LEGOs, videogames, robots, and drones blur the line between play and war. Consider the 45 foot by 44 foot Star Wars X-wing fighters built from LEGOs (See the documentary film "A LEGO Brickumentary."), the "Battlezone" videogame that the U.S. Army has used as a simulator to train tank operators, wars between "BattleBots" on TV, and drone races in soccer fields on Saturday afternoons.
With theatrical lighting, announcer commentary, and brackets worthy of college basketball's "March Madness" in the U.S., home made "BattleBots" fight robot wars on television. Some "BattleBots" are works of art, but other determined teams only create spinning, crushing, jabbing, remote-controlled machines in order to destroy their opponents.
To navigate the cones and pylons that mark a drone race course, pilots wear first-person-view (FPV) video goggles, rely on a live camera feed, and use joy sticks that control the pitch, roll, yaw, and throttle of their tricky-to-fly, remote controlled quadcopters (four-propeller drones). A segment on the TODAY show June 1, 2016 claimed drone competitions are going to be the next big thing. Find out more at droneworlds.com and dronenationals.com.
Where can techies learn to be "playful?" Try the maker spaces mentioned in the earlier blog posts, "I Made This Myself" and "Robots for Good."
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