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Posted by Bill S on March 17, 2008 at 11:40:59 am EDT
In reply to People prefer videogames to the outdoors posted by Bill S on February 5, 2008 at 7:48:13 pm EST

MTB,
You missed my point. You claimed that mountain bike design has "fully matured". My point there was that bike design has NOT matured, much less fully matured, despite the bike being around for a couple of centuries. It has evolved, continues to evolve, and will continue to evolve for many decades (hopefully for many centuries) to come. If it ever becomes "fully mature", that means mountain bike design (your example), and bike design in general will have stagnated. My reference to "not necessarily improving" means that in many cases, the changes are not necessarily better, just different. And yes, it referred to technology in general. Powerpoint is not "better" than the old lantern slides (which were almost extinct by the time I started teaching), except in a limited number of ways, just a different way of getting images before a large audience. Video is just a different way of getting moving images before a large audience. All of us have sat through incredibly boring, though flashy, Powerpoint presentations and incredibly dull videos and movies that featured the latest in special effects.

The point here is one I heard from one of the pioneers in using computers in scientific research - "Don't confuse the tool with the trade - having a hammer does not make you a carpenter, having a telescope does not make you an astronomer." In this case, having the latest greatest mountain bike does not make you a great mountain biker. And certainly, having the latest greatest video game (say, a NASCAR racing game) and being able to score maximum points with it does not qualify you to drive at Daytona or Talledega, much less Indy or in F1. The primary thing that makes the difference in a bike race is the racer, not the bike. I'm sure you know that Lance Armstrong raced mountain bikes in the off season. I suspect that if you were on your latest greatest high tech MTB and Lance were on a 5 or 10 year old bike, he would ride rings around you. Same with any of the latest technology in anything - it is the operator, not the device.

By the way, I would remind you that, as mentioned in this site several times before, one of my nieces is ranked in the top 10 professional women mountain bikers, according to Velo News, so I do have a bit of knowledge about mountain bikes, along with my and Barb's personal involvement some years back in road, TT, and criterium.

I did not use the term "false reality". I referred to the "limited electronic universe" of the gamer world, and I referred to how many people have come to believe that "reality TV" is actually the real world (some people believe that professional wrestling is real wrestling, too). It is easy to see the addictiveness of the gaming world - anyone can become a superhero, with magic and/or superpowers, and if you get "killed", you can come back to start all over. The real universe is not like that. You have to work with real limitations and suffer real consequences. You can't click on "start over" and get resurrected or replace the arm that got chopped off. There is no "cheat book" in the real world.

It isn't the games themselves, or the hardware, or the mountain bike tech - it is the use to which these things are put. You can use tools and technology for good, or you can use them for evil and destruction. The tools and technology are neither inherently good nor evil.

Although this discussion is very relevant to my original post, I believe it has wandered far enough afield that it should get moved to Off-Topic, as my very first sentence in opening the topic said.

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