We have chosen our new read for the series. It's a nifty non-fiction called Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World by Stephen Johnson. We found it on the MIT Press Game Design tab, and Johnson had previously been on the New York Times Bestseller's List for his book How We Got to Now. The book's thesis is wonderfully straightforward, as it argues that delight - not necessity, not hunger, not capitalism, etc - led to the most forward thinking and powerful innovations of our modern world.

James and Ian take some time to unpack the introduction of this book, and look at how some early drawings by scholars and engineers in Baghdad had some of their mechanisms realized throughout the renaissance in Europe. We dig deeper into this, and look at the uncanny series of direct causes and consequences that led from early automatons to modern computers.

Finally, we're getting closer to understanding the importance of play in our modern and complicated world. In play, there is no fixed goal or structure, and with that absence of structure comes the absence of a fixed mindset. Those who 'play' rather than 'do' are free to make mistakes, to build for the sake of building, and to explore possibilities they would not have known existed. Play is vital, and we are excited to start a new series to understand how play made the modern world.

As always, thanks for listening.

Later, Player.