Technology Killed Steve Jobs
That’s not Steve Jobs “killed technology” or spawned “killer technology” in the awesome, sick, hot, cool product sense.
Though iTunes and Steve Jobs killed the record & CD industry. Rather, it was technology killed Steve Jobs in a quite literal sense.
Steve Jobs replied to my email years ago in Silicon Valley. I asked him why he’s not touting Apple’s great security. He replied he just didn’t want to draw publicity to it for fear hackers may focus on Apple products. Always a step ahead.
The world could’ve used 25 more years of his pig-headed brilliance, this ‘Future by Steve Jobs’.
I wish to draw attention to what killed him. Technology is the killer. Was it a remote death ray, nano-robots or mutant bacteria? No, nothing like that. Well, almost nothing like that.
We’re killed by the things we love; addiction to cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, McDonald’s and the list. We pick our poisons and go to the well, habitually. One who loves violence may die by the sword. Lovers die by the object of their affections.
If you want to learn what kills us, find out what we love.
Far from junk food, Steve Jobs was meticulous about what he ingested as a pescetarian (vegetarian + fish). He kept his own fresh food garden. And as a Buddhist, he likely cultivated discipline while avoiding most bad lifestyle choices. One may expect Steve to live a long, healthy life. One ‘addiction’ Jobs would never shake was technology.
Steve Jobs loved technology. These warm and fuzzy technology things – the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad – are things he loved. They’re the things we all love. They’re why we loved Steve.
The iPhone (slash iPad) is the technology that absorbs our lives.
Researchers contend brain scans show it’s far more than mere brand recognition (New York Times, “You Love Your iPhone. Literally”).
The iPhone was a game-changer.
It was also a game-changer in terms of man-made radiation.
The iPhone emits more electromagnetic radiation than any other smartphone in the world. It’s always ‘talking’ to other iPhones. You can ‘bump’ iPhones to exchange e-cards. It’s so cool!
And it’s so deadly. Like a bunch mini-transmitters, it’s radiation is “always-on” and all around. We’re swimming in electromagnetic fields which have increased a million-fold in the past 40 years.
iPhone takes this radiation exposure to a whole new level. Not so cool.
We’ve welcomed this ubiquitous hazard into our lives this past century. The scientific case is not herein with copious links to distract our radiation-addled brains. Ask your mother or grandmother. Mine once said about TV, ‘Stay back from that thing, it can’t be good for you’. Turns out, TVs once emitted X-rays! Anyway, go look it up. What am I, your mother?
Let me get off our fav devices (er, ‘loved ones’) and instead focus on Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs reputedly had a hand in every design detail, his obsession with interface and usability means he was immersed in electromagnetic field radiation. Not like you or me or even the bench engineers at Apple.
In terms of humans on the planet and without benefit of environmental audit, it’s safe to say he was in the 99.9th percentile of exposure to this radiation. Steve Jobs was Guinea Pig Number One.
[ Actually, Dr. Robert Kane, Motorola’s top patent holder/cellphone tester – wrote the book, ‘Cellular Telephone Russian Roulette’ in 2001 and died of a brain tumor – was likely ‘Number One’ ]
Technology is addictive – not just in the better-known psychological sense of reinforced behavior and subsequent triggering of endorphins, dopamine and all these neurotransmitters involved in addiction.
Beyond this, the radiation itself is addictive. Electromagnetic radiation – independent of other factors– triggers endorphins, impacts dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, epinephrine, GABA – the addiction keys.
This covert, man-made radiation we heartily embrace affects our mental health and then directly impacts our physical health. Cancer is one of the troubling by-products. Technology kills… in a warm & fuzzy way.
What of pancreatic cancer and Steve Jobs? He first got pancreatic cancer in 2004. Those chemo treatments doubtless resulted in the liver toxicity which necessitated a liver transplant. The liver’s ‘the General’ in this war as they say in Chinese medicine. Without the liver, no chance. Oncologists agree.
After pancreatic cancer in 2004, rather than quit and concentrate on getting healthy, Steve Jobs was just getting started. Then came the liver transplant in 2009. That’s the heroic part. We think it’s all great fun designing the future. Sometimes, one expects it’s hellish hard work.
Steve Jobs made technology accessible and indispensible and the object of all our affections. No longer stuck in the realm of ‘need’ Steve Jobs made technology a matter of ‘want’. Technology became happy and helpful and mostly… Simple.
Like the genius Nikola Tesla and his alternating current, Jobs brought wondrous technology into our lives. Electricity is the backbone of our technological advance. Ironically, with it’s own hazardous radiation, electricity is the unindicted toxic co-conspirator lurking.
Technology… for good or evil. The good, we all know.
The evil? Well, that’s right now being discovered.
Steve Jobs killed technology and technology killed Steve Jobs.
It’s tantamount to being attacked by gummy bears (for some of us).
This thing we love turned against us. And who’d think to blame gummy bears anymore than people would blame their various and sundry iStuff.
Steve Jobs gave his life to give you this technology.
He didn’t know it.
And frankly, the collective “we” won’t know it for a while yet.
On technology and health, we need to think anew and act anew and all that jazz.
Like Steve.
This Blog is now officially open
further inspired by Steve Jobs.
Thanks.
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