When Eben Upton was creating the Raspberry Pi, his goal was not to build yet another technology empire. He wanted to bring children's interest back to programming and to make a computer so affordable that one could freely experiment with it without fear of breaking something.
That is how a small board about the size of a bank card came to be. Without a handsome case, a huge screen, or a familiar keyboard — but with the ability to turn into practically anything.
Today, more than 75 million Raspberry Pi units have already been sold. These mini-computers are used not only by schoolchildren and electronics enthusiasts. They control robots, monitor the condition of agricultural crops, work in medical equipment, security systems, and small manufacturing facilities, and even help run artificial intelligence directly on devices — without a constant connection to large cloud centers.
Education occupies a special place in the history of Raspberry Pi. The charitable foundation associated with the company has invested about £112 million in educational programs. They have already reached approximately 2,3 million students, and about 250 thousand teachers around the world have completed training.
Upton's main idea remains the same: technology should be understandable, accessible, and open to experimentation. A child can connect sensors to a small board and build a weather station. A farmer can create a system for monitoring plants. A doctor can use it in an inexpensive diagnostic device. An engineer can control an entire production line.
Raspberry Pi has turned out to be a rare example of a technology that has simultaneously taken root in the school classroom, the home workshop, and serious industry. The little computer did not try to replace big machines — it simply made its way into places where they were too expensive, complex, or inconvenient.
At the same time, Eben Upton takes talk about the future of artificial intelligence rather calmly. He is far less worried about a fantastic superintelligence that will one day decide to take over humanity. He considers people capable of using AI for political manipulation, control, and the spread of false information to be a more real threat.
And in this, too, the philosophy of Raspberry Pi is felt: what matters more is not how powerful the technology becomes, but whose hands it falls into and what it is used for.
The story of Raspberry Pi proves that a big technological revolution does not always require a huge computer. Sometimes a small board, an affordable price, and the idea of giving millions of people the opportunity to create something of their own are enough.
