October 6, 2011

1 min read

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A Video Moment of Silence for Steve Jobs

Starring a 23-year-old Macintosh SE

By Mark Fischetti

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One of industry's mantras is that form follows function. But for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, form was function. He hit upon that idea well before the much-heralded iPod and iPhone. Even during his hiatus from Apple in the late 1980s and early 1990s, his philosophy pervaded the company's products—including the 1988 Macintosh SE featured in this video, my first Apple product. Yes, it still works.

By the way, after Jobs temporarily left Apple in 1985 he started a company called NeXT, to develop specialized personal computers. The NeXT computer was not a commercial hit, but Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the Web, actually devised all the Web programming on a NeXT machine. One more small legacy for Jobs.

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Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

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