LEGO has come a long way. In fact, LEGO celebrated it's 50th Anniversary this week. Granted in terms of scale, considering their non-biodegradable lifespan is probably somewhere between that of a mountain and a sun, 50 years hardly seems significant. Well significant or not, the toy of the century is all about fitting in (pun as well as parentheses intended) as graphically illustrated by the photo borrowed from The Brick Testament-- which I might add hosts an array of Biblical LEGO tableaus ranging from the mildly absurd to the seriously disturbing. I digress.
LEGO is about fitting in. For example, 2 8-stud (yes, stud) bricks can be snapped together in 24 different ways. Add one more brick to the mix and you're looking at 1,060 configurations. This is more than enough to illustrate an entirely G-rated LEGO Sutra.
Fitting in also suggests playing well with others. When we see how in a single year, children around the world log an average of 5 billion hours playing with LEGO, I would say that they're on the mark. In fact, the name, LEGO is taken from the Danish "leg godt" which translates to "play well." And play well they do!
That is until they take over the world. I'm not talking about quantities in spite of the fact that 52 to 1 is a frightening LEGO to human birth rate-- statistics on LEGO deaths and dismemberments however remain elusive. I'm talking robots. So, call me an alarmist. LEGO Mindstorms is a robotics kit from LEGO. Add a computer to program your various servos motors and sensors and you've got an instant snap together automaton.
This calls to mind images of brightly colored snap together robots building other brightly colored snap together robots. You can see where this is going. Since we program our toys to "play well" they will be inclined to imitate us. We'll clap and laugh with glee until they replace all of our food crops with LEGO imitations. It starts innocently enough with a blurb on Fox News about a little girl's LEGObot replacing her recently departed goldfish with an inert brick one. Before you know it, people are disappearing and being replaced with LEGO simulacrums (NO! Not simulacrums! YES! Simulacrums!). When you play well and are brightly colored, world domination hardly seems beyond reach.
Most sci-fi scenarios have military robots going Terminator and rebelling against humanity. I however think it will be toys. Programmed to love. Incessantly. Making everything better. Everything. Like it or not. Purgatory can be built one 8-studded brightly colored brick at a time until before you know it we're all "living" on a Dante-esque 7 story LEGO mountain.
Postlude: I know it's ridiculous. I love LEGO. If you want to know more about where LEGO bricks come from check out THIS LINK.
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