Fall 1968 Whole Earth Catalog

Looking through the Fall 1968 edition of Whole Earth Catalog, I was not only amazed by the nature of the items in the catalog but also by the variety of the items.

One section that made me think of Jobs and his ideas was the section about intelligent life in the universe. This part of the catalog talked about communication with other non-human beings in the universe. This reminded me of Jobs because during this time period the thought of other life on different planets or even communicating with them was not so realistic. One would question the existence of other beings or if proof did shed light on other existence's the question of how to communicate with them would be obsured given the technology then. Relating back to Jobs, his thoughts and ideas of all of these new technologies or portable computers would raise questions as well. There is a quote in this section saying " The existence of more than one universe is impossible, by definition." This quote indicates that the public and even many scientists were convinced that no other universes, just like not many people, if any at all were convinced the possibility of a personal computer was managable until Jobs brought forth the ideas and proof that it was possible. 

Another thing this section made me think about was the religious aspect of it. In some religions, what you are taught is what you know. For example, being a Catholic is strictly defined as being given a set of things to follow and following them to the best of your abilities. This whole idea of other life forms or even communicating with them is way outside the box and most likely frowned upon to even raise the "what if" question. The whole idea of evolving in not only science but also in the independant mind may have been looked down upon from a religious aspect when it comes to the tradition of things. 

All in all, the Whole Earth Catalog seems to me to be kind of a direct link to new scientific ideas for the average human, not just scientists. The new ideas and items available in the catalog relate to Job's ideas to change technology and encourage more ideas to be brought to the table. Thinking freely and outside the box is encouraged with this catalog and raises questions that may not have ever been brought to the publics attention before.