8 ms·

Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

• aanet 1y ago
  That Steve Jobs coin really looks cool. It's the sculpture of him sitting cross-legged, surrounded by hills of Silicon Valley. I wonder if these coins are available for purchase by the general public? anybody know?
  • derektank 1y ago
    The 2025 set is available directly from the US mint. Presumably the 2026 set will be available next year https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/american-innovation-dollar-coins/ https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/american-innovati...
    • aanet 1y ago
      Thanks, all. This is delightful. I used to be a coin-collector as a kid. Kinda outgrew the hobby as I grew older. But I still love new/old/unusual coins (among other things). I think I might get my hands on some of these.
  • cjk 1y ago
    Yes, the US Mint sells all of the coins in the American Innovation set to the public. Previous years’ coins can still be bought if they are not sold out.
    • Cthulhu_ 1y ago
      Not an American but I wouldn't mind having some of these. Actually, coin collecting is a pretty neat hobby, especially for commemorative coins which depict a story like these. I wouldn't go in it for their possible future financial value though.
      • bombcar 1y ago
        They should be available from the mint in collector’s tins, and available in circulation from eBay and similar. They’re great to use as board game coins; much nicer than plastic chits.
  • RobotToaster 1y ago
    You can normally order rolls of them
• derektank 1y ago
  I love how much Iowa embraces the man who saved a billion lives. He's also one of their two representatives in the National Statuary Hall Collection
  • lelandfe 1y ago
    If you haven’t read it, I loved The Wizard and the Prophet and think about it a lot
• dudeinjapan 1y ago
  Steve should be meditating in a walled garden.
  • deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
• yesbut 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • teddyh 1y ago
    With or without a cornucopia?
• ta12653421 1y ago
  are these meant for regular circulation or are these "collection items"? (Im not from the US, so Im not aware of local specifics)
  • thaumasiotes 1y ago
    If they're meant for regular circulation, the program is being led by a buffoon. $1 coins have failed to circulate every time they've been introduced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea_dollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea_dollar Dollars are worth a lot less now than they were. If vending machines start charging integer numbers of dollars, maybe dollar coins will catch on.
    • trenchpilgrim 1y ago
      All the vending machines I've used in the past 5 years were tap to pay.
    • rkomorn 1y ago
      You remind me of the time (probably around 2002) I used a 20 to pay for some transit card/ticket somewhere and ended up with something like 15 dollar coins in change. I want to say it was a metro card in NYC. Concurrent dismay and delight.
      • deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
      • owenversteeg 1y ago
        >Concurrent dismay and delight. That's exactly what I felt at the time too. To me it was always three-quarters delight and one-quarter dismay. A jangling rain of dancing gold coins is a delightful thing. Sure, now I have to go to the bank; but until that time I will walk around as a pirate, pockets full of doubloons.
        • 1y ago
• actionfromafar 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • ErikCorry 1y ago
    That's coming in 2026: https://san.com/cc/us-money-cant-feature-living-people-why-trumps-1-coin-is-the-exception/ https://san.com/cc/us-money-cant-feature-living-people-why-t...
    • actionfromafar 1y ago
      What I wonder is, if ever the Trump lineage of emperors should come to an end, (God forbid, all hail Trump and all that) and we have a Republic again, could staff be prosecuted for breaking Federal law during this term?
      • Cthulhu_ 1y ago
        (not a lawyer / legal expert but) Yes, the law and constitution take precedence over an individual's order. "I was just following orders" is not a valid defense. Of course, many people get away with stuff because the decision to prosecute and the effort needed is not universal. And new presidents have often pardoned previous administration's criminals. Thing is though, for people like e.g. the national guard that is illegallly being deployed to bring peace to toad-infested Portland it's either follow orders or get fired and lose their income, benefits, and pension - at least temporarily, but they'll need to file a long and expensive civil suit under a hopefully better future administration to get their back payment and / or job/honor reinstated. But they don't have the financial reserves or plan B to do so, thanks to decades of reducing the population's spending power, using pverty as a means to control people.
    • Findecanor 1y ago
      Weird design. The side with "Liberty" has the face of Donald Trump and "1776–2026", but he isn't dead. Oh ...
      • 1y ago
• keiferski 1y ago
  The Jobs picture looks to be based on this famous photo of him in an empty house: https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/mt/science/jobsalone.jpg https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/mt/science/jobsalone.jpg
  • JKCalhoun 1y ago
    A lot of dissimilarities from that photo. I like the photo though. Maybe I'm just a hi-fi dork. Is it a McIntosh tube amplifier behind him? Would be befitting.
    • js2 1y ago
      Here's a discussion from 2011 where folks pieced it together: https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/steve-jobs-stereo-system-1982.107133/ https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/steve-jobs-stereo-sy... Wired summarized that discussion into a photo gallery: https://www.wired.com/2014/04/steve-jobs-stereo-system/ https://www.wired.com/2014/04/steve-jobs-stereo-system/ - Michell MK1 Gyrodec turntable - Denon TU-750s tuner (Sitting atop Threshold pre amp) - Threshold FET-One pre amp - Threshold STASIS-1 amp (Not in photo, seems to be an educated guess. Some debate whether the speakers are powered and maybe an external amp wasn't needed.) - Acoustat Monitor 3 speakers
  • esafak 1y ago
    With attribution: https://stevejobsarchive.com/artifact/steve-at-home-sitting-under-his-tiffany-lamp https://stevejobsarchive.com/artifact/steve-at-home-sitting-...
• contrarian1234 1y ago
  weird design for steve jobs.. without context it looks like the depiction of some spiritual leader (which maybe is a bit funny given the early apple fanbase). I get he was a bit of a hippie, but that's not exactly his claim-to-fame > His posture and expression, as he is captured in a moment of reflection i dont associate "reflection" with him. not to disparage him in the slightest, but its just not in the top ten of things i associate with him. I then made myself laugh by trying to imagine a depiction of Bill Gates in the same pose
  • FloorEgg 1y ago
    And then you made me laugh as well.
  • baxtr 1y ago
    From: Steve Jobs, sjobs@apple.com To: Steve Jobs, sjobs@apple.com Date: Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 11:08PM I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the seeds. I do not make any of my own clothing. I speak a language I did not invent or refine. I did not discover the mathematics I use. I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate. I am moved by music I did not create myself. When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive. I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with. I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being. Sent from my iPad
    • contrarian1234 1y ago
      yeah, i don't wanna shit of steve jobs. I'm sure he reflects on stuff. (though this thing seems to suggest.. he needs to reflect on some real basic human stuff..) I'm sure you can find some cute quotes from Bill Gates too. It's just not really what he's known for just out of pure curiosity.. what's the context of this? He wrote a poem.. to email to himself? and.. how did he get access to his private emails? I can't think of any other example of people writing and mailing poems to themselves
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• fwgijcqywqeo 1y ago
  One day they will make a coin featuring Elon Musk with the quote: "Full Self Driving is ready in 3 to 6 month"
• JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  What happened to Trump promising to cancel the penny? It was a genuinely good idea that should have carried on to the nickel and dime. (I’m divided on $1 and $2 coins.)
  • firesteelrain 1y ago
    Treasury stopped minting it reportedly back in May of this year. It’s officially still valid denomination and with tons in circulation, it’s doubtful it will be going away anytime soon.
    • JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      It looks like they’ll stop minting in “early 2026,” when they run out of blanks [1]. [1] https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/5554660-dont-expect-correct-change-when-paying-with-cash-some-businesses-warn/ https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/5554660-dont...
      • bombcar 1y ago
        Some places have moved ahead with it because supply is already constrained: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/10/06/kwik-trip-ditches-pennies-rounds-down-cash-transactions https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/10/06/kwik-trip-ditches-p... (Note this is the way to do it, instead of splitting the difference fairly, they’re just always rounding down - eating a few cents here and there)
• cassettelabs 1y ago
  And it's a first time Bill Gates had a thought that he would better be dead by now.
  • xandrius 1y ago
    I'd personally rather still being alive than being on a coin.
    • cassettelabs 1y ago
      [dead]
  • actionfromafar 1y ago
    If Trump can get a coin, does that mean Steve Jobs is alive?
• Fokamul 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  • freitzzz 1y ago
    Gov doesn't care if it made devs happy or not, it cares if the products reached users and more importantly if it made them money
• themafia 1y ago
  Why Steve Jobs and not the Apple II? Or even the iPhone? Alternatively why not Seymour Cray instead of the Cray-1? Or why not use one side for the inventor and the other side for the invention? Jobs sitting there in an empty field just throws the whole set for me.
  • ahoka 1y ago
    The title was editorialized and not accurate. These are two separate coins celebrating innovations in their respectable states.
    • Thorrez 1y ago
      Sure. But why does one coin have a person and the other have an invention? Why not inventions for both or people for both?
      • card_zero 1y ago
        America invented the Steve Jobs, now ubiquitous around the world.
        • microtherion 1y ago
          You could argue that Steve Jobs was a product of very Californian circumstances: Born to parents of very different cultural backgrounds, raised in a hotbed of electronics development (and new age spirituality), started a company in an area full of enthusiasts and venture capitalists…
          • Waterluvian 1y ago
            Maybe California should put him on their dollar coin then.
            • johnnyanmac 1y ago
              He is, in the link above. And the cray-1 is for Wisconsin. For completeness, mobike refrigeration is for Minnesota and Dr. Normal Bourlag is for Iowa
• surfingdino 1y ago
  I'd love to see Dennis Ritchie commemorated as one of the greatest Americans.
  • jmclnx 1y ago
    He deserves it, without him, Jobs would be an unknown.
• boomboomsubban 1y ago
  It's not a major deal as nobody will use them, but it's strange to have a company on US legal tender. I wonder what percent of the run Cray will buy?
  • fredoralive 1y ago
    Presumably some, although HPE don’t use the old Cray logo, and the name is a bit downplayed when they talk about their supercomputer stuff, although it is still used (like most old computer companies, naturally they’ve ended up owned by HPE, who seem to collect them).
    • boomboomsubban 1y ago
      Ah, I noticed they had been acquired by HPE, but their Wikipedia article still listed revenue so I assumed they were a subsidiary. Looking again, the revenue is from the year before the acquisition. My mistake.
  • keiferski 1y ago
    There isn’t a company on the coins, just the supercomputer device itself. The Jobs coin has Jobs himself.
    • boomboomsubban 1y ago
      The device is followed by the word "Cray" and overall it's similar enough to their trademarked logo I imagine I'd get in trouble if I tried to use it.
      • keiferski 1y ago
        Yeah I just meant the actual device is being honored, not the corporation itself.
    • butlike 1y ago
      that shit cray
• blauditore 1y ago
  Not American myself, and never been there - are there really $1 notes and coins, or am I missing something here?
  • jo-m 1y ago
    yes, there are.
  • rkomorn 1y ago
    Yes. $1 coins aren't super common but they're not so odd that someone wouldn't believe it's real. There are also collector-oriented coins but pretty much none of those are actually intended for use. Edit: fun fact, there are also $2 bills (but those are way more rare and someone might not believe it's real).
    • technofiend 1y ago
      It's happened more than once that people thought $2 bills were fake; here's a recent example: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/houston-school-confuses-2-bill-as-fake-calls-police-on-student/131981/ https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/houston-school-confuses-2-... I had someone pocket a Susan B. Anthony $1 coin and put their own money in the register to replace it, but that was because it was a rare coin, not because they thought it was fake.
    • redeux 1y ago
      $2 bills aren’t rare at all. You can walk into your local bank and get a stack of them anytime, if you’d like.
      • rkomorn 1y ago
        Okay, awesome point. Meanwhile, in my 25 years of living in the US (NJ, SoCal, and NorCal), I can count on one hand the number of times I've come across them "in the wild". I started collecting them in 2004 by keeping every one I ran into in person and I now have: 3.
        • 1y ago
• mettamage 1y ago
  Hmm.. I would’ve preferred Wozniak. They got the wrong Steve.
  • CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
    I mean we're talking about a country which boils down to "What would happen if we maximized capitalism with no regard for other things?", and while I both admire and despise Steve Jobs, he feels like the perfect individual to put on a US coin.
  • dbish 1y ago
    Woz is awesome and as an engineer I understand the urge to say he’s the main one who should be honored but we have to be realistic. Jobs ushered in 2 eras, only 1 with Woz. The personal computer and the computer in everyone’s pocket. That’s not touching any of the other areas like helping to drive Pixar. Woz did not have a second act, which is perfectly fine and I deeply respect him but he doesn’t have quite the same cultural impact.
    • engeljohnb 1y ago
      Woz is a genius who invented the personal computer as we know it. Jobs was a celebrity who was good at branding himself as a genius. I don't consider a clever UI idea like a touch screen to be a work of brilliance, especially since he did zero engineering work, both for early and later Apple devices. Touch screen handheld devices would've come around with or without him, just maybe a few years later. It should've been Woz.
      • mulmen 1y ago
        Woz is alive.
      • microtherion 1y ago
        Woz was one of many people who designed microprocessor based computers in the 1970s (I recently started reading back issues of Dr. Dobb's Journal https://archive.org/details/dr_dobbs_journal_vol_01_201710 https://archive.org/details/dr_dobbs_journal_vol_01_201710, and the variety is astounding), and far from the first one, though he was very good at what he did. What really set apart the Apple II from many of its peers is that it came preassembled, in a neatly designed case (though the Commodore PET and TRS-80 were pretty much released at the same time), and those esthetics were due more to Jobs than Wozniak. Jobs did not write product code, or design boards, but he had a constant presence in the design of Apple's products and many (though by no means all) of his inputs changed the products for the better.
• overflyer 1y ago
  Steve Jobs was an absolut malignent narcissist and a copycat. Why not Dennis Ritchie for example? This is ridiculous.
  • jmclnx 1y ago
    Yes, I think this is an insult to our profession. All I can say about Jobs is he made lots of $. Dennis Ritchie revolutionized an industry.
    • nozzlegear 1y ago
      > Yes, I think this is an insult to our profession. I don't think the Mint's goal is to celebrate developers and computer scientists with the new coins. They're celebrating famous innovators and innovations from each state.
• duxup 1y ago
  That is one ugly coin and doesn’t look like Steve Jobs. It also makes no sense to not include a computer. I get the “California theme but Steve and hills and trees doesn’t jive.
  • noufalibrahim 1y ago
    Agreed though the shape of the Cray-1 is really suited to be on a coin. The Jobs one looks really terrible.
• amelius 1y ago
  And on the side it reads "you're holding it wrong".
• xixixao 1y ago
  I can't find a photo of Jobs in sneakers and in turkish instead of a lotus pose. The only reference is this toy, which matches the coin: https://majorspoilers.com/2013/10/17/toys-legend-toys-announces-young-steve-jobs-action-figure/ https://majorspoilers.com/2013/10/17/toys-legend-toys-announ... But the famous photo I do know doesn't match it: https://milenanguyen.com/blog/steve-jobs-20s-the-head-of-a-hippie-the-soul-of-a-buddhist-and-the-heart-of-an-artist https://milenanguyen.com/blog/steve-jobs-20s-the-head-of-a-h...
• sskates 1y ago
  Norman Borlaug's story is amazing. He brought modern farming practices to Mexico and created a new strain of high yield disease resistant dwarf wheat at quadrupled wheat production in the country. Did the same in India, Pakistan, and Africa. Saved a billion lives as a result. Solved food as a limited resource for the first time in human history. We've now gotten to transcend food scarcity as a society. It's super cool that the US Mint is commemorating his work.
  • grumpy-de-sre 1y ago
    Few individuals have touched anywhere near as many lives as he has, perhaps only matched by Fritz Haber/Carl Bosch and ammonia synthesis.
• throw0101d 1y ago
  > Mobile Refrigeration — Minnesota The logistical chain for keeping products products is really interesting: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chain Besides food, another area where it is critical is pharmaceuticals.
  • classified 1y ago
    I have to say, I like the Mobile Refrigeration coin the most.
  • royskee 1y ago
    A book on the subject came out earlier this year that I've been wanting to read, "Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves" by Nicola Twilley
    • hklgny 1y ago
      check out Bill Bryson’s “at home” if you’re looking for something a little less specific to refrigeration and more fun narration of similar novel life/home inventions. To give a sense of depth, refrigeration is probably a few pages. It’s very high level but a fun read about things you’ve forgotten to think about around the house
      • royskee 1y ago
        Yes! I enjoyed that book
  • shortrounddev2 1y ago
    During the pandemic there was controversy about who received Moderna/Phizer vs who received J&J's vaccine. They were giving black neighborhoods J&J because it didn't have as strict refrigeration requirements, and a lot of black neighborhoods don't have a nearby pharmacy which can store the vaccines. J&J was thought to be less effective and had a higher rate of vaccine injury though.
    • 1y ago
• api 1y ago
  I’d say these celebrate entrepreneurship more than innovation. Nothing wrong with that, but it does bother me that the true innovators often don’t get credit outside academia and enthusiasts well versed in the history. Apple II was not the first usable by mere mortals PC. There’s a lot of contenders but one of the earliest came from Georgia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compucolor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compucolor Cray was not the first multiprocessor wide vector supercomputer, but it did innovate on it. I’d say Cray broke more fundamental innovation ground than Apple.
• LarsDu88 1y ago
  They could've put the Apple I or the 6502 or an Intel chip on there
• LarsDu88 1y ago
  They could've put the Apple I, 6502, and Intel pentium, or even the frickin iPod on there
• nemo44x 1y ago
  Every truck has mobile refrigeration for half the year in Minnesota.
• ada1981 1y ago
  Hopefully the mint will offer free shipping via USPS again, and still accept credit cards over the web. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/07/22/138610663/dollar-coin-loophole-closes-for-frequent-fliers https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/07/22/138610663/doll...
• HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
  Cray-1 - half computer (inner circle), half seating (outer circle).
  • mark-r 1y ago
    The seating was just a clever way to hide the power supplies. That thing required a LOT of power.
• t1234s 1y ago
  Any info on the metal used for the coins?
• hopelite 1y ago
  The irony of all of this is of course not only that effectively no one has used any of the $1 coins since the introduction of the Sacagawea, when their value had basically halved since then, just based on official inflation fraud numbers; so it is unlikely anyone will ever see these coins either, unless you make a deliberate point to acquire and use them. The government is clearly trying to do away with the freedom of coinage and bills, intentionally and unintentionally through its inflation fraud, and that decline of America is rather ironically encapsulated in this kind of cheapening of the currency in several literal and figurative forms. And these coins are not even made of any durable metals that could survive history until another civilization can collectively wonder about how America could have ruined itself so quickly, after rising so rapidly. They could have at least made these coins at least silver or gold, so some future intelligence could at least find them. But here we are, the government creating tokens with cheap iconography made of cheap materials and a face value that literally cannot even buy you a cup of colored sugar water anymore. Frankly, who cares? Beyond saying “that’s nifty” while looking at the images of the designs; who here expects to ever see one of these “in the wild”? Have you seen any of the 40 presidential dollar coins in the wild? How about the 29 “American innovation” coins that precede this set? Heck, how often have you seen a Sacagawea in the wild, considering there were probably about 2+ billion of them minted by now?
• SaberTail 1y ago
  And meanwhile today you can get more power than the Cray-1 (or Cray-2) from a single chip a fraction of the size of that coin. Very quickly: a dollar coin is about 550 mm^2 on a face the Cray-1 could do 160 MFLOPS an M1 chip has a die size of 120 mm^2 an M1 chip can do over 1 TFLOPS
  • foobarian 1y ago
    I had just gone down this rabbit hole for unrelated reasons (looking into yields). Nvidia's 5090 die is 750 mm^2, managing 419 TFLOPS on the FP16 benchmark.
  • Mr_Minderbinder 1y ago
    The “over 1 TFLOPS” claim for the M1 appears to be for single precision floats whereas FLOPS performance figures for supercomputers, including the one given for the CRAY-1, are almost always based on double precision (FP64) floats. The double precision FLOPS performance of the M1 would be lower, perhaps half of the single precision performance.
• zitterbewegung 1y ago
  Dipping dots had a subsidiary made and helped refrigerate them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dippin'_Dots?wprov=sfti1# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dippin'_Dots?wprov=sfti1#
• mindcrash 1y ago
  Featuring Jobs without Woz is actually disgusting. IMO, as a child of the 80s, Apple becoming popular and innovative required both. EDIT: And forgot to mention Jef Raskin, who together with Woz played a pivotal role engineering the first Macintosh in 1984.
• stevenjgarner 1y ago
  Minimum of $27.50 for all 4 coins ($6.88 per coin), or $123.50 for 100 of one coin (for 2025 [1]) [1] https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/american-innovation-dollar-coins/ https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/american-innovati...
  • sparrish 1y ago
    Those aren't the coins in circulation. Those are proof coins and reverse proof coins, made shiny for collectors.
• shevy-java 1y ago
  Shall we forget that Steve Jobs conspired with other companies to pay developers less? This is well-documented in courts (and also on many other websites, by the way): https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/24/apple-google-settle-antitrust-lawsuit-hiring-collusion https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/24/apple-goo... See: "[...] Steve Jobs orchestrated an elaborate scheme to prevent poaching and drive down wages."
  • tylerflick 1y ago
    For real. Where is my Dennis Ritchie coin?
    • geodel 1y ago
      Maybe order some from here[1] 1. https://www.militarycoinsusa.com/ https://www.militarycoinsusa.com/
    • johnnyanmac 1y ago
      Would ha e 100% taken Woz, but he still seems to be kicking. That is the interesting thing about tech. So many pioneers that transformed society are still around. It's a relatively young field that exploded over the last few decades.
  • bArray 1y ago
    > Shall we forget that Steve Jobs conspired with other companies to pay developers less? What could be a more fitting placement than on a dollar coin? He'll be used to pay employees using an inflating dollar currency, where he can continue to pay employees less in perpetuity.
    • elif 1y ago
      Considering it costs $1.25 for each of these he's already withholding value!
  • rtkwe 1y ago
    On the other hand what's more American than eroding workers rights through coordination between rich business owners? Granted there's fewer machine guns on trains involved than in some periods. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre and several other incidents.
• gnarlouse 1y ago
  If you’re gonna do jobs, do wozniak as well like jesus, one has actual American values, the other was a ruthless friend-fucker
• butlike 1y ago
  Never heard of that Norman Borlaug guy. Sounds like a standup guy from his wikipedia.
  • esafak 1y ago
    Borlaug. Bill Gates talks about him a lot: https://www.gatesnotes.com/the-man-who-fed-the-world https://www.gatesnotes.com/the-man-who-fed-the-world Borland was the software company. Maybe I missed the joke?
    • butlike 1y ago
      No, it was just a misspelling. Edited for clarity.
• hirvi74 1y ago
  Woz should be on the coin and not Jobs.
• diego_moita 1y ago
  When Steve Job died all major newspapers, magazines and television news shows dedicated major space and time to report his death. One week after someone far more important died: the co-creator of the most influential computer program in history (Unix) and the most influential programming language in history (C). Very few news media outlet reported the death of Dennis M. Ritchie. I argue that Ritchie's legacy runs deeper and wider than Jobs'. Almost all CPUs and microprocessors existing today run code that was implemented using technologies created by Ritchie, from ABS breaks to satellites. But, even in this forum, many people don't know about him.
• b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
  if the intent is to bring attention to technological innovations, Jobs was not a technological innovator, despite what the decades of PR would lead you to believe. If we want to argue that he was a promoter of tech innovations, in his capacity as a businessman, I would find that less objectionable but I still don't think Jobs is the guy we should be highlighting, given his track record of screwing over the people doing the actual work and innovating. (though depending on how cynical you are, that is perhaps exactly the type of person that the Powers That Be would want to push as the face of innovation)
  • groundzeros2015 1y ago
    Innovator has a broader meaning than the individual who wrote the program or built the circuit. Setting the direction and vision for technology is a big deal. The engineers were very smart but it’s hard to see us knowing their name or having such an impact on technology without Steve. Woz was destined for a comfortable 30 year career at HP.
  • alephnerd 1y ago
    Why should driving a "design-first" and "user experience"/UX first model not be viewed as innovative? Just implementing something isn't enough. You need to also be able to ensure that it is usable by non-specialists. And this is something that Jobs really drove in the tech industry in it's early days, when non-technical users were basically an afterthought. That is the reasoning behind their choice for Jobs, and honestly it's a valid one.
  • hbn 1y ago
    He created Apple, and then came back to save them from bankruptcy and made them profitable within months which none of their other CEOs leading up to his return could. The way he got the notoriously staunch record labels on board with their $1/song plan to make iTunes possible and make music infinitely more convenient and accessible overnight was unforeseen. Not many people have repeatedly proven themselves many times over like he did. I do believe he was one of the greatest business men of all time, and for all the things you can complain about with Apple, I'm glad they exist to inject some sense of taste into computing, and a standard for every other computing device to be compared to (cue examples of bad design decisions that came from Apple. Don't bother, doesn't disprove my point)
• kemiller2002 1y ago
  I'm writing this from a Mac when I ask this. Has Apple actually created anything that could arguably have changed the world? Resistant crops, the Cray, mobile refrigeration all changed the world. My iPhone's nice, but it's not exactly on the same level. Is there anything from Apple that I'm missing?
  • aftbit 1y ago
    The iPhone absolutely changed the world. I agree - it is not on the level of the green revolution or refrigeration. It still led to one of the largest paradigm shifts in end user computing, taking it from the desk or table at work or home into the hand, everywhere, for everyone.
    • fluoridation 1y ago
      I'm honestly still trying to wrap my head around in what way exactly the iPhone was innovative. It wasn't the first phone that could run programs, nor the first phone that could use the Internet (the "i" in "iPhone"). Perhaps it was the first phone that did both of those and also had a touchscreen, however that seems like an odd thing that would "take end-user computing from the desk to the hand, everywhere". I would argue the iPhone itself is not the innovation, but rather the ecosystem around it: the app store. I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone else was doing that in 2006.
      • crazyeights 1y ago
        The major innovation of the original iPhone was its ability to be both $800 (no carrier subsidies) and be an iconic sought after product that didn’t have much function outside of what was already available in the phone market.
    • aftbit 1y ago
      The iPhone changed the world through sheer scale. This even trickled back upstream to its components. For example, VECSEL lasers were added to the iPhone in 2017 to power FaceID. At the time, they were a low volume, high cost component (used primarily in fiber transceivers) with generally poor yields. Today, thanks in large part to the sheer number demanded by iPhones, they are a cheap, near commodity component with >90% yields. https://www.electrooptics.com/article/vcsels-deliver-mega-impact-consumer-space https://www.electrooptics.com/article/vcsels-deliver-mega-im...
• mxuribe 1y ago
  Maybe its simply my personally opinion, but I agree with @tylerflick with the opinion that why not Dennis Ritchie. Sure, Jobs was a ridiculously effective *promoter*, and there is without a doubt a place for that role in the world...But i guess when i think *innovation* i think Ritchie, Woz, Cray, Admiral Hopper, etc...not, like, the business folks...but maybe i'm being too harsh?
  • alephnerd 1y ago
    Before Steve Jobs, UX was an afterthought in much of software development. It was he and Apple that really drove the tech industry to recognize that User Experience and developing simplified products for non-specialists matter. Even the Mint gives that explaination for why he's included as an "innovator".
    • mxuribe 1y ago
      Respectfully, i disagree. But, then when i really probe why i feel that, i think i simply have personally negative feelings against Jobs, and that of course isn't fair to fans of Jobs. It might sound like i'm discounting the good things that jobs indeed did accomplish, and which directly did help society...I'm not! I just feel like Jobs is that kid who - yes, does help - but others do LOTS of the work, but because he is the loudest kid, tends to get all the attention...clearly the issue is on my side; my personal feelings towards Jobs, and its not a fair assessment for whether he should or should not be considered an innovator...So i think i will respectfully stop commenting on this thread since i am of course not adding value, other than to express: i never liked Jobs...Which isn't helpful for this dialogue. So...Sorry, and thanks all!
• whalesalad 1y ago
  Everyone in here is concerned about whether or not X, Y or Z should be on the coin. I am asking myself, why the hell are we minting a new coin at all.
  • fluoridation 1y ago
    They're commemorative coins.
• avazhi 1y ago
  That’s a pretty awful likeness of Jobs at any age.
• clueless 1y ago
  The Cray-1 supercomputer icon looks like the outline of burning man's black rock city. Wonder if there was any inspiration from Cray-1 supercomputer's design.
  • deaddodo 1y ago
    Concentric circles around a central figure, with a wedge to allow entry is a pretty obvious design pattern.
• marajason629 1y ago
  [dead]
• sombragris 1y ago
  Instead of Jobs I would have liked to have Dennis Ritchie in that coin.