Steve Jobs' rumored last words have left people pondering for over a decade
Great importance is often attached to a person's last words, even if they are as obtuse and hard to understand as the words uttered by Steve Jobs before he died.
People have been trying to figure out the meaning behind the rumored final words of the visionary co-founder of technology giant Apple over the 15 years since his death. But for once, it seems that Jobs' creativity was for him and him alone.
Born in San Francisco in 1955, Jobs was known for both his genius insight into technology, popularizing the home computer with the 1984 Macintosh, as well as his interest in philosophy and Zen Buddhism.
His vision for how humanity would interact with emerging computer technologies is essentially the world we live in, with his 2007 release of the iPhone changing the very way that we communicate with each other and the world around us. This is perhaps why many have looked to his last words for divine meaning.
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According to the eulogy given by his sister Mona Simpson, later published in the New York Times, the Apple CEO's final words were - "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."
Those were Jobs' last words after an eight-year struggle with a form of pancreatic cancer, called a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. Unlike other cancers affecting this organ, this rare form is very slow to progress.
But in October 2011, barely six weeks after resigning as CEO and after exhausting both alternative treatment options and regular cancer care, Jobs succumbed to his illness and uttered those cryptic words before dying from a respiratory arrest.
One puzzled Reddit user said: "I so badly want to know what he saw. But I find comfort in he seems to have seen something."
Another asked a follow-up question that Simpson herself answered in 2011, saying: "Do we know it was a 'Happy' Oh wow? Perhaps it was more a 'Oh wow, this is it. I know this is death now as it feels final' or something like that?"
Simpson explained in her eulogy: "His tone was affectionate, dear, loving, but like someone whose luggage was already strapped onto the vehicle, who was already on the beginning of his journey, even as he was sorry, truly deeply sorry, to be leaving us."
Jobs said his final words surrounded by his family at his home in Palo Alto, with his sister saying that the genius was quiet when she arrived, but 'he looked into his children's eyes as if he couldn't unlock his gaze'.
Despite making it through the night, Jobs began to slip away the next day.
"His breath indicated an arduous journey, some steep path, altitude. He seemed to be climbing," she shared in her eulogy.
Simpson continued, saying: "But with that will, that work ethic, that strength, there was also sweet Steve's capacity for wonderment, the artist's belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.
"Steve's final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times.
"Before embarking, he'd looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life's partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them."
But the answer to what he was looking at, and what made him exclaim 'oh wow', died with the visionary innovator.
Topics: Apple, Steve Jobs, Technology, iPhone
William Morgan