John Lanchester:

From the economic point of view, this was the year video games overtook music and video, combined. As a rule, economic shifts of this kind take a while to register on the cultural seismometer; and indeed, from the broader cultural point of view, video games barely exist.

There is no other medium that produces so pure a cultural segregation as video games, so clean-cut a division between the audience and the non-audience. Video games have people who play them, and a wider public for whom they simply don’t exist. Their invisibility is interesting in itself, and also allows interesting things to happen in games under the cultural radar.

A common criticism of video games made by non-gamers is that they are pointless and escapist, but a more valid observation might be that the bulk of games are nowhere near escapist enough.

The trouble with these games – the majority of them – isn’t that they are maladapted to the real world, it’s that they’re all too well adapted. The people who play them move from an education, much of it spent in front of a computer screen, full of competitive, repetitive, quantifiable, measured progress towards goals determined by others, to a work life, much of it spent in front of a computer screen, full of competitive, repetitive, quantifiable, measured progress towards goals determined by others, and for recreation sit in front of a computer screen and play games full of competitive, repetitive, quantifiable, measured progress towards goals determined by others. Most video games aren’t nearly irresponsible enough.

If I had to name one high-cultural notion that had died in my adult lifetime, it would be the idea that difficulty is artistically desirable.

Recently:

Bosses complain that after a childhood of being coddled and praised, Net Geners demand far more frequent feedback and an over-precise set of objectives on the path to promotion (rather like the missions that must be completed in a video game).

From the archive:

If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

Is it Art?

Neil Howe published a new book last year.

The Graying of the Great Powers offers the first comprehensive assessment of the geopolitical implications of "global aging"--the dramatic transformation in population age structures and growth rates being brought about by falling fertility and rising longevity worldwide. It describes how demographic trends in the developed world will constrain the ability of the United States and its traditional allies to maintain national and global security in the decades ahead. It also explains how dramatic demographic change in the developing world--from resurgent youth bulges in the Islamic world to premature aging in China and population implosion in Russia--will give rise to serious new security threats. While some argue that global aging is pushing the world toward greater peace and prosperity, The Graying of the Great Powers warns that a period of great geopolitical danger looms just over the horizon. Neither the triumph of multilateralism nor democratic capitalism is assured. The demographic trends of the twenty-first century will challenge the geopolitical assumptions of both the left and the right.

From the Major Findings:

The world is entering a demographic transformation of unprecedented dimensions.

The coming transformation is both certain and lasting. There is almost no chance that it will not happen—or that it will be reversed in our lifetime.

The transformation will affect different groups of countries at different times. The regions of the world will become more unalike before they become more alike.

In the developed world, the transformation will have sweeping economic, social, and political consequences that could undermine the ability of the United States and its traditional allies to maintain security.

In the developing world, the transformation will have more varied consequences—propelling some countries toward greater prosperity and stability, while giving rise to dangerous new security threats in others.

Throughout the world, the 2020s will likely emerge as a decade of maximum geopolitical danger.

The aging developed countries will face chronic shortages of young-adult manpower—posing challenges both for their economies and their security forces.

An aging developed world may struggle to remain culturally attractive and politically relevant to younger societies.

The Graying of the Great Powers

The new year begins with an interesting example of sovereign geography as applied to movement through the atmosphere: a Ugandan baby girl was born aboard an airplane en route from Amsterdam to the United States – and so was given Canadian citizenship, because the plane was flying over eastern Canada at the time.

From the archive:

A health director ... reported this week that a small mouse, which presumably had been watching television, attacked a little girl and her full-grown cat ... Both mouse and cat survived, and the incident is recorded here as a reminder that things seem to be changing.

Air Born

George Friedman has a new book.

In his long-awaited and provocative new book, George Friedman turns his eye on the future -- offering a lucid, highly readable forecast of the changes we can expect around the world during the twenty-first century. He explains where and why future wars will erupt (and how they will be fought), which nations will gain and lose economic and political power, and how new technologies and cultural trends will alter the way we live in the new century.

Written with the keen insight and thoughtful analysis that has made George Friedman a renowned expert in geopolitics and forecasting, The Next 100 Years presents a fascinating picture of what lies ahead.

From the archive:

Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan

Pakistan.

Also:

The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It has simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted.

The Next 100 Years

Ted Nelson has a new book.

The system of conventions called 'Computer Literacy' make little sense and can only be understood historically. Here is the briefest possible digest.

From the archive:

The trick is to make people think that a certain paradigm is inevitable, and they had better give in.

Geeks Bearing Gifts

Neil Howe:

If you think that things couldn't get any worse, wait till the 2020s.

From the archive, a bit of Gladwell:

The relation between the number of people who aren’t of working age and the number of people who are is captured in the dependency ratio.

The World Won't Be Aging Gracefully. Just the Opposite.

I know from personal experience that the last thing you want, in that awkward decade when you are trying to figure out who you are and where you are headed, is the pressure of being under the constant observation of cranky grown-ups who wonder why you aren’t unloading the dishwasher for them more often.

I understand the appeal [of Stephanie Meyer]. At Clementine’s age, I too would have been able to smell Edward and feel the delicious iciness of his breath on the back of my neck.

Recently:

When a man changes his natural body odor it can alter his self-confidence to such an extent that it also changes how attractive women find him.

From a year ago:

As one female social scientist noted in Science Magazine, "Reinventing the curriculum will not make me more interested in learning how my dishwasher works."

Also:

I used to wonder at such people, but more and more I wonder at myself.

Have you seen Låt den rätte komma in?

I Wish I Could Read Like a Girl

Bosses complain that after a childhood of being coddled and praised, Net Geners demand far more frequent feedback and an over-precise set of objectives on the path to promotion (rather like the missions that must be completed in a video game). In a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consultancy, 61% of chief executives say they have trouble recruiting and integrating younger employees.

From the report:

What is new is younger people’s ability to mobilise into another job if their expectations and ideals are not met. To manage this difference, companies need to think creatively about reward strategies, using metrics and benchmarking to segment their workforce in a similar way to how many companies segment their customer base.

From the archive:

The spread of enterprise systems has resulted in a declining emphasis on creativity and ingenuity of workers, and the destruction of a sense of community in the workplace by the ceaseless reengineering of the way businesses operate. The concept of a career has become increasingly meaningless in a setting in which employees have neither skills of which they might be proud nor an audience of independently minded fellow workers that might recognize their value.

Also:

What we do for fun is just as educational in its way as what we study in the classroom.

Finally:

It's good to have a plan, but if something extraordinary comes your way, you should go for it.

I will, at all costs, avoid this generic procedure.

Managing the Facebookers

Rory Stewart:

Without music, time has a very different quality.

In November, Stewart concluded:

We will not be able to eliminate the Taliban from the rural areas of Afghanistan’s south, so we will have to work with Afghans to contain the insurgency instead. All this is unpleasant for Western politicians who dream of solving the fundamental problems and getting out. They will soon be tempted to give up.

Recently:

"You Westerners have your watches," the leader observed. "But we Taliban have time."

Stewart, a year ago:

If Gertrude Bell is a heroine, it is not as a visionary but as a witness to the absurdity and horror of building nations for peoples with other loyalties, models, and priorities.

What I've Learned

Some people enjoy running into an occasional primate or farm animal while shopping. Many others don’t.

Rory Stewart offers a kind tip:

Open land undefiled by sheep droppings has most likely been mined.

Nathan Myhrvold:

Some people are just not interested in natural history, I guess.

I suppose -- but for those who are, here's a tip from the archive:

New anthropological evidence suggests that snakes, as predators, may have figured prominently in the evolution of primate vision — the ability, shared by humans, apes and monkeys, to see the world in crisp, three-dimensional living color.

Also:

The squirrel kept running and finally stopped when it realized there was still nowhere to go.

From the archive:

California, a state that faces ongoing water quality issues, appears to be working diligently to curb any runoff into water sources.

Also:

Hubbub transports us to a world in which residents were scarred by smallpox, refuse rotted in the streets, pigs and dogs roamed free, and food hygiene consisted of little more than spit and polish.

All Shapes and Sizes