Inventors of the modern world
One of the headlines that I read online today in regard to the sad passing of Steve Jobs was that he "invented our modern world." That might seem like typical journalistic hyperbole and yet, if you think about it, there's more than a grain of truth there. The world is a very different place because Steve Jobs lived among us. He packed a lot of innovation into his short 56 years. When I came into the world, the reigning "world genius" was still Albert Einstein. He was nearing the end of his stay on this planet, but he was still very much with us. In his lifetime, his theories and insights had transformed our world. Things could never go back to the way they were before Einstein. He changed the world forever and he was gifted with a long life to see the results wrought by some of his accomplishments. When I think about other "world geniuses" that have been present on Earth during my lifetime, two names spring readily to mind: Jim Henson and...