In a live video-link with our son’s home 300 miles away, two proud grandparents visited with the children who are to be the inheritors of our future.  Serena and Mariah had to show off the newest additions to their household, two Guinea Pigs named Holly and Katrina.  The girls had saved money since Christmas and had just purchased their new pets, complete with cage and all of the required support paraphernalia.

Our grandson Blake made a brief appearance on the computer screen, but did not have much to say.  He was being punished for locking his big sister out of the house.

This entire electronic visitation was done with only a few simple keystrokes.  We could see the room, our son and daughter-in-law, (who left mid conversation to do some evening jogging), and our beautiful grandchildren.

The same technology we used to see and speak to our grandchildren allows anyone to visit across international boundaries.  My family has talked with people they know in Germany and a local Rotarian friend tells me he has visited with other Rotarians in Russia.  My niece in California called to show me her new baby girl.  All this with only a few mouse clicks.

What we can do with technology today is almost light years ahead of the way things were when the first desktop computer arrived in my office at the university 30 years ago.  Christine, my secretary, could operate the computer…but it scared me to death.  I wouldn’t go near the contraption.

I really became computer literate because I was forced to learn.  I had enrolled in graduate school and after paying my money; discovered that I was required to be proficient in the use of the computer.  This caused me to sign up for one of those “Computers For Dummies” classes, an action that led to a marvelous transformation in my communications life.

Though the computer has complicated our personal and business lives over the years, it has also served as a tool that has brought our world closer together.  Businesses can communicate with counterparts thousands of miles away instantaneously.  The writer in Texas can talk to his Washington based editor in a flash.  The student seeking to obtain a degree in psychology can have her latest test graded and returned to her living room in hours.  The old warrior in the United States can instantly exchange pictures with a former comrade in Japan.

This entire communications marvel started with Digital Equipment Corporation developing the PDP-8 computer in the early 1970s.  It was used primarily in scientific laboratories. It also gave fresh new scientific minds an idea that would be world changing.

Credit for the home computer goes to two college dropouts, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who moved into a garage and six months later, in 1976, gave the world the Apple 1 Home Computer.  A total of only 600 sets were sold. Still, the new Apple Corporation quickly followed up with the Apple II home computer in 1977. Not to be left behind, IBM introduced its version of the personal computer and by 1984 a number of companies had entered the home computer market.  That entire early computer explosion has grown into a world where you can now carry around a full collection of electronic gadgetry in your pocket.

What an amazing world we live in. We have been blessed with so many wonderful things they are almost impossible to count.  Right up at the top of that list I would place the computer.  It has revolutionized business, created new frontiers in education and above all, kept distant friends and family closer by providing immediate communication.

I didn’t learn to press the power button on a computer until I had reached the half-century mark in my life.  My 11-year-old granddaughter played her first computer game when she was less than a year old, sitting on my lap. What other wonders will her young eyes see as she faces the future in this electronic age?

Semper Fidelis
Thomas D. Segel
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