If all else fails....

.....don't read the manual!! I found myself again this morning without an idea - duh - this is happening too often...Zombies come to mind - that's if I have one left :) Anyway, I had a thought the other day - just one mind you - and it did return this morning - just in time for the blog.

I realized that I hadn't read much information about "Dream Machines" lately. I have written about them before. They are small devices about the size of a table lamp that spin. They are meant to stimulate the creative processes in the brain and give you lots of ideas. I thought, "I'll just look them up." I googled "Dream Machine." Wired.com was one of the sites that surfaced. I thought, wow, they are writing about Dream Machines. Well, not quite.

Though fascinating, the article was not on the Dream Machine that I had in mind. It was on computer gaming and how this phenomenon is going to change our society for the better. Very sophisticated computer games, the author maintains, are changing our society from one that is consumptive, to one that is creative.

How so?

1. Most gamers never read the manual. They just start pushing buttons to see what happens. They experiment, learning through trial and error.

2. Video games let us actively explore imaginary worlds. While books and movies fire the imagination, there isn't the structure for role play and interaction, as there is in videos games.

3. Video gamers build their own societies, a bit like bloggers do. They create groups, set the rules, invite those they like to join and then interact within a certain mindset.

4. More and more the games themselves will be modified by the players. The players will actually become the developers of the games. These games will then be played by others and more interactive societies will emerge.

Old Video Game

Here is a quote from the article written by Will Wright the creator of The Sims and other games -

Games are evolving to entertain, educate, and engage us individually. These personalized games will reflect who we are and what we enjoy, much as our choice of books and music does now. They will allow us to express ourselves, meet others, and create things that we can only dimly imagine. They will enable us to share and combine these creations, to build vast playgrounds. And more than ever, games will be a visible, external amplification of the human imagination.

Good when the societies created are good. Not so good when evil ones are.

I have to worry about my youngest. He's 20 and when I asked him to help me fix my projector for a power point presentation I was doing last weekend, he immediately went to the on-line manual. I was prepared to push a lot of buttons. We never did get it to work.

Have a productive day!!