones, together with the advancement of the web, have made it possible to pave the road of the future used as title of Gates’ book.