Nice article that made me very curious about one thing: why did the Newton fail? It seems like an amazingly useful and cutting-edge device that should have been snatched up by everybody.

Maybe it was just a little bit TOO new, so didn't fit well enough into people's existing workflows?

Culture is both a cause and a consequence. Parents might magically wake up and start talking to their children about the wonders of science. Or they might not. But culture can also be another tool in the government toolkit (e.g. religion).

Your fantasy of an evil controlling nanny state versus the rebellious freedom-fighter parents is just that: a fantasy. Sometimes the government is doing something that should be done, and sometimes not; sometimes parents are doing what should be done, and sometimes not. I think everyone recognizes by now that most people don't spend time exciting their kids about science, and so the ability to reason and think clearly is declining. Hence, it's forward-thinking for someone with the power and responsibility of the President of the US to increase science and mathematics education. I don't see how any clear-thinking person could be against this.

Simplified models beget simplified thinking.

I agree with you Jonathan Ives is just as responsible as Jobs has been for Apple's financial (and especially cultural) resurgence.

However, do we really know whether he's qualified to run a large global business? Aesthetic vision is quite different from industry and business vision. I have no idea what he's like, but I could imagine him being a brilliant artistic recluse who myopically pursues excellence in his own aesthetic world.