Lately I've found myself imagining what Steve Jobs would have done had he lived. I think we have all engaged in this mostly useless mental activity. So my "Steve Jobs Simulator" keeps arriving at a surprising outcome: Jobs living to denounce the very technology he helped create. Yes, my highly accurate simulator, after numerous simulations, all reviewed by a team of peers, produces (drum roll): Steve Jobs, the Luddite.
Consider his Buddhist leanings and semi-Zen nature. What if he came to believe that his attempt to create "insanely great" products had resulted in legions of digital addicts who had traded the wideness of "real" life for a tiny screen? What if he became convinced that humans were not meant for constant digital connectivity? Is it really that far out to consider he might have wanted to clean the temple and destroy the very empire, Apple, that he built? Ok, it's pretty far out but wasn't Steve kinda far out too?
More and more I wonder if we may come to a similar "simulated" conclusion, that we aren't built to run at this speed. Our physical OS can't handle constant digital connectivity, it disrupts our normal rhythms. Or maybe we will evolve in ways we can only imagine now. Regardless, things are about to get interesting. Too bad Jobs isn't around, he would have made it even more interesting, one way or another.