Why Ancient Romans Never Dreamed of Being Video Game Designers

Last updated on: January 8, 2013 at 11:00 am by Joe Carter

Why Ancient Romans Never Dreamed of Being Video Game Designers 2013-01-06T03:27:49+00:00 Joe Carter

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Many of the dream jobs of the 21st century, says Kevin Kelly, were created by the capabilities of our machines:

Before we invented automobiles, air-conditioning, flatscreen video displays, and animated cartoons, no one living in ancient Rome wished they could watch cartoons while riding to Athens in climate-controlled comfort. Two hundred years ago not a single citizen of Shanghai would have told you that they would buy a tiny slab that allowed them to talk to faraway friends before they would buy indoor plumbing. Crafty AIs embedded in first-person-shooter games have given millions of teenage boys the urge, the need, to become professional game designers—a dream that no boy in Victorian times ever had. In a very real way our inventions assign us our jobs. Each successful bit of automation generates new occupations—occupations we would not have fantasized about without the prompting of the automation.

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