[ExI] toys rewiring kids' brains

[Ben (B.K.) DeLong]

My son does both. He is very much into the branded sets and will keep
some of his elaborate dragons from Ninjago intact. However he is a
huge fan of Minecraft at age 8 and has been for a while. There is no
set yet for that (as far as we know) and so he uses his Star Wars
Legos, Lego Ninjago and the 3 huge tubs of random LEGOs from the 90s &
80s we got him at yard sales and on eBay to make his own Minecraft
sets. ;) He'll mix Pokeman with his Ninjago and Star Wars with his
Minecraft and sometimes come up with something completely new. What's
important to him is the act of focusing on the systematic building
process of something.

On Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 5:42 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
> I am a bit concerned about the modern Lego models too. When playing with my
> niece and nephews I find that they do keep their elaborate big models
> intact. However, they also have a sea of loose blocks that are used to make
> imaginative things, so I am not totally worried.
>
> (In fact, I am feeling so proud that my niece's Poisoner Princess character
> tried to take over the world - although she was eventually stopped by the
> solipsism-bot and Commissioner Gordon's air-based prison I think I see the
> makings of a good supervillain in her)
>
> So my recommendation is to get a load of random pieces.
>
> As for rewiring children's brains, that is a topic that might be worth
> looking at. What mental skills can we teach the little ones? Maybe we should
> introduce them to cognitive biases or inductive proofs early? Teach them
> memory arts?
>
> --
> Anders Sandberg
> Future of Humanity Institute
> Oxford University
>
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-- 
Ben DeLong (K3GRN)
bkdelong at pobox.com
+1.617.797.8471

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkdelong    CV

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