The Wall Street Journal Reviews Imaginable
The Wall Street Journal's Emily Bobrow reviews Jane McGonigal's Imaginable in an article titled "Jane McGonigal Believes Games Can Change the World." Emily concludes that although Ms. McGonigal spends much of her time envisioning grim future scenarios, she calls herself an optimist. This is partly because she believes in the potential for scientific breakthroughs to prevent catastrophes. But it is also because she sees evidence throughout history that people can learn from mistakes and make wiser choices: “All you have to do is look back to see how humans are capable of changing the rules of society to play a better game.”
Quoted from her review:
“Nobody wants to white-knuckle our way into the future in a state of perpetual anxiety and dread,” Ms. McGonigal, 44, says over video from her Bay Area home, which she shares with her husband, Kiyash Monsef, and their twin daughters. “Games are psychological safe spaces where we can encounter crises before they arise.” As director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit think tank in Palo Alto, Calif., she has recently created games simulating dire developments like a cryptocurrency collapse or the mass migration of over a billion people owing to climate change. By dramatizing potential challenges, she aims to inspire people to feel not only more prepared for the future but also better motivated to shape it. She quotes the computer scientist Alan Kay: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
For the full article, please read it here!