Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is a modern day E.F. Hutton: when he speaks, which isn't often, everyone stops to listen and there's no mystery as to why.
What he says, whether it's about how robots will one day fire the human race from running companies or when he just slaps the truth on the table regarding a hot topic - such as the insane cost of Apple's high-end Watch device - is spellbinding, smart and informative. It is Woz, after all.
In a wide-ranging media interview the 64-year-old Wozniak, who is currently chief scientist at Primary Data, completely supports the idea of Apple making tech-centric vehicles and believes that Apple is bit off-kilter pricing the Apple Watch Edition in the $10,000 range. He also believes that one day all the innovation created and fostered by humans will result in humans no longer being part of the business workplace.
The very proud owner of a Tesla Model X P85D electric vehicle says that while Elon Musk's innovation is one of the most amazing tech creations he has ever owned, he is eager to see Apple move into the automotive industry and shake it up even more than Musk already has.
"I don't know if Apple's doing that, or if they're just working on their CarPlay apps for the dashboard of your car, but it seems like they might be hiring a lot of people who could really build a vehicle," said Wozniak, calling the auto business a "perfect territory for a company like Apple."
And, after all, who would know better than the man who founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs.
In regard to Apple's aggressive foray into the watch-making industry, Wozniak doesn't hold back. While interested in maybe buying the low-end Watch version, the one retailing for about $350, he has no plans on spending thousands, or over $10,000, for the Edition. Unless, of course, some sort of app or feature came into play that made it worthwhile to wear it all the time.
Why? Well, apparently he doesn't live in the "world" where the Watch Edition will live.
"If you buy the really high-priced ones, the jewellery ones, then you're not buying a smartwatch that has a bunch of apps ... Like a Rolex watch, you're buying if for prestige and a label and a symbol of who you are," Wozniak said. "The fact is the difference between a $10,000 watch and a $17,000 dollar watch is only the band, and for an engineer like me I don't live in that world, that's not my world."
Obviously, like any engineer, Wozniak is insanely interested in artificial intelligence and all the capabilities the emerging tech is fostering, but he's also a bit of a realist, and a pessimist, on what AI will ultimately do to the human race.
"Computers are going to take over from humans, no question," he says. "Like people including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have predicted, I agree that the future is scary and very bad for people. If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they'll think faster than us and they'll get rid of the slow humans to run companies more efficiently."
"Will we be the gods? Will we be the family pets? Or will we be ants that get stepped on? I don't know about that ... But when I got that thinking in my head about if I'm going to be treated in the future as a pet to these smart machines ... well, I'm going to treat my own pet dog really nice."
Some future developments may prove Woz true, but most of us are highly doubtful any AI race would be quick to lay you off or kick you to the curb. And there is no way anyone could envision him treating any animal, or human, anything except nice.
