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>Yeah so far I don’t think Apple has done anything equivalent in importance to the Enigma code breakers

That's probably because the Enigma code breaking has been mythologized. The war would have won without it (and it mostly was on the Eastern front anyway).



Okay, then replace the Enigma reference with the Manhattan Project, an operation so secret the military built a city isolated from the world for it.


Yeah, while that was even less important in winning WWII (the Germans were done for, and the Japs were just grasping at straws, uterly defeated), it was hugely important for the cold-war period, and probably forever.


It’s easy to say that in retrospect but to anyone working on it I’m sure it felt more important for the outcome of the war than being able to put 1000 songs in your pocket or whatever.


> The war would have won without it

And then without the next advantage, and then without the next one, etc.? At some point everything counts.




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