Living Museum of Learning
Wireless
Around the time of 9/11, I was living in Toronto.
In my spare time, I began designing and programming a centralized server that would allow Java mobile phones to play multiple board games together over a wireless network.
One email crossed the Pacific.
I wrote to my former colleague, You Zhengyu.
His reply changed my life.
He told me his business was going well, that he had RMB 10 million available, and that he was willing to invest half of it in this dream.
That single email became the beginning of Shanghai Tianpai Wireless Technology Co., Ltd.
We believed that one day, people would be able to play games together on their mobile phones, no matter where they were.
At the time, that sounded almost impossible.
Twenty-five years passed.
This morning, I woke up inside a newly created WeChat group.
Former Tianpai teammates were reconnecting through...
wireless technology.
Old photos appeared.
Stories returned.
Someone said,
"Back then, our mobile online games were so advanced."
Another wrote,
"We were simply too far ahead."
For a moment, it felt as though twenty-five years had disappeared.
Then, later that same day, another message arrived.
Apple had approved the latest version of Golden Chess.
I smiled.
Twenty-five years ago, I dreamed about people playing board games together through mobile phones.
Today, I am still building board games for mobile devices.
The programming language has changed.
The devices have changed.
The networking technologies have changed.
But the dream has remained remarkably familiar.
Perhaps our dreams are more patient than we are.
Sometimes they disappear for years.
Sometimes we think we have left them behind.
Then one ordinary day, they quietly return.
A WeChat message.
A conversation with an old teammate.
An App Store approval.
Three unrelated moments.
Or perhaps...
one continuous story.