It both depresses me and blows my mind that future generations may not even be able to experience Brick and Mortar.
Of course if they didn't let me play with the stuff and instead made me keep it in the box on the shelf, I'd be wealthier today.
It's a game of "what-ifs", but I'm fairly confident in saying I wouldn't be pursuing the career I am now if I had never had the experiences of walking down the Lego aisle at the toy store and falling in love with piecing together toy cities.
I think the medium that kids play with 'toys' has changed with tablet and phone devices. Now they're solving puzzle apps and building Minecraft cities - whether or not that's a good or bad thing, I'm not sure, but it doesn't bode well for toy stores.
Computer chips implanted into the body to regulate vital functions. Nanobot technology to repair or modify biological cells. Countless methods to sustain and prolong your biological life.
Eventually the biological dies, but the virtual simulation is not interrupted. Instead, your consciousness is uploaded to the world's mainframe server, where your mind is allowed to continue on it's journey of self-discovery within the virtual world. You and your loved ones can continue to interact virtually, forever. Where you can continue to explore, to learn, and to experience life long after your death.
You are virtually immortal.
[1] my concern is how this line of thinking and "living" might continue on a path of mindlessly destroying everything that isn't it.
Between this, K'nex and the original Macintosh my life as a programmer was more a destiny and less a choice :P
Edit: Holy shit, when I google "little plastic bubbles with gears in them", Capsela comes up. Maybe google has gotten better at vague searches in the last decade :P
They will only appreciate your dedication to environmentalism when theyre older
Web is very very far from solving the browsing problem. Sometimes I know I want <new toy> but have no idea what exactly I want. So you go to the store to look around.
Sometimes I also like to ask the sales associate, “I have so and so nephew, what should I get for them?”. Web still sucks at solving the librarian/curator/advicegiver problem.
I may be a rarity, but I still miss Blockbuster for this reason.
Because right now the only thing kids want to do is click buttons on a computer.
A physical game is not like that. For a young child there is no such thing as a "mindless toy".
Some baby/toddler toys look very much like Skinner boxes to me, intended primarily to keep the child occupied so the parent/carer doesn't have to bother with interacting.
that environment also gives you the ability to teach your children. from making choices, to behaving in public, to seeing other children do both, to being out of the house in a noisy environment that is strange, exciting, maybe even a little scary, all the while with a parent to help them understand.
plus where does it end, how much do we write off due to our prejudices?
And similarly the notion of "place" is melting in this era. No more music shop, useless, you can buy a Trillion things on whatever. Same for toys now. But I think humans have a thing for local space. Culture in a way. Every shop used to be customed in weird ways. Some people would waste their time there and find things randomly. They would discuss with owner tastes. Going to a toy store was a treat in itself, even when you couldn't get one.
Right now they're going away, but like vynil some will reopen when people miss them too much.
AR/VR will enable more spatially interactive technologies as well. Pokemon Go was a fad but I think it heralds a yet-to-come wave.
The suburb hate bandwagon on here has gotten way out of hand. They are not inherently unsustainable and it is not a "waste" to spend a bit more resources to make a space that's nicer to live in. Not everybody wants to have to walk everywhere/take public transit and live like a sardine in a can getting accosted for spare change all day. And are you saying you'd really let a kid "explore" in a city? You're not even particularly safe in a "walkable city" as a lone adult if you go down the wrong street or you're not paying attention.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_Am...
I noticed that the author mentions that a busier city street is safer from violent crime but doesn't acknowledge that very busy streets are also havens for pickpockets, whereas you generally get it both ways on mostly-vacant-except-cars streets in lower density areas with little to no violent crime.
Edit: at least in already-built-up areas. Tough to say what to do in remote places where you have the "no jobs -> no money -> no spending -> bad place to start a business -> no hiring -> no jobs" feedback loop.
It was K'Nex all the way for me.