Batman’s always been my favorite superhero, which is a little weird if you think about it. Batman’s not a superhero in the way we generally understand superheroes to be—he doesn’t have any powers, he’s just a dude with very obsessive tendencies who happens to also be incredibly smart, a terrifying fighter, and rich enough to make whatever he wants a reality. One of the most important things that makes Batman the most dangerous human in the DC Universe is that he constantly invests his money into R&D, making all kinds of devices, both big and small, to fit his needs: from the Batmobile, to armored suits fit for any environment, to his Batcave computer that does everything you can think of and then some. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, it was the latter I was always most jealous of, but computers then were large, expensive things, and there just wasn’t software available to me at the time to do most of the things I really wanted to do, other than write papers for school. Only Batman really got to have one.
It was nearly unimaginable then but today, some sixteen years after buying my first just-for-me computer, I have a device in the palm of my hand that lets me read books on the subway, watch tv shows in bed under the sheets, insert kittens into photos to make my friends laugh, and most importantly to me, instantly communicate with people I care about all over the world. Every day, I am Batman, and so are you, and none of us will ever be able to count the thousands of ways in which Steve Jobs was responsible for making our lives so much richer. Thanks, Steve. I miss you so much already.