And What is Even Worse

"Imagine an alternate world identical to ours save one techno-historical change: video games were invented and popularized before books."

In his book Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Johnson raises many good questions about the way we perceive popular culture and emphasizes just how much more complex our passive existence would be today compared to just 50 years ago.  i.e. Pong never involved outsourcing to China.

For our next thought experiment, try to imagine an alternate world where the corporation was invented and popularized as an icon of tradition and nostalgia before the mom and pop shop.  What would your parents think!?