Edwin Schlossberg has long dreamed of building an immense high-tech gaming arena smack in the middle of Times Square where hundreds of people playing together at any given time would control power grids, move investments from one market to another, or build structures that revitalize urban spaces. If this sounds suspiciously like pop culture meets utopia, it is because Schlossberg believes that shared experiences--what we now call human interaction--will inspire cooperative relationships among strangers; and the stronger the bond, the healthier the world.

Along with a team of designers, inventors, and psychologists at ESI Design, in New York, Schlossberg, a pioneer of human experience design long before the Internet made the term popular, has been the driving force in creating everything public from museums to exploratoriums, parks to recreational spaces, information kiosks to study centers--each built on a foundation of mutual reliance. Steve Heller visited him in his new office on lower Fifth Avenue to discuss his thoughts about the new era of social networking and the generation gap it has produced.

Thanks to Randy Hunt for co-production on this Broadcast.

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