In my new book Masquerade, the heroine, Luz, is a writer who has taken a commission to write a biography on a famous Spanish artist. The client who has hired her is the artist’s nephew, Andrés de Calderon. He is a well-respected and influential businessman, the chair of Caldezar Corporación which produces and sells olive oil worldwide.

In the Spain of the 1970s, newly emancipated from the rule of the dictator Franco, there is an energy and drive for development and growth, and Andrés de Calderon is the very embodiment of the spirit of the new Spain. Nowhere is this more evident than in Andrés’s keen interest in emerging technologies.

He has set himself up as an agent for new manufacturers around Europe, acquiring a testing laboratory that tries out new products and technologies before they are released to the public. He trials many of the innovations himself, and is then a vocal advocate and adopter of those that work well.

In the 2010s, a man interested and embracing of technologist is not remotely unusual. But for the 1970s, Andrés is a visionary and leader in the field. He is one of the first people to use a Polaroid, which of course would become wildly popular; and he gives each of his employees a calculator at a time when they are entirely novel. When Luz meets with him at his office, she discovers Andrés engrossed in TVE Teletext, brand new for the time and allowing him to keep up to date with breaking news worldwide.

‘I pride myself on being up-to-date with technology,’ Andrés explains. ‘Knowledge is success.’

Today, it is strange and fascinating to imagine this world on the cusp of the technology we take for granted today. Did you know that the following were devised in the 1970s?

Calculator

Digital watch

Dot-matrix printer, laser printer, ink-jet printer

Floppy disc

Food processor

Home computer

Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD)

Mobile phone (it was absolutely enormous and cost $4,000)

Rollerblades

Soda Stream

Teasmaid

Video game (the first was called Pong)

Video tape

Walkman music player

Word processor

Slightly older inventions reached the mass market in this decade that began ‘the technological revolution’, including colour televisions and microwave ovens.

What now seem charmingly retro technological items were at the time life-changing. For some, that was worrying and a little frightening (plenty of people worried about the radiation from microwaves, for example). Which was why men like Andrés were needed; trusted sources who would test and then stand behind the best inventions.

Unlike his counterpart, Leandro the gypsy, who is rooted in the traditions of his Romani people in Spain, Andrés is all about breaking with tradition: with finding new, efficient, clever ways to solve problems and to enjoy life. He is leading the way into the digital revolution we are still gripped by today; his staff will not continue pushing around paper, but will be the forerunners of a new standard in business: digital communication and record keeping.

Andrés admits to Luz that transformation of any kind fascinateshim, and technology offers all kinds of means of transformation. But is there a darker side to all this transformation? In the pursuit of progress, can a man lose touch somewhat with what has come before and should ground him? In a world quickly moving to the virtual – where the golden age of video games is nigh – can he keep a firm grip on reality? Ultimately, will technological innovation strengthen this man or lead him astray: and what will be the consequences either way for Luz? Is knowledge success after all, when it comes to matters of the heart?

I will leave you with the words of technological dreamer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke:

Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.