It's really not the equivalent of a void pointer, because interface{} is still typed, and you can still interrogate its type, and the runtime prevents you from

It's really not the equivalent of a void pointer, because interface{} is still typed, and you can still interrogate its type, and the runtime prevents you from using it as any type other what it actually is. So it's far safer than a void pointer, although it can crash the program — but cleanly (because of the aforementioned runtime checks).