Imagine 1977, sitting at the helm of one of your very first personal computers. The Commodore “Personal Electronic Transactor,” endearingly nicknamed the PET, promised to be an all-in-one “bookkeeper, cook, language tutor, inventory clerk, and playmate.” For the first time, you could type up programs on the tiny “chiclet” keyboard — working out your math homework, saving snippets of recipes, designing simple graphics — and see the results spring up before your eyes. Unlike a washing machine or a calculator, here was a first encounter with a machine that was fundamentally open-ended, dynamic, and responsive in a tangible way. Read More