Venkatesh Rao

5/ This means "unemployment problem" is meaningless, as it was back in Luddite era,but people not *wanting* to work is likely new phenomenon

6/ We fantasize about leisure, but very few are temperamentally suited to it, and society has never had institutions to support it.

7/ So leisure societies of the past have been temporary and "decadent" in a destabilizing way, not just morally objectionable to a few

8/ Game worlds are perhaps first true leisure institutions that allow for "stable decadence" -- still morally objectionable to some, but...

9/ Not fundamentally a "bad" thing in any non-moralistic sense.

10/ Unlike TV which is not rich enough to prevent atrophy of the self, games I think are rich enough to sustain non-degenerative leisure

11/ We will soon be asking, "how can smart people be idling away playing video games when there are starving children in Africa to help?"

12/ Many will find it an outrage that a leisure society can exist for a few (and I don't mean 1%ers) while there is "important" work to do