Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson review – the future is fun

This technophile's optimism for the future appears well founded if the past is any guide

Geoff Dyer has complained that much current non-fiction is reducible to a snappy thesis that can be summed up "without the tedious obligation of reading the whole book". Such books, he writes, seem like expanded versions of "skilfully managed proposals " which then get boiled back down again with the sale of serial rights".

Steven Johnson's Wonderland is one of those books. Its claims can be condensed into a sentence. "When human beings create and share experiences designed to delight or amaze," he writes, "they often end up transforming society in more dramatic ways than people focused on more utilitarian concerns." Don't look to the struggles for survival, land and wealth for the forces that drive social change, he says. Look to wherever you see "people mucking around with magic, toys, games and other seemingly idle pastimes".