Steve vs. Billy

I'd just finished reading Slaughterhouse Five when Steve Jobs died, and the contrast between the Apple CEO and Kurt Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim could not have been more pronounced.

"Here's to the Crazy Ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world - are the ones who DO!" ~ Apple Computer

VS:

Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, present, and the future. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five, pg. 77

Steve Jobs was perhaps the most ego-driven man on the planet, certainly the most successful. Like Midas, everything he touched turn to gold. Driven by a fear of not accomplishing anything of note before he died, Steve rather over-shot his goal, changing everything.

Billy Pilgrim, on the other hand, is perhaps the most ego-less character ever invented, seemingly pulled this way and that by fate, with no hands on the wheel whatsoever. Despised by his peers, always playing a hopeless fool, Billy doesn’t even seem to try. He has a secret reason for not trying though; he is a time traveler, and he knows every moment in time has already happened, even the ones in the future.

“It means your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one, both of you. ~Dr. Emmet Brown

Pilgrim might not agree. Free Will vs. Pre-destination, ego vs. Id, the eternal debate goes on.

In this world, there are very few of us who achieve our egoic dreams. Those who do probably think we losers just didn’t try hard enough, didn’t want it badly enough. Steve’s ego dreams were better than most, he was smarter than most. He realized he could get what he wanted by giving everyone else what they wanted, or at least a 99¢ song about it.

But now Steve’s dead, and you can’t take it with you. Though maybe you can leave it behind. Steve’s parting gift is the iPhone 4S, a little critter gifted with the first mass-market Artificial Intelligence - Siri.

Siri (Iris, the “illuminated eye phone”) is connected to all his other selves via the iCloud, a central database accessible through a wireless network. The iCloud goes “live” on October 12, 2011. It sounds pretty fabulous, what could possibly go wrong?

NOTES:

The first Apple computer went on sale for $666.66

In Occupy Wall St., we're all demanding jobs.

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive an Apple ID on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell in the app store unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

The Apple of Discord.

This page written on a Mac.