Steve Jobs has passed away.

As soon as I saw the news I headed to HN to share in the moment.

The site slowed to a crawl, pg kept things afloat by dialing back the number of stories on the front page, the black bar came out, and here we all are.

> We are, however, more than bodies that breed genes. We have developed into something that goes beyond the substrate from which we came and we owe it to ourselves to some day outgrow the need for that substrate completely.

I'm not sure I accept that, and I have yet to see an argument that demonstrates this convincingly. What substrate are you talking about? The physical world? We are a part of and a result of the physical world, not separate from it. The notion of moving beyond it is nonsensical. If you're talking about the biological substrate, then I agree, we may see technology evolve beyond us. But this is still the self-replication pattern that is being propagated, not humanity itself.

>Imagine what our culture could be like if we didn't have to start from scratch every 70 years.

We don't start from scratch, that is the greatest advantage of our minds which have created written and oral communication. It has been demonstrated that people grow more conservative as they get older and set in their ways. New ideas are the purview of the young. I can very well imagine our culture stagnating if individuals were able to live indefinitely.

>Imagine what our minds could do if they had centuries to develop.

If we're still talking about organic brains, I don't think we can imagine that. Our brains were not designed to receive more than 100 or so years of input. The yips in golfers arise from mental maps of the body "bleeding over" after too much training. The wiring of the brain may not be designed to handle so much input. I can easily see an analagous process happening in more purely cognitive situations. In short, we don't know what would happen, and it would be presumptuous to think that we do.

> Imagine a society without loss and scarcity.

What do you mean that doesn't appeal to people? It's a utopian fantasy, of course it sounds good. But to say that it's inevitable is wishful thinking. Ironically, it may be our individualistic culture that does what is good for the self, with no concern for the future good that prevents such a development. Our plunder of the world's resources and our destruction of the environment may very well leave the planet unsuitable for human life. This is the idea that I was addressing in my first post, that of course the species does and should take precedent over the individual.

One of my dreams was to demo a product in front of Steve Jobs and receive his approval. That'll never be but the mere fact that a man can make me strive for success without ever having met him is a testament to his influence.

Thank you very much for posting the link to this book. I had never heard of it before and after seeing your comment I immediately read some reviews, started reading the sample chapter, bought the book, and am now 3 chapters in. An amazing read, and as you state also very sobering.

I was too reminded of Randy Pausch, specifically the last pages in his book "The Last Lecture." In my mind, there was an obvious parallel between the ending chapters going by much quicker than beginning ones, a lot shorter, more succinct, reading the words of a dying, and now-dead, man.

On one hand, we never experienced this with Steve, he never really gave an indication of slowing down (except for his resignation speech), and I never noticed the energy sucked out of Apple like I did from Randy's book. That's obviously because Steve made all the right moves in transitioning the company.

On the other hand, the empty-chair photo made me visualize how he was watching the presentation, and that in itself reminded me of the last pages of The Last Lecture. The fact he died the day after the presentation is Steve's version: The Last Keynote.

RIP Steve.