Left to our own devices

I should be a techie. My parents met and dated and married while they were colleagues in the IT department of a multinational energy company in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Those were the days when computers were as big as buses and most people had never seen one. In 1983, Mum and Dad bought an Apple II Plus, making us the first family on our street to own a computer. My brothers and I played classic action and adventure games like Lode Runner and Wizardry, while Dad tracked our rising heights and weights on a primitive spreadsheet. I can still recall, still feel, the enchantment of exploring the pixelated worlds inside that beige box.

Now an adult with children of my own, I have fallen from the digital vanguard. Outside work, I am a late (often reluctant) adopter of new technologies. My first question