Here is an image, generated by AI, of a child not totally unlike myself, playing with a pretty fair representation of a Commodore 64 (which was our family computer when I was in 3rd or 4th grade). As I trained the model to draw me using a picture of myself in this exact shirt, and to draw the Commodore using images of them, it is not an amazing interpretation. Rather it is a decent result with a fair amount of work put in to get it to be as accurate as it is. That’s how AI generated stuff is. Much like everything else, the more you put in, the more you get out.

Enough about that though, there was not even really a concept of AI in anyone’s consciousness during the period which these articles focus (1973-1983). Home computers were mostly fancy game consoles, at least for a third grader, and, well, let’s just say the world has changed quite a bit in the last 40 years. The articles below are simply things I remember from my formative years. I am hoping that by siphoning them here and seeing them altogether they might provide us all with a little insight as to how I became whatever it is that I am today. Well, that’s the theory anyhow. Otherwise if you have an interest in the last of the analog years there might be something here for you.