The art of noticing: Steve Jobs' 2010 email on total dependence on civilization
floguo · x · 2026-10-24
floguo shares the body of his essay series "the art of noticing, 10-22-26": a photo caption urging readers to slow down and give quiet thanks for the marvels of modernity, paired with Steve Jobs' September 2, 2010 email to himself, sent from an iPad. Jobs itemizes his total dependence on others — food he didn't grow, clothes he didn't make, inherited language and mathematics, laws he didn't legislate, medical care he couldn't provide himself, transistors and OOP he didn't invent — closing: "I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being." A classic worth rereading in the AI acceleration era.
More from AGI Musings
- Preprint archives and journals lack cybersecurity budgets and may not survive what's coming — birchlse · 2026-10-24
- Gary Marcus Calls to Pull AI Security Products Off the Market — GaryMarcus · 2026-10-24
- Epoch AI researcher joins METR to measure how fast AI is accelerating AI R&D from inside labs — Jsevillamol · 2026-10-24
- No sign you can remove mathematicians from the loop yet, researcher says of AI proof hype — gerardsans · 2026-10-24
- Industrial AI startup raises $130M Series D at $1.4B valuation led by Sapphire Ventures — ycombinator · 2026-10-24
- AI labs overstate math wins: AI is one cog in a Lean-based machine, researcher argues — gerardsans · 2026-10-24