Of all the inventions of humans, the computer is going to rank

“Of all the inventions of humans, the computer is going to rank near or at the top as history unfolds and we look back. It is the most awesome tool that we have ever invented. I feel incredibly lucky to be at exactly the right place in Silicon Valley, at exactly the right time, historically, where this invention has taken form.” – Steve Jobs

Thus spoke Steve Jobs, the visionary craftsman of the digital age, whose hands shaped not only machines but the very way humanity interacts with knowledge and imagination. In these words, he stands as both witness and prophet, gazing upon the dawn of a revolution greater than fire, steam, or steel — the rise of the computer, that wondrous creation born from the marriage of logic and electricity. His tone is not boastful but reverent, as though he speaks of a divine instrument through which the spirit of humankind may finally give form to its boundless thought. For the computer, to Jobs, was not a mere invention; it was the unfolding of human potential — the bridge between mind and machine, between dream and reality.

To say that it is the “most awesome tool ever invented” is to recognize that the computer is not simply an object but an amplifier of creation itself. With it, the painter need not own a canvas, the musician need not hold a lute, the writer need not command a printing press. Every craft, every art, every science has found in this machine a new and infinite medium. And yet, Jobs speaks not only of power but of wonder. In his words, we hear gratitude — a sense of destiny, that he, a son of California in the age of silicon and circuitry, had been placed at the crossroads of history, where imagination met technology and the impossible became possible.

To grasp the origin of this revelation, we must return to the crucible of the 20th century, when minds like Alan Turing, John von Neumann, and Grace Hopper first whispered the language of machines. The early computers were vast and cold, monuments of metal that filled entire rooms and consumed immense power. Yet from those colossal beginnings came the spark of something divine — the realization that thought itself could be expressed in code. By the time Jobs arrived in Silicon Valley in the 1970s, that spark had become a flame. A handful of dreamers, tinkering in garages, sought to bring the power of computation to the hands of ordinary people. Jobs, with his gift for vision and simplicity, saw what many did not: that the computer was not meant to remain in laboratories or government halls, but to dwell in every home, to serve as an extension of the human mind.

Consider the tale of the Apple I, the humble wooden box that marked the birth of a new era. In that creation lay the seed of what Jobs later called “the bicycle for the mind.” Just as the wheel had multiplied the strength of the human body, the computer multiplied the capacity of thought. And from that seed grew forests of innovation — the Macintosh, the iPhone, the global network of ideas that binds continents and hearts together. What once was a dream in the valley of silicon became a revolution that reshaped the planet. Through the computer, humanity began to write, draw, speak, and dream in digital light — a new alphabet of creation.

Yet there is humility in Jobs’s words, for he does not claim ownership of the age but expresses gratitude to be part of its unfolding. “I feel incredibly lucky,” he says — a rare admission from a man of such vision. In that humility lies wisdom: that no single individual creates alone, and that great revolutions are the fruit of their time. Every genius, every invention, is a thread woven into the great tapestry of progress. Jobs recognized that he had been born into a sacred moment — the moment when humanity’s oldest dream, to make thought visible and shareable, was finally being realized through circuits and screens.

But this quote also carries a warning for the generations to come. The computer, though a tool of wonder, is also a mirror — it reflects the soul of its maker. In the hands of the wise, it uplifts and enlightens; in the hands of the careless, it deceives and divides. Like fire, it can warm or consume. The “most awesome tool” demands not only intellect but conscience. Jobs’s reverence for the computer was born not of greed, but of belief — belief that technology should serve creativity, not dominate it; that the machine should empower the human spirit, not replace it.

So, O seeker of wisdom in this digital age, learn from Steve Jobs: marvel at your tools, but master them with purpose. Let technology be the servant of your soul, not the ruler of your attention. Use the computer not only to consume but to create, not to isolate but to connect, not to forget but to remember what makes you human. For as history unfolds, this invention will indeed stand among the greatest — but its greatness will depend not on how powerful it becomes, but on how wisely we wield it. The machine is mighty; yet the hand that guides it, the mind that shapes it, and the heart that uses it for good — these are what will determine the true story that history records.