Technology & Lifelong Learning
Born in 1933 — curious about artificial intelligence in his nineties.
Always the First in the Family
Aslam Hayat was born in 1933 — before television, before computers, before the internet. He died in 2026, having followed the development of artificial intelligence with active curiosity. In between, he owned every significant device before almost anyone else in the family did.
Family members often joked that he always seemed to own the newest device before anyone else. There was something characteristically him about it — a combination of genuine curiosity and the pleasure of understanding how things worked. Whether it was the first colour television, an early personal computer, a laptop, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet, or a smartwatch, he wanted to understand how it worked and how it could improve everyday life.
First colour television
Early decades
Personal computer
Early computing era
Laptop computer
Portable computing
Mobile phone
Early mobile era
Smartphone
Digital age
Tablet computer
Post-2010
Smartwatch
Final years
Learning Independently
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Whenever he acquired a new device, he would often purchase instructional books and manuals and spend hours teaching himself how to use it. He believed that learning should never stop, regardless of age.
What made his interest in technology unique was that he rarely relied on others to teach him. He preferred to learn independently — consistent with the broader intellectual discipline that characterised his life. For Aslam Hayat, picking up a new device was no different from picking up a new book. Both were invitations to understand something new about the world.
Artificial Intelligence
Even into his nineties, Aslam Hayat continued to follow developments in technology. During the final years of his life, he became increasingly interested in artificial intelligence and frequently discussed how AI might transform communication, education, business, and society.
He witnessed the early stages of the AI revolution and often reflected on how dramatically the world had changed during his lifetime. He engaged with questions about AI seriously — what it could do, what it could not do, and what its arrival meant for human beings.
A Lifetime of Technological Change
Born in 1933, he lived through radio, black-and-white television, commercial aviation, personal computers, the internet, smartphones, and artificial intelligence — each embraced as it arrived.
Radio
Born into
Black-and-white television
Youth
Commercial aviation
Career era
Personal computers
Vancouver years
The internet
Vancouver years
Smartphones
Later life
Artificial intelligence
Final years