Kids had no idea what they were lol

I was the only person on my social media platform that mourned the death of Ralph H. Baer.

No one knew who he was.

Lol. To be fair I only know of him because of my father.

But take comfort in knowing that you are at least young and hip enough to have social media

I feel like anyone who plays video games at all should learn about him.

I have zero social media.

I never know wtf is going on with anything or anyone.

Haha. I used to have Facebook. It has since been deleted.

who tf is that

Except what I get from the news, independent sources on youtube or just living in the general craziness.

Alexander, google him.

@Alexanderjac Shhh the adults are talking

Never had facebook. The concept always creeped me out

sorry i wasnt born in 1960 lmao

Neither was I.

I do have LinkedIn if that counts.

It does count. LinkedIn is what Facebook initially was.

@Alexanderjac I'm just teasing. Like I said that more of my Dad's thing lol

Alexander: I was born in '81.

If he wasn't a software engineer I would have zero fucking clue who that was.

That's fair, I guess. Still....being the father of gaming consoles as a whole....

@Brokkr At least I'm not as unplugged as I Thought
And yeah but when you are a kid you don't really care about that stuff, (Being the father of an invention, or even where something came from) Unless someone teaches you to respect it or think about it.

i mean does it really count though? hes made a console that no one's ever heard of, and it's not like he invented electronics

If Ralph didn't make the first console you wouldn't have Xbox.

@Alexanderjac That's a good point. I think maybe he just mainstreamed the concept?

At least not in its current format.

Maybe. I think it's just one of the tid-bits of knowledge that is nice to know but not crucial. You can still love games and stuff without knowing the expansive history. I think as older people we typically have a lot of respect for the things we remember or experienced. It's not bad the younger generation doesn't know about it or care.

They'll be in our shoes eventually too.

Sure.

Like, the local medics that work at a station near me aren't taught EVOC anymore. They're taught EVD. By the same token, CPR no longer requires breaths like I was taught. It is purely compression. Things change over time.

i mean if i had to pick a "father of videogames" itd have to be the guys at atari that made pong and the first real big consoles

That said, if I say "Eli Whitney' there has to be a significance.

Atari wouldn't have existed without R. H. Baer. He's the Eli Whitney of video games.

Much like the cotton gin changed farming.

On a segway to another topic....it is a strong belief of mine that the US Civil War would have happened regardless of slavery....but that if the cotton gin had been invented 20 years sooner that war would have happened much later.

One of the reasons I hold this belief is: Expansionism. Every time a state was added to the overall union the North and South would be at odds over power. No different than Democrats and Republicans in our bipartisan system today.

I also believe it would have happen regardless of slavery, mainly because of the ideological/power difference between the Northern and Southern states

In the history of the world, nearly every country has had a war with itself; nearly every government a war with its people.

Right.

How this would have played out in an alternative time line I'm not sure. Sure most civilizations have a civil war of sorts but why it happens and how it plays out depends on many factors.