Ray Fisman, Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise, Columbia Business School

The $100 Distraction Device

June 17, 2008 at 12:04 am PT

More than three decades ago, Commodore introduced the PET, the world’s first personal computer, apparently so-named to take advantage of the ’70s craze for pet rocks. My ever-doting and education-obsessed parents brought home a PET for me and my siblings, hoping to put us at the vanguard of the digital revolution-to-be. The results were mixed at best. Though the machine was entirely unsuited to mindless fun–it had 4 kilobytes of memory and a tiny green display of monochrome ASCII characters–my friends and I found a way to turn this supposedly educational device into a toy.

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Tagged with: ASCII, Columbia Business School, Commodore, pet, Pet Rocks, Ray Fisman

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