Watching the World Change
Life, technology and a changing world
The world has changed quite a bit since I first encountered a computer through a stack of punched cards. I’ve been watching—and participating in—some of those changes ever since.
I grew up in Britain and have spent much of the second half of my life in America. Along the way I’ve worked in universities, publishing, technology, real estate and the pharmaceutical industry. I’ve written books, reviewed computers and software, developed educational materials and watched technologies that once seemed extraordinary become completely ordinary.
Watching the World Change is about all of that: life, technology and what comes next.
Watching the World Change is about looking at what’s happening now with a little more perspective — sometimes by looking back at how we got here, sometimes by trying to understand where we might be going.
That might mean writing about artificial intelligence after a lifetime of using computers, comparing the Mini I bought in 1968 with the one I bought nearly six decades later, or looking at Britain and America through the eyes of someone who has lived for many years in both.
It might also mean something much more practical: how I’m actually using ChatGPT or Copilot, planning a trip, thinking about technology, playing guitar, or simply investigating something that has caught my attention.
I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, the older I get, the more suspicious I am of anyone who does. But experience does give you something useful: context. You’ve seen ideas arrive, disappear and sometimes come around again. You’ve watched supposedly revolutionary technologies become ordinary parts of everyday life.
That’s what I want to bring to Watching the World Change.
Some pieces will look back. Others will be firmly about the present. And increasingly, I suspect, I’ll be writing about the extraordinary changes that lie ahead.
If that sounds interesting, I’d be delighted to have you along.
Rob Ransom
Watching the World Change
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