Television should be the last mass communication medium to be naively designed and put into the world without a surgeon-general's warning.

Kay’s remark treats television not as a neutral appliance but as a powerful, population-scale technology whose effects on attention, cognition, culture, and politics can be harmful when introduced without forethought. By invoking a “surgeon-general’s warning” (associated with public-health cautions on cigarettes), he frames mass media as something that can create addictive or damaging patterns and therefore merits explicit risk disclosure and more responsible design. The line also reflects Kay’s broader critique of passive, broadcast media and his preference for interactive, educational computing—tools that can amplify learning rather than merely deliver entertainment and advertising.