Our relationship with devices has turned into something of a toxic entanglement. We love the internet but also keep finding ways to stay off it. It feels as if the lines are blurred on who really controls whom. But it wasn’t always like this. Before our gadgets became these dopamine-fueled traps, there was something more innocent; like the Tamagotchi.
Tamagotchis were tiny, egg-shaped handheld digital pets that demanded your love and attention. Created by Akihiro Yokoi and Aki Maita, this little pixelated buddy first appeared in 1996 and quickly became a worldwide sensation. The idea was simple but addictive: hatch a pet, feed it, play with it, clean up after it, and, if you weren’t careful, watch it meet an untimely demise.
Owning a Tamagotchi was like carrying a tiny, needy friend in your pocket. It was like role-playing responsibility, but for fun. If you neglected it, it would fall sick, throw tantrums, or even die. But if you cared for it well, it would evolve, make friends (with other Tamagotchis via infrared, no less), and live a happy virtual life. Over the years, Bandai has reinvented the Tamagotchi with fancier screens, more interactions, and even connectivity features. But at its heart, the Tamagotchi was always about meaningful, mindful engagement with a digital companion.
Fast forward to today, Sarvasv Kulpati, a CS and Cognitive Science major at UC Berkeley, is currently on a mission to build a Tamagotchi that's a modern-day digital sidekick, actually helping you stay present. He doesn’t have a name for it yet, but the idea behind it is crystal clear: our phones have become black holes for our attention. We open them to check the email and somehow, 30 minutes later, we’re deep into a scroll session. The whole thing is engineered to keep us glued, and Sarvasva wants to flip that dynamic on its head.
So, he’s been designing a device that takes only the most useful features of a phone — digicam, MP3 player, voice recorder, calendar, alarm, calculator, notes, and Pomodoro timer, and strips away all the distractions. And, in a nod to the Tamagotchi, he’s making sure it’s not just another soulless gadget. This thing will have eyes and personality (It blinks when you pat it for example). It’ll be a digital companion designed to encourage mindful interaction.
What’s even cooler? Sarvasv started this journey knowing next to nothing about PCB electronics, and now, he’s designing and manufacturing this from scratch. Instead of the dull black or grey that most devices come in these days, his creation will be a bright forest green to reiterate his roots in organic computing and that technology doesn’t have to be sterile, it can be vibrant, playful, and intentional.
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