The Guardian’s first Tech editor: ‘They gave me a demo and showed me things I couldn’t believe’

Victor Keegan, the correspondent who went on to put the first Guardian content online, recalls the chance news item in 1981 that opened up the possibilities of home computing and kicked off the paper's dedicated coverage of a social revolution

Technology isn't a beat with a natural affinity for nostalgia. The industry thrives on its futuristic image, worships boy-CEOs and renders the past obsolete at a frightening pace.

Even in the eight years I've sat on the Guardian's technology desk, the field I cover is frequently unrecognisable from what it was when I started - a world where self-driving cars were just around the corner, where virtual reality was an impressive technology that had failed to catch on with normal people, and where the world was starting to tire of the like-clockwork appearance of a new iPhone every 12 months.