I was horrified by the speeches of Shell and and the other woman. Shell's vision seemed goofy and dystopian. The other woman seemed naive. Real problems are solved by real people in the real world that possess old-fashioned strength of character. The real world is filled with difficult choices and competing interests where the conflicts cannot be resolved by mindlessly pulling a trigger.

This Clive Thompson guy is an interesting and engaging speaker, but his facts sound a little dodgy.

For example, he asserts that he's spoken to "many people" who learned to use a mouse by playing solitaire on Microsoft Windows "in the early 1980s." Even though the first version of the operating system, Windows 1.0, was introduced in November 1983 and Solitaire was first bundled with Windows 3.0 in 1990.

Now, perhaps Thompson simply misspoke, but without a follow-up question, we'll never know.

I distinctly remember when the Atari Pong console was set up in the officer's wardroom in the USS Lexington. Pong was almost an instant sensation. I stood in lline to play before and after meals and even played when I should have been doing other things. It was 1979 and I was a junior naval officer.

But even before Pong, and I thank Brooke for the memory, there was Winky Dink. My brothers and I got the kit, carefully applied it to the tv screen and then were thouroughly amazed and entertained.

Now, my grandchildren carry on. They are comfortable with all the latest video gaming. When we go to the mall we inevitably wind up in front of the consoles and they will sample the latest. I usually just look on and smile approvingly.

But I'm not at ease with what the future of gaming portends. I listened to exerpts of the speeches Shell and the woman presenter whose name I unfortunately can't remember gave and thinking will video gaming solve problems like racism and sexism; and other problems of the soul? Probably not.

I'll just try, as hard as I can, to take video gaming for what it's worth: a very entertaining diversion. On the Media's hour long feature was most excellent. After all it got me to write a comment.