21世紀の自転車を作っている / Fashioning a 21st century bicycle

There was an article in Scientific American in the early 70s which compared the efficiency of locomotion for various species of things on the planet. In other words, they measured how much energy it took for a bird to get from point a to point b, compared with the energy it took a fish to get the same distance and a goat and a person and all sorts of other things. They ranked them and turns out the condor won. Condor was the most efficient and man came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list. Somewhat disappointing. But someone there had the insight to test the efficiency of man riding a bicycle. Man riding a bicycle was twice as good as the condor all the way off the end of the list. What it really illustrated was man’s ability as a tool maker to fashion a tool that can amplify an inherent ability that he has and that’s exactly what we think we’re doing. We think we’re basically fashioning a 21st century bicycle here which can amplify an inherent intellectual ability that man has and really take care of a lot of drudgery to free people to do much more creative work.

— Steven Jobs, 1981