Tim Clare

Yeah, Backgammon went through this renaissance where it became really cool, where like the Rolling Stones were playing. But then you go to somewhere like Syria or Iraq or Turkey, and this is a game that has never gone away.

Yeah, Backgammon went through this renaissance where it became really cool, where like the Rolling Stones were playing. But then you go to somewhere like Syria or Iraq or Turkey, and this is a game that has never gone away.

Yeah, Backgammon went through this renaissance where it became really cool, where like the Rolling Stones were playing. But then you go to somewhere like Syria or Iraq or Turkey, and this is a game that has never gone away.

Hi, thank you for having me.

Hi, thank you for having me.

Hi, thank you for having me.

There is something incredible about how games incompletely disconnected civilizations pop up, sometimes around the same time, and look remarkably similar, and there was no contact. So you take something like knuckle bones, right? Rolling dice made out of sheep's ankle bones or goat's ankle bones. That appears like up in Skara Brae, sort of an island north of Scotland.

There is something incredible about how games incompletely disconnected civilizations pop up, sometimes around the same time, and look remarkably similar, and there was no contact. So you take something like knuckle bones, right? Rolling dice made out of sheep's ankle bones or goat's ankle bones. That appears like up in Skara Brae, sort of an island north of Scotland.

There is something incredible about how games incompletely disconnected civilizations pop up, sometimes around the same time, and look remarkably similar, and there was no contact. So you take something like knuckle bones, right? Rolling dice made out of sheep's ankle bones or goat's ankle bones. That appears like up in Skara Brae, sort of an island north of Scotland.

And it appears right down in Egypt, in ancient Turkey. It appears across, say, The Pacific Islands, you see knuckle bone games appearing, played maybe with shells. These games, we have this idea, we're going to roll some oddly shaped things and we're going to mark some sides and depending on what side lands on it, you're going to score points or you won't score points.

And it appears right down in Egypt, in ancient Turkey. It appears across, say, The Pacific Islands, you see knuckle bone games appearing, played maybe with shells. These games, we have this idea, we're going to roll some oddly shaped things and we're going to mark some sides and depending on what side lands on it, you're going to score points or you won't score points.

And it appears right down in Egypt, in ancient Turkey. It appears across, say, The Pacific Islands, you see knuckle bone games appearing, played maybe with shells. These games, we have this idea, we're going to roll some oddly shaped things and we're going to mark some sides and depending on what side lands on it, you're going to score points or you won't score points.

You see that idea is created by humans again and again and again all over the world independently. And it doesn't feel like an obvious idea to me to do that. Well, it does now because we take it for granted. But every civilization at some point has invented the technology of dice and often completely independently of one another.

You see that idea is created by humans again and again and again all over the world independently. And it doesn't feel like an obvious idea to me to do that. Well, it does now because we take it for granted. But every civilization at some point has invented the technology of dice and often completely independently of one another.

You see that idea is created by humans again and again and again all over the world independently. And it doesn't feel like an obvious idea to me to do that. Well, it does now because we take it for granted. But every civilization at some point has invented the technology of dice and often completely independently of one another.

Well, you've hit upon something really key there, which is that evolutionary psychologists often look at something like play and they go, this presents a problem. Because what is it for? You know, this is a technology that keeps appearing, but it doesn't increase our chances of survival on the face of it. It doesn't increase people's chances of winning a war. So what's going on?

Well, you've hit upon something really key there, which is that evolutionary psychologists often look at something like play and they go, this presents a problem. Because what is it for? You know, this is a technology that keeps appearing, but it doesn't increase our chances of survival on the face of it. It doesn't increase people's chances of winning a war. So what's going on?

Well, you've hit upon something really key there, which is that evolutionary psychologists often look at something like play and they go, this presents a problem. Because what is it for? You know, this is a technology that keeps appearing, but it doesn't increase our chances of survival on the face of it. It doesn't increase people's chances of winning a war. So what's going on?

And we've studied... animals because we see play in animals right and we've studied say kittens that play and evolutionary psychologists looked at them and went hey come on there must be this must be training them to hunt but when we've done studies there have been expansive studies on preventing kittens from chasing bulls, chasing, doing these kind of pretend hunting behaviours.

And we've studied... animals because we see play in animals right and we've studied say kittens that play and evolutionary psychologists looked at them and went hey come on there must be this must be training them to hunt but when we've done studies there have been expansive studies on preventing kittens from chasing bulls, chasing, doing these kind of pretend hunting behaviours.