crash writes:
I think many people don't realize how the operating notion of learning among people our age - try it, if it doesn't work, try something else, use what you learned to try a third thing, and so on - is very much an artifact of the times and in all likelihood, something most of us have learned from video games.
I thought you'd enjoy this:
Gamers solve molecular puzzle that baffled scientists
quote:
By Alan Boyle
Video-game players have solved a molecular puzzle that stumped scientists for years, and those scientists say the accomplishment could point the way to crowdsourced cures for AIDS and other diseases.
"This is one small piece of the puzzle in being able to help with AIDS," Firas Khatib, a biochemist at the University of Washington, told me. Khatib is the lead author of a research paper on the project, published today by Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
The feat, which was accomplished using a collaborative online game called Foldit, is also one giant leap for citizen science a burgeoning field that enlists Internet users to look for alien planets, decipher ancient texts and do other scientific tasks that sheer computer power can't accomplish as easily.
"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," Seth Cooper, a UW computer scientist who is Foldit's lead designer and developer, explained in a news release. "Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans."
I think your point is valid, but I think you ascribe too much to age.
Some old-timers developed the same approach long before the advent of video games.
"The brakes are good, the tires are fair."