I grew up in an era of great technological change. Man had landed on the Moon the first personal computers were coming to the fore and the Space Shuttle promised to accelerate our lives into the future. I grew up watching Star Wars reading 2000AD comics and using my first home computer to program in BASIC. At that time the film 2001 A Space Odyssey seemed to be a not unrealistic representation of where we would be at the turn of the century.

As time has passed the world has changed and life moves on, but the promises of my youth have faded. After the Moon landings there were no trips to Mars, no Moon base, no Jet Pacs and no Air Cars. Sure the technology has advanced and science has made startling new discovery’s but the world we thought we were promised as kids has never materialised.

Last year I watched the film Blade Runner again, for the first time in many years, and something startled me. The opening credits read, “Los Angeles 2019″. It’s startling because at the time the film was made it was deemed reasonable for that date to be an acceptable time frame for the technology and level of development displayed in the film. It’s clear to all of us now that in 8 years time the world we live in will be nothing like that.

But there is something else which is equally startling.

There is nothing in my home now that belongs in the future that was promised to us by 2000AD or 2001 or Blade Runner, except for the thing that I wrote this post on.

My iPod touch.

It is an outstanding piece of technology and its presence in the world tells you all you need to know about Steve Jobs importance to technology, his contribution to the world and now sadly loss. Steve saw the future and acted on it. Whilst others stood still, he lassoed the technology industry and dragged it kicking and screaming in to the future with him. It is that drive and attention to detail, the insistence not to compromise and forethought to divine the right vision that set Steve apart from his contemporaries and has led to the creation of the only device that I have that I can truly claim to be a small piece of the future that never was.

My iPod touch belongs to the future, it belongs in the hands of David Bowman on board the Odyssey in 2001 and it belongs to the inhabitants of the colonies of Mars in Blade Runner. It belongs to the future that never was.

That is truly inspiring and for this I am very grateful to Steve Jobs.

R.I.P Steve Jobs.