Napa Valley, California. April 1988.
The morning mist clung to the slopes of Mount Saint Helena, smelling of damp earth and fermenting grapes. At 6:00 AM, the roar of propane burners shattered the silence of the launch site.
Amy stood by the wicker basket, her face pale as she watched the massive nylon envelope of the hot air balloon inflate.
"S-Saionji-san... this thing has no mechanical transmission. Is it actually safe?"
"This is the most primitive way to fly, Amy," Satsuki said, adjusting her windproof goggles. "No dashboard, no autopilot. Just wind and fire."
As the basket left the ground, the intermittent roar of the burner gave way to a silence so profound they could hear the wind whistling through the cables. Below, the Napa River looked like a silver thread winding through green stripes of vineyards.
"Stand up, Amy," Satsuki encouraged. "Don't look at your feet. Look at the horizon."
As the sun crested the Vaca Mountains, the valley was bathed in gold. Amy's fear dissolved into awe.
"Down there," Satsuki pointed, "every inch of soil has dollars buried in it. Farmers once grew cheap walnuts here. Now, a bottle of wine sells for hundreds. They took an agricultural product and gave it a social value that far exceeds the liquid itself. This is the art of the luxury market."
12:00 PM. Opus One Winery.
The restaurant at Opus One was a sanctuary of limestone and glass. A waiter poured two glasses of the 1984 vintage—deep ruby red with "legs" that clung to the crystal.
Amy took a sip and immediately winced.
"So... so astringent. Is this really worth the price?"
"That's the taste of Tannins," Satsuki replied, unfazed. "The masses like sweet soda. But with time, this bitterness becomes a complex aroma. Technology is the same."
The tranquility was broken by an argument at a nearby table. Two middle-aged men in polo shirts sat before a bulky Apple Macintosh II. It looked jarringly futuristic against the winery's classical decor.
"No! This won't do! It's unwatchable!" the bearded man shouted, gesturing at the screen.
Amy craned her neck.
"A Mac II... that's the Motorola 68020 model."
"What are they doing?" Satsuki asked.
"Displaying a photograph," Amy noted, her brow furrowing. "But it's incredibly slow. Look at the lag when he drags the mouse. And the edges have jaggies."
"Do you want to take a look?" Satsuki asked, picking up her wine. "Technical problems are your domain."
Satsuki led Amy to the table.
"Excuse me," she said smoothly. "My friend noticed your image refresh is... struggling."
The men, John Warnock and Charles Geschke, looked up. They were frustrated.
"It's the hardware limits," Warnock sighed. "We're trying to modify photo-quality images in real-time, but the CPU can't calculate every pixel fast enough."
Amy leaned in close to the screen.
"Is the data transmission the bottleneck?" she asked softly.
Warnock blinked. "You understand hardware?"
"A little," Amy nodded. "Why calculate every point at once? Why not use Interlaced Scanning or a low-resolution preview? Once the user releases the mouse, then you calculate the final render."
Warnock froze. He slapped the table.
"Chuck! Did you hear that? Proxy Mode! While we're dragging, we only calculate a tenth of the pixels. It'll be blurry during the move, but perfectly smooth!"
Geschke's eyes lit up. "Pyramid Sampling. That solves the memory bottleneck."
As the two tech fanatics spiraled into a new discussion, Satsuki slid her gold-embossed business card onto the table.
"I am Saionji Satsuki. I'm interested in the software that's 'torturing' your computer."
Warnock became wary.
"S.A. Investment? If you're selling office buildings..."
"I'm not selling buildings," Satsuki pointed to the screen. "I want to buy that."
"It's just a tool for printing shops," Warnock laughed.
"No," Satsuki shook her head, turning to Amy. "If you could use this to change the color of your clothes in a photo without taking a new one, would you use it?"
"I could change my uniform to pink!" Amy exclaimed. "That's like magic!"
Satsuki turned back to the founders.
"That is the future. In a world of screens, people won't just look at text. They will want to edit reality. I own a retail group and an entertainment company. I can provide the capital and the 'Chanel models' to prove your software works for the masses."
Warnock sat up straight, his disdain gone.
"The idea is crazy... but attractive. And your friend's suggestion hit the mark. Tomorrow morning, Mountain View. Let's talk details."
As they left the winery, Amy felt like she had touched a piece of magic.
"Saionji-san, can that software really do all that?"
"It's complicated now," Satsuki said, stretching like a cat as she entered the Cadillac. "That's why we give them money—to make the complicated stuff simple. In the future, if you use a computer, you won't be able to avoid those two men."
As the car sped away, Amy wrote in her notebook:
Napa Valley. Beyond the grapes, we found the men who will teach computers how to 'see.' The software is called Photoshop (proposed).
Opus One: A legendary joint-venture winery between Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild.
Macintosh II: The first "pro" Mac, released in 1987, supporting color and expansion slots.
Interlaced Scanning: A trick from old TV tech to save bandwidth by drawing half the lines at a time.
Proxy Mode / Pyramid Sampling: A way to speed up editing by working on a "blurry" low-res version of a photo while the computer waits to finish the high-res version in the background.