Steve Jobs died

[Kelsey W]

A sad day when one of the biggest and most inventive nerds of us all has to move on. Post here to leave your thoughts, regrets, etc.

[Royce McLean]

He did not create anything that did not exist before. He merely improved, often dramatically, on what was already there.

I actually agree with most of what you're saying. Yes, most of Steve Jobs' (and Apple's) strength was/is in re-imagining existing technology in a way that made it accessible to the average consumer. However, you seem to be implying that, because of that, Jobs wasn't an inventor. This concerns me. Ask the average person who comes to mind when you say "inventor", and they'll rattle off names like Edison, Bell, and Watt. All brilliant thinkers and visionaries, sure, but the vast majority of the devices they are famous for "inventing" existed in some form long before they got their hands on them. So were they inventors? Of course they were. Because invention is very rarely about complete novelty. Invention is about taking another step down a path. A path laid down by countless generations of other thinkers. And in that regard, Jobs was the Tesla of his time.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

However, you seem to be implying that, because of that, Jobs wasn't an inventor. This concerns me. Ask the average person who comes to mind when you say "inventor", and they'll rattle off names like Edison, Bell, and Watt. All brilliant thinkers and visionaries, sure, but the vast majority of the devices they are famous for "inventing" existed in some form long before they got their hands on them

 

Edison invented the light bulb. Prior to that, there was no such thing as an electrical means of generating light. Bell invented the telephone. Prior to that, there was no electrical means of transmitting voice. Watt invented the copying machine. He did not invent the steam engine. He can be argued to be the designer of the modern steam engine, and certianly he invented the way for it to function as it does now, but that isn't inventing the steam engine entirely, anymore than the inventor of the tyre invented the wheel.

 

Invention IS about novelty. It is about creating something entirely new that was not there before. Jobs did not do that.

 

Jobs is not the Tesla of his time. Jobs was and will forever be an expert product developer and designer. He cross-bread ideas and technologies to make expert personal electronic equipment that will doubtless span the test of time. Tesla however, discovered new things. Things that simply no one had known about before. He invented the radio (sorry Marconni). This was not simply a redesign of something that was already there. It was brand new. Nothing like it before.

[Royce McLean]

Sorry man, but the first incandescent light was created by Humphrey Davy, in 1802. Edison simply improved upon it to make one efficient enough for wide use. Johann Philipp Reis created a device that could electronically transmit sounds in 1860. Again, Bell just made breakthrough improvements on it. As for Watt, the copy machine he invented was not the first device that could accurately reproduce inked text and drawings: it was just the first commercially successful one. And yes, Tesla "invented" the precursor to the modern radio in 1893. But the first guy to notice that electrical signals could be picked up over the air by telephone receivers was David Hughes, in 1878.

The point being that very few ideas are completely "new". Most are improvements on older concepts. The modern computer wasn't invented by one person. It was invented over time by a lot of brilliant thinkers. Steve Jobs was one of them.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

Sorry man, but the first incandescent light was created by Humphrey Davy, in 1802.

 

In that case, Humphrey was the one who invented it, not Edison. Simple as that. The same as all your other examples. Popular history has just remembered it wrong. 

 

And yes, Tesla "invented" the precursor to the modern radio in 1893. But the first guy to notice that electrical signals could be picked up over the air by telephone receivers was David Hughes, in 1878.

 

Yes, but did Hughes develop a machine which could transmit/receive messages? No.

 

The point being that very few ideas are completely "new". Most are improvements on older concepts. The modern computer wasn't invented by one person. It was invented over time by a lot of brilliant thinkers. Steve Jobs was one of them.

 

The modern computer wasn't "invented" it was developed.

[Royce McLean]

The modern computer wasn't "invented" it was developed.

This is exactly my point. Development is invention, and vice versa. Someday, years from now, someone will ask who "invented" the computer, and they'll have exactly the same conversation we are currently having about light bulbs and radios and telephones. And they won't get a clear answer, because the fact is, one person didn't invent it. These things do not spring whole from the minds of individuals. Invention is a process, which involves many ideas, and many people, over time. The idea of a single creator of an object is romantic, but flawed. We can't say Edison invented the light bulb, because Humphrey came up with a crude version of it first. But we can't say he invented it either, because he certainly wasn't the first to realize that electricity makes stuff burn. And the guy who noticed that probably wasn't the first to realize that burning stuff produces light. The light bulb was developed. Everything is developed. Over time.

Invention is a process. Steve Jobs was part of the process. Steve Jobs was an inventor. A good one. And the world is a bit less awesome without him.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

But we can't say he invented it either, because he certainly wasn't the first to realize that electricity makes stuff burn.

 

Yes we can, because he was the first to apply it in that way. Using your argument, no one invented anything.

Invention is a process. Steve Jobs was part of the process. Steve Jobs was an inventor. A good one. And the world is a bit less awesome without him.

 

Steve Jobs was not an inventor. He was a product developer. Nothing he did was even remotely original. It was exceptionally comcerially sucessful, but he did not, in any way, invent the personal computer. He made a unit that was more acesable to some people. A great many people, but still only some.

 

Steve Jobs did not take a known physical principle and apply it a new way. He didn't even take a known product and apply it/combine it in an original way.

[Fake Crowley]

Sad, but people die every day, nerdy or otherwise.

 

I stopped caring about individuals who I don't know personally after I realized just how many people die every day. I have sympathy for their relatives, but I have my own sorrows to carry, thank you very much, and I'd rather not suffer if it won't benefit anyone in the slightest, myself or otherwise. He wouldn't have cared if I mourned his death. He didn't know me.