May 11 2012: I can't help feeling he's assumed the existence of a hydrocarbon powered global industrial manufacturing system, without which none of the crazy composites, manufacturing facilities, smart grid components or even the factories in which the components for the industrial oxygen refining facilities can be made. And the second you plug *that* thing into the grid, the lights would go out ...
Oct 19 2011: Learning in the next 20 years how to feed 25% more people with an enforced 50% reduction in hydrocarbon, in a world dependent on industrial agriculture.
Mar 27 2010: >"Strategic [thought], organizational skills,
> abstract thinking and information management are incredibly
> important skills to have in our world."
Yes but Dylan they have got to have something to operate *on*.
Solving a problem consists fundamentally of picturing some ideal outcome, comparing it with what you have, and bridging the two.
To assert that the picture of an ideal outcome derived from 10,000 hours of playing fantasy games in a synthetic world can be compared to one derived from the same amount of time reading history and literature, travelling, and engaging in problem solving with live humans in the real one beggars belief.
To assert that you can maintain a picture of how things really are in the real world while feeding a 22 hour a week habit plugged into a synthetic one is equally stupefying.
If you have neither a picture of what "ideal outcomes" look like, nor "what you have", of what possible use are the skills you identify in bridging the gap?
Mar 26 2010: "We have a generation of people who are highly trained at solving certain types of problems, they are excellent collaborators and personally optimistic about their problem solving skills". Except ... they aren't. Literacy skills are measurable - and down. Numeracy skills are measurable - and down. Reasoning skills are measurable - and down. These issues are strongly correlated in studies with the time kids spend using computers. There are few problems worth solving that can be solved without literacy, numeracy and reasoning.
Optimism - expressed by the proxy of the number of kids so pessimistic that they would rather kill themselves than solve problems of *any*sort - is down.
This total failure of the storyline to fit real world data is of itself a pretty compelling example of why the argument fails.
Mar 24 2010: "is this just an over generalized statement, not based in experience?" It is based on observation of real-world scholastic achievement statistics, young offender statistics and suicide statistics, for 15-25 year olds, separated by gender. I'm guessing they don't crop up much in synthetic realities.
Mar 21 2010: Benjamin - thats what boys join the scouts for (or football teams, or whatever). In addition to the ability to speak up, you could by now have learned how to sail a dingy in open water, survived in the wild for a few nights on your own resources, won a mountain bike race in your class, flown a glider, or have participated in civic leadership. There isn't room for both in a 22 hour a week gaming habit. I'm delighted you have managed to get some benefit, but the benefits you describe are below the minimum that even the shiest boys obtain from "real world" activities.
Mar 21 2010: The determination, hard work and idealism that you would need to read widely about your world and acquire - through application and repetition - difficult numerical and linguistic analytical reasoning skills, rather than sitting playing computer games all day ?
Mar 21 2010: Most significant issues we need to address (such as energy depletion) are predicaments, not problems - they cannot be "solved", only managed - that is what makes them significant. (I realise that statement runs cross-grain to the "magic thinking" that grips us.)
Unlike fantasy worlds, they are deeply unpleasant and "success" (e.g. a reduction in sanitation related mortality rate during fuel supply interruptions) offers no "epic win".
Addressing them demands that we are numerate, literate and "ecolate" - skills you don't acquire sitting playing fantasy games for 22 hours a week grunting "epic kill, dude!" after respawning. They demand that we have real-world interpersonal skills, for which being a pasty faced, malodorous introvert equips us poorly.
Boys get thrown into the world at 18 and have no idea how to function. They are not super-powered, hopeful individuals. As a cohort, they commit suicide at 2-3 times the per-capita rate that girls do.
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A comment on Talk: Amory Lovins: A 40-year plan for energy
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A reply on Talk: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
> abstract thinking and information management are incredibly
> important skills to have in our world."
Yes but Dylan they have got to have something to operate *on*.
Solving a problem consists fundamentally of picturing some ideal outcome, comparing it with what you have, and bridging the two.
To assert that the picture of an ideal outcome derived from 10,000 hours of playing fantasy games in a synthetic world can be compared to one derived from the same amount of time reading history and literature, travelling, and engaging in problem solving with live humans in the real one beggars belief.
To assert that you can maintain a picture of how things really are in the real world while feeding a 22 hour a week habit plugged into a synthetic one is equally stupefying.
If you have neither a picture of what "ideal outcomes" look like, nor "what you have", of what possible use are the skills you identify in bridging the gap?
A reply on Talk: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
Optimism - expressed by the proxy of the number of kids so pessimistic that they would rather kill themselves than solve problems of *any*sort - is down.
This total failure of the storyline to fit real world data is of itself a pretty compelling example of why the argument fails.
A reply on Talk: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
A reply on Talk: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
A reply on Talk: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
A comment on Talk: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
Unlike fantasy worlds, they are deeply unpleasant and "success" (e.g. a reduction in sanitation related mortality rate during fuel supply interruptions) offers no "epic win".
Addressing them demands that we are numerate, literate and "ecolate" - skills you don't acquire sitting playing fantasy games for 22 hours a week grunting "epic kill, dude!" after respawning. They demand that we have real-world interpersonal skills, for which being a pasty faced, malodorous introvert equips us poorly.
Boys get thrown into the world at 18 and have no idea how to function. They are not super-powered, hopeful individuals. As a cohort, they commit suicide at 2-3 times the per-capita rate that girls do.
I'm going out to play football.