I was born in 1973. For the first 6 years of my life I did not have a computer game system. I knew about computers because my dad worked with them. He had majored in mathematics in college with a minor in computer science. These were the first days of computers when the only language you could write with on a computer was binary. Before dos, before windows, before mac, before linux and unix.
I am part of the last generation to know what life is like without computers and specifically computer games.
As kids, If we were bored, we used our imagination. There are pictures of me and my sister sitting in a cardboard box under a table which was our "car" because we were pretending to go to the grocery store. We built forts in the house out of cushions and sheets. We played outside. I grew up in Arizona where the summer heat reaches 115 F on a regular basis and we still played outside and loved it. We had this game called slow races. we would take off our shoes and socks and see who could walk across the (probably) 1 million degree street. Whoever made it to the nice cool wet grass on the other side LAST, won. You think we would have done that if there was something like computer games to occupy us?
The older kids of my generation played DnD. Dungeons and Dragons is a setting for your imagination to run wild. There are a few constraints to help you not cheat and take some of the control away from you. Other than that, whatever you imagine can happen. But it all happened in your head. That is the closest we ever came to any thing as immersive as a computer game.
I saw a podcast recently where someone who was born in 1988 said that all Atari 2600 games were shit. He remembers even as a kid thinking this. Well he was wrong. All Atari 2600 games ARE shit. Now. By today's standards. Atari 2600 games WERE amazing. Completely revolutionary.
The widespread use of the first home computer game system was a paradigm shift in the way we all could see the world. In one step we went from imagining things outside ourselves that we could control to actually KNOWING we could and DOING it. We weren't the Indiana Jones type in Pitfall, but we utterly controlled him. We weren't the guys driving the tanks or flying the planes, but we controlled them. It wasn't the graphics that made the games so revolutionary, it was the way it made us think differently.
Sure, before computers there were things we assigned as avatars. Chess pieces, dollies, action figures, green army men. These all represented ourselves in other situations, but they still existed as part of us in our imagination. With computer games there was another entity in another universe that we had control over as if it was us.
We know now that the age of computers marked turn in human history like the industrial revolution did, or the bronze age, or caveman learning to use tools. For those of you who are slightly younger than me who can remember the time before widespread cellular use, think of what it took to get ahold of someone. You had to go to their house, or call their home phone and hope they were there. Now you can call their cell, IM them, Email, Poke on Facebook, Text and do a million other things to reach someone instantly. And worst case scenario you can have the police track their phone. Generations growing up now will never fully understand what it means to not be able to reach someone and that be normal.
Think of the things that are happening now, that when we look back in 20 years we will be able to say "I was there before". We have free internet. It's the wild west out there right now and I would bet my last dollar that in 20 years it will be governed and regulated as any 1st world country.
We have 3D printers now that can take a file from a computer (which is little more than an idea translated into language) and make an actual thing in that shape. In 20 years we will look back and say "those things we made were shit". NO the look of them are shit, but the ability to do so is revolutionary. This is the first step of replicators from star trek.
Robots are getting better. We are making interfaces that let human bodies accept things like bionics. We are engineering food and climate. We are finding easier ways to kill each other and take from others.
This isn't a rant about "back in my day!" This is a call to action for everyone to look at the changing world around them and appreciate what is happening. Pay attention. Things are going away and ways of life are forever ending. Enjoy it while you can. Not only that, take advantage. Always position yourself for the future. Learn about emerging technology and trends.
The future is waves crashing on the beach. They break apart the flotsam until it is dust and it is washed away. You are floating in the surf and you have a choice. You can paddle out float over the small waves, and try to ride the big waves that come at you; Or, you can try to stay in one place and brace against the tide. Be warned though, the tide always wins in the end.
I am part of the last generation to know what life is like without computers and specifically computer games.
As kids, If we were bored, we used our imagination. There are pictures of me and my sister sitting in a cardboard box under a table which was our "car" because we were pretending to go to the grocery store. We built forts in the house out of cushions and sheets. We played outside. I grew up in Arizona where the summer heat reaches 115 F on a regular basis and we still played outside and loved it. We had this game called slow races. we would take off our shoes and socks and see who could walk across the (probably) 1 million degree street. Whoever made it to the nice cool wet grass on the other side LAST, won. You think we would have done that if there was something like computer games to occupy us?
The older kids of my generation played DnD. Dungeons and Dragons is a setting for your imagination to run wild. There are a few constraints to help you not cheat and take some of the control away from you. Other than that, whatever you imagine can happen. But it all happened in your head. That is the closest we ever came to any thing as immersive as a computer game.
I saw a podcast recently where someone who was born in 1988 said that all Atari 2600 games were shit. He remembers even as a kid thinking this. Well he was wrong. All Atari 2600 games ARE shit. Now. By today's standards. Atari 2600 games WERE amazing. Completely revolutionary.
The widespread use of the first home computer game system was a paradigm shift in the way we all could see the world. In one step we went from imagining things outside ourselves that we could control to actually KNOWING we could and DOING it. We weren't the Indiana Jones type in Pitfall, but we utterly controlled him. We weren't the guys driving the tanks or flying the planes, but we controlled them. It wasn't the graphics that made the games so revolutionary, it was the way it made us think differently.
Sure, before computers there were things we assigned as avatars. Chess pieces, dollies, action figures, green army men. These all represented ourselves in other situations, but they still existed as part of us in our imagination. With computer games there was another entity in another universe that we had control over as if it was us.
We know now that the age of computers marked turn in human history like the industrial revolution did, or the bronze age, or caveman learning to use tools. For those of you who are slightly younger than me who can remember the time before widespread cellular use, think of what it took to get ahold of someone. You had to go to their house, or call their home phone and hope they were there. Now you can call their cell, IM them, Email, Poke on Facebook, Text and do a million other things to reach someone instantly. And worst case scenario you can have the police track their phone. Generations growing up now will never fully understand what it means to not be able to reach someone and that be normal.
Think of the things that are happening now, that when we look back in 20 years we will be able to say "I was there before". We have free internet. It's the wild west out there right now and I would bet my last dollar that in 20 years it will be governed and regulated as any 1st world country.
We have 3D printers now that can take a file from a computer (which is little more than an idea translated into language) and make an actual thing in that shape. In 20 years we will look back and say "those things we made were shit". NO the look of them are shit, but the ability to do so is revolutionary. This is the first step of replicators from star trek.
Robots are getting better. We are making interfaces that let human bodies accept things like bionics. We are engineering food and climate. We are finding easier ways to kill each other and take from others.
This isn't a rant about "back in my day!" This is a call to action for everyone to look at the changing world around them and appreciate what is happening. Pay attention. Things are going away and ways of life are forever ending. Enjoy it while you can. Not only that, take advantage. Always position yourself for the future. Learn about emerging technology and trends.
The future is waves crashing on the beach. They break apart the flotsam until it is dust and it is washed away. You are floating in the surf and you have a choice. You can paddle out float over the small waves, and try to ride the big waves that come at you; Or, you can try to stay in one place and brace against the tide. Be warned though, the tide always wins in the end.
