3 ms·

I think we shouldn't (as I posit the title is doing) conflate "technology" with "attention-fueled consumer products". I'd like my (future) kids to be able to wo

I think we shouldn't (as I posit the title is doing) conflate "technology" with "attention-fueled consumer products". I'd like my (future) kids to be able to work with technology, but not waste (too much, whatever that means) time on time-filling consumer content online. My hypothesis is that by giving them games and toys that are explicitly designed for them to modify for their own entertainment, they will learn to make technology in their image rather than the other way around. For example, Minecraft is hugely popular with kids (or at least was the last time I looked), and can be a gentle introduction to concepts that can be applied to technology. I grew up on Lego Mindstorms, which blew my young mind when I could build and program a Lego robot to do whatever I could figure out how to program.

jamra 9y ago
LEGO mindstorms is a product that you assemble and program. Minecraft is designed to fill your time. Though there is thinking involved, it’s a time sink.
- indigochill 9y ago
  Vanilla Minecraft without guidance isn't especially educational. But my impression at least is that players often add mods, and then might want to make their own. And there are opportunities for programming inside of Minecraft. And some of the more impressive "creative mode" constructions rely on scripts to automate much of the grunt work. For instance: https://nostarch.com/automateminecraft https://nostarch.com/automateminecraft My inclusion of Minecraft is about the ease and support of modding/scripting/botting rather than the vanilla game. There's a certain subsection of professional developers who got their start by modding their favorite games.