The Playful World
How Technology Is Transforming Our Imagination
A child born on the first day of the new Millennium will live an entire
lifetime in a world undreamt of just a generation ago. As much as we
might have tried to speculate upon the shape of things to come, the
twenty-first century arrives just as unformed as a newborn.
When a child enters the world, it knows nearly nothing of the universe
beyond itself. With mouth, then eyes, and finally, hands, it reaches out
to discover the character of the surrounding world. Over the course of
time, that child will discover its Mother - the source of life - and,
sometime later, its Father. But in the first days after birth, the child
will be presented with rattles, mobiles, mirrors and noisy stuffed
animals that will become its constant companions. Our children, in
nearly every imaginable situation, are accompanied by toys.
It has been this way for a very long time. We can trace the prehistoric
sharpened stick - undoubtedly the first tool - to the sticks children
still love to play with today. Over the 5500 years of recorded history,
forward from Sumer and E ...
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