The observations of a generation of people, translated…
For those of us born in the 1960s, the computers are more like our friends we grew up with, accompanying us all through the various earlier stages of life when we’d learned to crawl, and to walk, accompanied us through the period of time in our lives, where play became the way we’d explored the world………
The concepts of computer had been around for ages, but, for it to be incorporated into daily living, it was, after the electronic chips and the electric networking had been invented, back in the sixties, so, computers and I were both, born in the 1960s.
But it wasn’t until I was in the third grade did I actually see this “classmate” of mine.
Back then, the television set had screens draped on it, and there were only three channels on, one day, I’d gone with my father, to a certain elder’s house. That elder had two kids my age, they’d welcomed me in, took out the toy that they just received from the States, game machines. The exterior of that game set was wooden, with just a few simple on and off switches, and two buttons. The brothers hooked it up to the television, and, on the black-and-white screen, there appeared two white sticks, with a small square the ran around the screen. They’d told me, it’s electric Ping-Pong, that it was very easy to play, just twist the joystick, and bounce the ball back to the opponent.
That, was the very first time I’d ever played video games. Now, sure, it’d looked raw and outdated, but on that day, I’d played from morning ‘til night, to the point when the owner of the house started getting angered, my dad started screaming at me, then, I’d, let it go.
I’d not known, that this machine was the product of computer calculations, didn’t know, that it’d grow, like the Beanstalk in Jack & the Beanstalk, so quickly. In just two short years, this particular classmate had grown to twice his original height, and appeared outside the stationery shop, opposite from my school. First, the game of “Hitting the Bricks”, then, “Pac-Man”, then, Race Driver, the screens are no longer unicolored anymore either, it’d gotten music and sound effects added too. Before we were done, flipping through the entire semester’s worth of textbooks, the machine had had newer versions of games installed and reinstalled. Fun as it was, but it’d still not changed the way we’d played, because there weren’t very many children who can afford, or manage to feed those expensive machines. So, after school, we’d still gone our older ways, spinning those tops, playing with the marbles, or, shooting those rubber bands.
But, things changed after we got into middle school. We’d needed to get to cram school after regular school sessions, we’d gotten the extra cash for supper in our pockets, and naturally, we’d saved the money for the purpose of our entertainment. At first, we’d gotten really into playing the foosball tables, all of us, regardless of our grades, there were, a dozen of us who’d enjoyed that game. We’d all hung outside that shop with the tables, and waited for everybody to arrive, then, we’d started our battles.
Here are the laptops we need every day…
One day, my classmate told me abruptly, that we won’t play foosball anymore today, said he had something better to show me. I’d followed him into a stinky marketplace…
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After six months I’d started working for the publishers, the company asked the editors to know how to type in Chinese, and back then, there were only two Intel 8286’s, and there were only two ways of keying in Chinese, the phonetics or the characters, I’d chosen the latter, I’d heard, that keying in in characters would be harder to learn, but, after you’d gotten acquainted with it, you will be able to type faster compared to the phonetic spelling methods. For the sake of keeping my job, back then, I’d worked hard, practicing keying in using the character method, and, the characters I bumped into on the signs of the streets would all get taken apart, I’d almost become, half-crazed over it. And, just like people told, I’d started typing faster, from the two-fingers to how my fingers found their rightful places on the keyboard, and, they’d fly all around the keyboard, and, it became like how a pianist played that amazing tune.
Later on, my company decided to buy brand new computers, so every editor can have one to work on. I’d used the opportunity, observed and gotten involved in assembling the computers with the engineers. So, that, is what computers are all about, looking dumb and heavy on the outside, but, as the steel plates were opened, there wasn’t anything much inside but a main switch board, a CPU, a few sticks of memories, and a few other drives inside. I’d helped put a couple together, installed some software, learned a few ways to test out if they’re working right, and I could, put one together, without the engineers’ supervision too. In order to hone up my skills, I’d helped my family, friends, and relatives put their computers together, and so, I’d gone to Guanhwa Computer Marketplace a lot.
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The developments of computer, there’s no need for words for it. Before my daughter turned two, she could already operate the flat screens on the iPad to make it work, and had even from time to time, wanted to use her fingers, to slide through the television programming, the photos, or the books, believed, that everything in this world is operated by the fingers. For her, computer existed naturally like sunlight, air, or water.
But, to our generation, computer became more like friends we grew up with and around, accompanied us through stages of our infancy, toddler, childhood, adolescence, using games to help us explore the world. And, no matter how old it’d become, I’d still not forgotten how the young face, how those two short sticks, with the one dot, appearing, onto the black-and-white screens, only making the mechanical sounds.
And so, this, is how the technologies had advanced, from our 486s, it’s now, to the point that you can just speak into it (commands???), and, it’d, perform the functions you’d needed it to, and yeah, this development of technology had, brought about convenience, sure, but, what of the downside? Because as there are more and more advancements made in computer technologies, the less we will be, needing our brains to think, and so, eventually, we will all become, hooked up onto computers, like they’re the respirators for those who can’t breathe freely on their own…