Earlier this year, my 7-year-old lugged home a TI-89 graphing calculator, an updated version of the legendary models from Texas Instruments that were once the must-haves of every serious high school calculus cowboy in America. Where it came from I have no idea.
As far as I can tell, he hasn’t unsheathed the thing once, has not glimpsed the pixelated screen or the intimidating array of 50 keys below. Until recently, the TI calculators marked the pinnacle of humans’ quest to master computation. (You could play games like Astrosmash, too.) Yet in the digital age, they are becoming relics.
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