The speaker mentioned Amut Slinger and Rick Dickinson as his role models for design and personal computing, but he clarified that Steve Jobs is not one of his role models.
Cosmic Imagine is a web browser that integrates most of a user's work into a spatial canvas, so they don't have to switch between apps all day. It stores objects in a database and connects them together with links, based on Ted Nelson's concept of hypertext.
The speaker is the co-founder and product designer of Cosmic Imagine, with a background in philosophy. He was responsible for the user interface design of the product.
The speaker believes that design is necessary to ensure that machines and everyday life objects are designed with people in mind, even in a mechanized world. He also thinks that good design is timeless and should be a form of expression.
The speaker has mixed feelings about Steve Jobs and Apple. While he acknowledges Jobs' contributions, he also criticizes some of Apple's decisions and considers Jobs a poser who couldn't code. He also mentions that Apple was not the first company to hire an industrial designer for personal computers.
The speaker hopes that Cosmic Imagine can support the downfall of Google by providing an alternative that users don't want to close, even though they can't displace Google yet. They aim to create a healthy revenue stream without addicting people to their product.