In 1979, machines looked down at Earth and crossed the space around Jupiter. I was eight, and the future had moved into the sky.
India launched Bhaskara-I to observe Earth. Voyager 1 reached Jupiter and found active volcanoes on Io, while Skylab fell back through the atmosphere. Apple II computers were running VisiCalc, and Sony introduced the Walkman.
In 1979, machines seemed to be everywhere except the ordinary rooms where most children lived. They were circling Earth, crossing the space around Jupiter, and beginning to shrink toward desks, televisions, and pockets.
India launched Bhaskara-I with cameras pointed back at forests, water, and oceans. Voyager showed that Jupiter had a ring and that Io had active volcanoes. Skylab returned through the atmosphere, turning an orbiting laboratory into a question the whole world could understand: where would it land?
At eight, curiosity did not need a syllabus. The interesting part was that a machine could leave Earth, look back at it, and send home what it saw. Another kind of machine, the personal computer, was beginning to move out of institutions and toward individuals. The connection between those two ideas would take years to become obvious.
The future was becoming personal at exactly the same moment it was becoming planetary.