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October 6, 2005
Social Technology
So I don't know how many of you read the articles on the side of our blog, but I happened to notice an interesting one today in which Nolan Bushnell, a well known video game designer, has created a restaurant where video monitors replace all human interaction. Waiters and Waitresses are gone and in their place come large video screens in the middle of the tables. Not only this, but also these video screens will have every kind of entertainment necessary for a bad date: video games, movie trailers, and more. In the rare case of a terrible date that one is stuck on, how else can this invention be helping us progress in our social interactions? This is just one more step away from people and into ourselves, or worse yet, something completely mechanic. America used to be famous for its mealtimes--when families and/or friends gathered together after a day apart to connect and interact. This new restaurant cannot be helping.
Yet later on in the article, Bushnell comments on his video games, "My goal is to create games that almost retreat into the background. I'm interested in bringing them back to their role as a social facilitator, the way party games help people to interact. The game should be secondary to the social interaction between the players." Does anyone else see the irony in this comment?
When I was reading this article, I had this flashback to Back to the Future (III?) when they go into the future.... sometimes it seems with all our technology we are turning into a freaky futuristic movie...
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.10/bushnell.html
Posted by Christine Dance at October 6, 2005 11:51 AM
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