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Steve Wozniak

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's Comic Con pitch

Marco della Cava
USA TODAY
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has organized a new Comic Con festival for Silicon Valley in March.

SAN FRANCISCO — Talking to Steve Wozniak should be a sanctioned sport. Keep up if you can.

In a span of seconds, you’ll hear about his preference for low-cost lodging (he's partial to Motel 8 due to its free WiFi), frustration with his slow at-home broadband (which monkeys with his beloved Big Bang Theory), and regrets about not buying a DeLorean in the '80s (though now he'd love a self-driving car).

The scientist in Wozniak will capture your attention by discussing his prosopagnosia, an affliction resulting in his inability to remember faces (he shares this with Brad Pitt). Then the ‘70s phone phreak fan in him will slyly steal your iPhone and command Siri to set a wake-up call for 3 a.m.

Wozniak, better known as Woz, is of course the co-founder of Apple, the jovial Paul McCartney to Steve Jobs’ brooding John Lennon and the Microsoft corollary of Paul Allen to whiz kid Bill Gates. Woz left Apple in 1985, and has spent the past three decades starting and helping various tech companies, giving away his money to support education, and talking about, well, just about everything.

“I love anything that’s interesting,” Woz says with a shrug and a smile.

Woz has hit the media circuit to promote his latest venture, a Silicon Valley iteration of Comic Con, the comic books meets sci-fi fan event that is yet another unofficial offshoot of San Diego's movie-steeped Comic-Con International.

“There are a lot of tech conferences of every genre and they’re kind of serious and can be a bit boring, but Comic Con is entertainment, it’s interesting stuff, and we want to bring tech to people in an interesting way,” Woz says, sitting on the edge of a chair in a posh hotel room (“I like simpler rooms”).

From March 18 through March 20, proud geeks of all stripes can venture down to the San Jose Convention Center for the first Silicon Valley Comic Con. A three-day adult pass will set you back $99.

Maximum capacity is 30,000 visitors a day (big, but not as big as San Diego’s 130,000 daily haul), and organizers are planning for a sell-out crowd. That’s perhaps not unreasonable since staging a techie-themed event in this part of California a is a bit like hosting a catnip festival for a room full of kittens.

“We wanted to create an event that really celebrated the tech aspect of popular culture,” says Trip Hunter, CEO of Silicon Valley Comic Con and head of marketing at storage company Primary Data, where Woz is chief scientist. “Woz was adamant that we aim for the cutting edge of things. And his name helps.”

A NAME TO LURE NAMES

Apparently so. With Woz as lure, Hunter and his staff have managed to attract a range of celebrities, including William Shatner (Woz remains an avowed Star Trek fan) as well as Michael J. Fox and other stars of the Back to the Future films.

But this being Silicon Valley, Woz’s version of Comic Con will also be heavy on Big Ideas. There are panels on moving beyond chemical rockets, exploring black holes and dissecting life on Mars, this last starring The Martian author Andy Weir. There will also be a virtual reality pavilion and an App Alley featuring newbie developers hoping the make a name for themselves.

The session that really has Woz jazzed is one being led by Alphabet X’s Astro Teller titled “Superbabies vs. A.I.” That may sound like a new Marvel Comics movie, but is actually a look into the somewhat frightening intersection of genetics and artificial intelligence.

“Superbabies will have modified genes, a baby made to fit our requirements, but the question is, will they be so powerful that they will outthink A.I.? So, which one do humans have to fear the most?” Woz pauses. “It’s all science fiction still. But we won’t be able to stop whatever the result is.”

Mostly, Woz just hopes that those who venture to his Comic Con are inspired enough by what they see to perhaps pursue their own garage-based start-up. “I want people to have dreams and ideas, and to think that maybe something is possible that’s different from today,” he says.

In this 1984 photo. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, right, along with Steve Jobs and John Sculley, unveil the Apple IIc in San Francisco. Woz left Apple for good in 1985.

When asked about Apple-related topics, Woz is polite and concise.

On the recent movie, Steve Jobs, in which he was portrayed by Seth Rogen opposite Michael Fassbender’s Jobs, Woz simply says, “I liked it, the acting was great and they brought out a character in Steve Jobs that some of us knew at a point in his life, yes.”

On Apple itself, which has gone from tech world darling to a bit of a mystery of late, falling behind on cutting edge advancements in arenas such as autonomous cars and virtual reality, Woz is determined to see blue sky.

“It’s never once concerned me that you have to see a new category of product (constantly) to call a company innovative, because the best innovation is just giving people what they want," he says. "Apple also has been very good about making acquisitions. They were first to get fingerprint ID, which will get us away from passwords. And Apple Pay is so much easier than how I used to pay with my Google phone, it was so messy and complicated.”

DRESSING TO DISAPPEAR

Despite a hectic travel schedule that see him on the road most of the year, Woz says he’ll be at his own Comic Con, roaming the floor and signing autographs.

For a little bit at least. He admits that he tends to get mobbed at tech events, which is why he long ago abandoned attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“I could go to shows like CES if I had a disguise and actually get through it, like in the old days when I was young,” he says.

What about diving into the Cosplay — costume play — portion of Silicon Valley Comic Con and coming up with a disguise?

Woz’s eyes twinkle.

“That’s actually a wonderful, wonderful idea,” he says.

If you’re at Silicon Valley Comic Con or perhaps the next CES, keep your eyes open for a guy who looks vaguely like George Lucas and is talking a blue streak. He may not be able to remember your face, but there’s a good bet you’ll never forget his.

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter @marcodellacava.

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