Longform republished a Playboy interview with Steve Jobs from 1985. Nearly 30,000 words long, the conversation is full of interesting ideas and anecdotes. The interview spans the tech of the time. At one point, while discussing the potential of computers, Jobs compares Pong quite favorably to the work of Aristotle. In another chunk of the interview, Jobs comments on the future of home computing, predicting the average person would spend a considerable amount of cash on a personal computer so they could connect to a national network — a little different than the internet of today.

Playboy: What will change? Jobs: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people-as remarkable as the telephone. Playboy: Specifically, what kind of breakthrough are you talking about? Jobs: I can only begin to speculate. We see that a lot in our industry: You don't know exactly what's going to result, but you know it's something very big and very good. Playboy: Then for now, aren't you asking home-computer buyers to invest $3000 in what is essentially an act of faith? Jobs: In the future, it won't be an act of faith. The hard part of what we're up against now is that people ask you about specifics and you can't tell them. A hundred years ago, if somebody had asked Alexander Graham Bell, "What are you going to be able to do with a telephone?" he wouldn't have been able to tell him the ways the telephone would affect the world. He didn't know that people would use the telephone to call up and find out what movies were playing that night or to order some groceries or call a relative on the other side of the globe. But remember that first the public telegraph was inaugurated, in 1844. It was an amazing breakthrough in communications. You could actually send messages from New York to San Francisco in an afternoon. People talked about putting a telegraph on every desk in America to improve productivity. But it wouldn't have worked. It required that people learn this whole sequence of strange incantations, Morse code, dots and dashes, to use the telegraph. It took about 40 hours to learn. The majority of people would never learn how to use it. So, fortunately, in the 1870s, Bell filed the patents for the telephone. It performed basically the same function as the telegraph, but people already knew how to use it. Also, the neatest thing about it was that besides allowing you to communicate with just words, it allowed you to sing.

I also found this bit about Jobs' relationship with former partner Steve Wozniak humanizing.

Playboy: What happened to the partnership as time went on? Jobs: The main thing was that Woz was never really interested in Apple as a company. He was just sort of interested in getting the Apple II on a printed circuit board so he could have one and be able to carry it to his computer club without having the wires break on the way. He had done that and decided to go on to other things. He had other ideas. Playboy: Such as the US Festival rock concert and computer show, where he lost something like $10,000,000. Jobs: Well, I thought the US Festival was a little crazy, but Woz believed very strongly in it. Playboy: How is it between the two of you now? Jobs: When you work with somebody that close and you go through experiences like the ones we went through, there's a bond in life. Whatever hassles you have, there is a bond. And even though he may not be your best friend as time goes on, there's still something that transcends even friendship, in a way. Woz is living his own life now. He hasn't been around Apple for about five years. But what he did will go down in history. He's going around speaking to a lot of computer events now. He likes that.

The entire interview is worth a read, perhaps on your internet-connected Apple product.