The “Big Box” I Saw at a Friend’s House 50 Years Ago... Tracing My First Encounter with Technology [Tracing the Origins #1]
Hello, this is yasu.
Starting next month, I will be spending a month in Okinawa.
It is a place filled with nostalgia where I spent my student days.
Before embarking on a new challenge, I suddenly felt the urge to trace my own “origins.”
Why am I able to welcome AI as a “partner” so naturally?
Why do I feel it is so important to “balance technology and humanity”?
The answer might go back a long way, to an event that happened one day when I was still in elementary school.
Starting today, I will share my journey in four parts.
From my first encounter with technology, meeting two mentors, the days I spent running as a driving force, to the current WAY.
In this first installment, I will talk about my “first encounter with technology.”
The “big box” I saw at a friend’s house nearly 50 years ago
My first encounter with technology was probably when I was in elementary school.
That was nearly 50 years ago.
One day, when I went to play at a younger friend’s house, there was a “big box” sitting there.
It was a solid, desk-like size.
It had a slot for cassette tapes on the side, and the display was narrow and black-and-white.
It was truly a computer from the dawn of the era.
I was told that if you loaded a cassette tape, you could play a simple game.
I waited with excitement.
However, it took quite a while.
The tape turned slowly, making a whirring, buzzing sound.
The game that finally started was simple.
To be honest, I remember thinking, “Is this all there is after waiting so long?”
Even so, something was moving on the screen.
The machine was reacting to my inputs.
In those days, almost no households had a computer.
To my child’s eyes, that sight looked like magic.
“It’s amazing that there’s a computer at home that can do such incredible things.”
I was just an elementary school student with wide, wondering eyes.
I feel like that sense of wonder from back then still remains within me today.
The “BASIC” computer my father brought home when I was in junior high school
Time passed, and I was in junior high school.
This time, “something like a computer” that my father had received from his siblings came to our house.
It was a very early computer that could only run a language called BASIC.
My father was the type who liked anything new.
I think he probably brought it home because he wanted to try it out himself.
However, my father didn’t keep it all to himself; he also taught me a little about how to use it.
"When you want to draw a circle, you type 'CIRCLE' and specify the coordinates."
When I was taught that and tried typing it out in imitation, a circle appeared on the screen.
When I entered a different command, a triangle was drawn.
And together with my father, we drew pictures and made things like balloons fly on the screen.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it failed.
"Oh, it worked!" "Wait, why did that happen?" I still remember those nights when we were both excited, chatting away.
I don't know the deep reason why my father brought that into our home.
But the fact that he naturally provided an environment where a computer was in the house, and time for us to explore it together.
Looking back, that was a truly great gift.
A cassette tape handed to me by a professor in Okinawa during my student days
And then, when I was a university student. I was studying at a university in Okinawa.
One day, my seminar professor asked me to do something like this.
"Could you transcribe this cassette tape on the computer?"
Back then, word processors were just starting to become common.
Transcribing on a computer was not yet a common thing to do.
Moreover, the content of the tape I was given was something like a lecture by the Bank of Japan governor at the time.
It was full of technical jargon, and even when I listened to it, it was hard to grasp what was being said.
"What an outrageous thing to ask someone to do."
I honestly remember thinking that.
I would play the cassette tape, stop it, and type the words I heard on the keyboard.
I would stop it, rewind it, and play it again.
While listening to the same parts over and over again, I desperately lined up the words on the screen.
If it were today, it would be a task that could be finished in an instant if left to AI.
But back then, we had no choice but to do it one by one with human ears and fingers.
It takes time.
Sometimes I would make mistakes.
Even so, for some reason, I was happy to see the words lining up on the screen little by little.
I think I must have already 'loved' technology.
That's why, even though it was difficult and tedious, I was able to keep going.
Actually, this professor was a warm person who always looked out for me.
She was a young female professor, and we would go out to eat ice cream after the seminar or have idle chats while drinking coffee.
When I was smoking, she would laugh and say, "It's poison for your body."
The apartment I lived in at the time didn't even have an electric fan.
One day, she suddenly brought me an air cooler, saying, "I don't use this anymore, so you can have it."
It was precisely because he was that kind of teacher that I think I accepted such an 'outrageous request' without refusing.
I don't even remember if there was any compensation.
But that time certainly left something within me.
This experience would later become a major catalyst for my deep involvement with ICT as an educator.
Encounters always came through 'someone close to me'
Looking back on it now, I realize one thing.
My encounters with technology have always come through 'someone close to me'.
A younger student when I was in elementary school.
My father when I was in junior high school.
And a professor in Okinawa when I was a university student.
Each of them was someone who expanded my world just a little bit.
If I hadn't gone to play at that younger student's house back then.
If my father hadn't brought that computer home.
If the professor hadn't made that 'outrageous' request.
I surely wouldn't be here today.
People encounter new worlds through other people.
I am reflecting on that simple truth once again now.
And this is deeply connected to how I approach AI today.
AI is not just a tool.
It is like a 'partner' that gently opens the door to a new world.
Perhaps I can feel that way because I have had the experience of someone opening a door for me like that in the past.
Next time preview... Meeting my mentor
After I became a teacher, I had another important encounter.
It was meeting a senior teacher who was very knowledgeable about ICT.
Days spent visiting that senior's house at night with three or four other colleagues.
The idle chatter we shared over coffee after the lectures.
Looking back, that time might have been the origin of my current 'way of learning'.
And one more person.
I would also like to talk next time about an unforgettable teacher I met even earlier, when I was in the sixth grade of elementary school.
The story of two 'quiet mentors'.
See you on Thursday.
Conclusion
The 'big box' at a friend's house 50 years ago. The BASIC computer I touched with my father when I was in junior high school.
The cassette tape handed to me by a professor in Okinawa during my student days.
These are all small events.
But those small accumulations are what lead to my journey today.
And next month, I will set foot once again in Okinawa, where I spent my student days.
I wonder what I, now exploring a way of working with AI as my partner, will feel in that nostalgic land.
I hope to put those thoughts into words, little by little, in future articles.
Is there an event in your life that, when you look back, makes you think, 'Ah, that might have been the beginning'?
If you'd like, please let me know in the comments. I would be happy if we could gently share our 'origins' with each other.
Well then, until next time.
See you on Thursday.
Thank you for reading until the end.
▼ [Tracing the Origins] Click here for the series magazine
Why am I able to welcome AI as a 'partner' so naturally?
Why do I feel it is so important to 'balance technology and humanity'?
Over four parts, I am putting my journey into words, little by little.
I will talk about my encounters with technology, my two mentors, the days I spent running as a promoter, and how I arrived at my current WAY.
▼ [Organizing Adult Time: AI Life Design Techniques] Click here for the series magazine
Past articles and future updates will be compiled in this magazine.
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