This is Technology Bytes, episode 92, for December 8th, 2024.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
So last week I went super retro in my tech with my HP calculator collection, and this time I’m going what might be considered low tech, and some of it’s because this weekend I have my grandson with me, and so what am I talking about?
Well, I’m talking about Lego.
And is Lego like other words where Lego is the plural and also the singular?
You’re not supposed to call them Legos?
I don’t know, but I feel like I’ve heard that before somewhere.
So what’s the tech in Lego anyway, and why would that be on a tech podcast?
Well, you know, the idea of playing with a toy that is just made out of plastic and being able to create a wide variety of things with it from your imagination or from models, from pictures you’ve seen on the Internet.
It’s interesting.
There’s actually an app that you can use that you can take a picture of a pile of Lego and then it can tell you what you can make with that.
I’ve tried that app before, not very successfully, but it’s cool.
I mean, the reality is that, yeah, I should have done a little bit of research maybe.
I don’t know how long Lego has been around, but it’s been around for a very long time.
And it’s one of those first things that dads want to do with their kids is to create, and I think it just has a feel of introduction to technology, a feel of this is where you can start and what you can build from.
And you think of Lego almost in the sense of programming, where you’ve got blocks that do certain things.
And if you put them together in the proper sequence, it actually creates something new.
Maybe not something that no one’s seen before, but maybe done a little bit differently.
And kids enjoy using their imagination to make all kinds of things.
Adults enjoy using them to do similar work.
It’s interesting that the use of Lego doesn’t really change with your age.
You just may get a little bit better, maybe, that you can picture in your mind something and make it.
And even if you can’t, as adults, you can do more intricate work with Lego than maybe you can do as a child just from the sense of motor skills.
But it’s so fun to do regardless of age, regardless of time, regardless of people.
It is just a toy that doesn’t ever seem to grow old.
They make things new.
They do new things.
We didn’t have wheels, I don’t think, when I was a kid.
Or maybe they came along finally.
I don’t know.
But it seems like there’s more shapes as they’ve learned to form plastic.
Maybe some people think that’s anti-Lego religious because it should just be 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, whatever the number of block circles are.
But so many things can be created.
It was a fun time going to Legoland when my kids were little and I lived in that area just to see the creations.
And they called them Lego engineers, and that’s technology.
So my grandson is visiting this week, as is my granddaughter.
And we have Legos that he likes to play with.
I don’t know how he thought of it or what he did, but he put a Lego car at the top of the stairs on the handrail, and it came down and hit a little wall portion and just split into all of its individual pieces.
And he thought that was the greatest thing.
And he’s like, jeepa, I did that.
I did that.
And then he puts it back together with his aunt and does it all over again until he chips all the paint off that spot on my wall.
But it’s just the joy of using technology to play.
And I think we lose that as we grow older.
And so much of what we are given in this world today is technology that can bring us joy if we will just learn to play.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at marriedfamily.com.
As always, I thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
