![]() For starters, we have the sequencing wrong. Johnson's goal is nothing short of upending our innovation narrative. ![]() "Come along, prefects, playtime over." Cartoon: Ronald Searle Ambitious book If you want to know how we got here, look not to the research lab but to the playground – or wherever you find "people mucking around with magic, toys, games, and other seemingly idle pastimes". No, argues Johnson, it is the vehicle of play and its accompanying drivetrain, "the propulsive force of delight", to which we owe a huge debt. It's not sombre scientists who drive human ingenuity, nor the warrior class and its quest for a better spear. The big idea that lies at its heart is as simple as it is unexpected: play, in its various forms, matters, and in surprisingly productive ways. It is a rare gem: a serious (occasionally too serious) take on a seemingly frivolous subject. He traces an unexpected but plausible route from the Digesting Duck to the first programmable computer.ĭon't let the defecating duck fool you. Most historians would dismiss de Vaucanson's creation as an amusing curiosity. ![]() The 18th-century French inventor built an automaton called the Digesting Duck that, as Johnson recounts, "consumed grain, flapped its wings, and – the piece de resistance – actually defecated after eating". ![]() Of the many colourful characters who populate Steven Johnson's engaging new book, Wonderland: How Play Made The Modern World, none is as deliciously eccentric as Jacques de Vaucanson. ![]()
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