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points by TheOtherHobbes 3 days ago | 0 comments
He's responsible for the iPhone, and effortless touch screen pocket computing has been culturally and psychologically catastrophic.

That's not his fault specifically, and it's possible someone else would have invented the same tech eventually.

But he had a gift for sawing the hard edges off tech and making it palatable. Adtech and social media both took full advantage of that, and there's no evidence he saw that as a problem.

[–] trop 3 days ago
There's a band called Stoney Spring which has a somewhat caustic 2013 song "Jobs" which touches on this. Excerpts:

  I don't blame Steve Jobs
  For what he's done to our bodies and our brains
  I blame you and me for making Steve Jobs feel like what he done was right
  
  ...
  
  And I don't blame Steve Jobs
  For turning rock-and-roll into a store at the mall
  I blame you and me for accepting the seduction
  Of being normal
  
  I don't blame Steve Jobs
  For driving a spike through the heart of the public space
  I blame you and me
  For retreating into fantasy, fingering our half-formed thoughts
  In our sleek sexy crumbling civilization
  
  ...
  
  I don't blame Steve Jobs
  For making us timid and effete
  I blame you and me
  For paying Steve Jobs to turn those sins into a lifestyle
  
  And a product
  And an industry
  And an identity
  A badge of honor
  
  ...
[–] Sir_Twist 3 days ago
If Apple didn't make the iPhone, wouldn't someone else have? I feel like the iPhone is a natural progression from what came before it (cell phones, PDAs, mp3 players, and other, more niche varieties of pocket devices). I feel like the iPhone isn't some blip on the technological timeline that wouldn't have happened otherwise. It just so happened that, by whatever factors were at play, Jobs was in the right place at the right time.
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