The tree that helped bore 'Apple'

Okay, Steve Jobs died on 05-Oct and the entire news media was flooded with respects; there were hordes of people outside apple stores, tears witnessed and most astonishingly, a new booming business in China around making 'Steve Jobs' figurines. I'm not one to dispute the scale of obituaries or the emotional last-respects. However, two further events really saddened me. Without taking any sides, any person would believe the contribution of these two individuals to the world of technology was much bigger, complex and far-reaching.

First, Dennis Ritchie died on 12-Oct-2011. A recipient of the Turing award in 1983 and the National Medal of Technology in 1998, in many ways he provided the foundation for most computer applications today including Apple. Here's a very fitting article on his many contributions, but just to list in bullet points -

1. Father of the C programming language

2. Built the UNIX operating system

Why are the above 2 items so significant - Almost everything on the web uses C and UNIX. Browsers are written in C, Web servers use the same. If not C, things are written in Java or C++ which are again, C derivatives. Even scripting languages like Python and Ruby are interpreted in C. From a technology evolution perspective, C was like a giant leap. A 'high' level langauge which was still very close to the machine level. It allowed programmers to write clean yet very powerful programs. UNIX is pretty much the base of most OS. Most interestingly, UNIX underpins both Mac OS X and iOS. In a way, Steve was always standing on Dennis's shoulders!

Second, John McCarthy died on 27-Oct-11. John coined the term, 'Artificial Intelligence'. And this was coined in 1955! Much before, we had any of our regular PCs, smartphones or even the concept of semantic web. He pioneered the 'Lisp' programming language which shouldered the entire AI and Robotics industry. Interestingly, he created the amongst the first computer chess games. More details here
In a loose analogy, it's the actors who get all the fame for a super-hit movie and rarely, the technicians are recognized. Steve was the front-man, an 'actor' which the world could relate to, he presented fantastic products to the world. It's another matter, that the technicians who built the foundations for making these products possible often remain hidden.