A Fascinating Segment on NPR: Games and Science Meet

E.O. Wilson And Will Wright: Ant Lovers Unite!

An Open Mic Discussion Of Life And Games

September 1, 2009

Ants make some people cringe — but for E. O. Wilson and Will Wright, they provide never-ending fascination.

Biologist E. O. Wilson, professor emeritus at Harvard University, is a two-time Pulitzer-winning ant expert who helped develop theories of island biogeography, chemical ecology, and sociobiology. A leader in the modern environmental movement, Wilson has devoted his life to understanding how all forms of life are connected.

Computer game mastermind Will Wright has read every one of Wilson's books. He credits Wilson for inspiring him to develop SimAnt, one of the games he created along with The Sims — the most successful computer game in history — and more recently Spore, in which players create virtual single-cell organisms and evolve those organisms into more complex forms of life.

Where Games And Science Meet

Always fascinated with biology and evolution, Wright had many scientific questions for Wilson when the two spoke for Open Mic — but, Wilson had other ideas.

"I came into the interview with all these questions I wanted to ask him about evolution," Wright said, "but his first response was, 'Oh, I thought we were going to talk about games!'"

Wright wasn't completely surprised. One of Wilson's goals has been to "unify science with disciplines such as the humanities," Wright said. "He is one of the few scientists who really has the guts to do that."

o the first question he asked Wilson was if he saw a role for games in the educational process.

"I'll go to an even more radical position," Wilson said. "I think games are the future in education. We're going through a rapid transition now. We're about to leave print and textbooks behind."

Rethinking The Way We Teach Children

Wilson imagines students taking visits through the virtual world to different ecosystems. "That could be a rain forest," he said, "a tundra — or a Jurassic forest."

Wilson said that for the most part, we are teaching children the wrong way. According to the biologist, "When children went out in Paleolithic times, they went with adults and they learned everything they needed to learn by participating in the process."

That's the way the human mind is programmed to learn, Wilson said.

But he believes that today, virtual reality can be a steppingstone to the real world. It can motivate a child to exploration.

Wilson had a very different experience growing up. He explored the real world — and its creatures and plants — from a very young age. He credits his permissive parents and the schools he attended for allowing him to "disappear" into the forest.

Courtesy EA/Maxis Studio

Will Wright's SimAnt game uses complex rules of society-building and community space.

"No one knew what I was doing," he said.

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