- Henk Rogers is a online game designer who helped make Tetris a world gaming phenomenon.
- After experiencing a near-fatal coronary heart assault, he stopped “chasing the almighty greenback.”
- Now, Rogers’ large issues are the local weather disaster and constructing human settlements on the moon.
Henk Rogers often is the man behind Tetris, however gaming is now not high of his agenda.
Together with the Tetris creator, Alexey Pajitnov, Rogers is finest recognized for bringing the best-selling online game out of the Soviet Union to the lots within the Eighties.
The Tetris origin story is one crammed with twists and turns, sufficient to encourage a 2023 Apple TV thriller starring Taron Egerton.
However actuality is a unique story, and the sport of sliding colourful blocks into place is only one chapter within the lifetime of the Dutch-born sport designer.
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Chatting with Enterprise Insider at Outernet, an set up in central London internet hosting an enormous multiplayer sport of Tetris to mark its fortieth anniversary, Rogers mentioned his personal story took a left flip after a near-fatal coronary heart assault in 2005.
“In that ambulance on the way in which to the hospital, I mentioned, ‘No, I am not going,'” Rogers mentioned. “‘I nonetheless have stuff to do.'”
New mission: Resolve the local weather disaster
After his brush with demise, Rogers stopped “chasing the almighty greenback” and refocused his consideration on a number of new missions.
One of the crucial urgent agenda objects is the local weather disaster, which Rogers desires to assist deal with by initiatives just like the Blue Planet Alliance and Blue Planet Power, organizations he based to assist governments and communities obtain a fossil fuel-free future.
“We’re all residing in what I’d think about a lifeboat, and the lifeboat has holes in it,” he mentioned. “There are individuals who have the roles to make to drill extra holes within the lifeboat. That is insane. That isn’t a job. That is against the law. Against the law in opposition to humanity, against the law in opposition to nature, and we have now to acknowledge it as such.”
Vanessa Reidy
That may sound gloomy, however Rogers is optimistic: “I haven’t got hope — I’ve willpower.”
Nonetheless, the local weather disaster is only one merchandise on Rogers’ to-do checklist. Others embody discovering “how the universe ends,” discovering a method to finish wars — a purpose Rogers admits he hasn’t “gotten wherever” with but — and final, however not least, bringing folks to area.
Carving a distinct segment within the new area race
It is no secret that there is a “billionaire area race” happening — there’s Elon Musk with House X, Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin, and Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic, to call a number of heavyweights.
The sphere could also be crowded, however Rogers is not centered on competing.
“All people else is considering learn how to get there,” he mentioned. “I am excited about what will we do after we arrive.”
The reply to that, Rogers mentioned, is constructing settlements appropriate to sustaining human life on the moon, Mars, and past. The purpose is lofty, however he is actively working towards it by the Worldwide Moonbase Alliance, a company he began in 2017 in Hawaii, the place he spends numerous time every time he isn’t at residence in New York.
Erik McGregor/LightRocket through Getty Photos
“So far as we will inform, there isn’t any different place within the universe that has our life as we all know it,” Rogers mentioned. Subsequently, it is “an unacceptable threat” to not have a “backup of life,” he added.
Working with NASA, the alliance has accomplished 5 missions, throughout which individuals spend months at a time in a facility simulating environments on different planets.
Though Rogers just isn’t significantly a fan of President Donald Trump, who has indicated that area exploration is a precedence of his second time period, he’s open to funding from the present administration.
“A number of the enterprise leaders have mentioned, ‘You understand what, we obtained to place up with this for 4 years. So let’s determine how we will transfer the ball ahead as a substitute of combating,'” Rogers mentioned.
As soon as a gamer, at all times a gamer
Rogers could also be busy with different initiatives, however hasn’t completely deserted the gaming world.
He stays the president of The Tetris Firm, which he based with Pajitnov, and retains a watch on the altering online game business.
Esports, for instance, have develop into “just a little too violent” for Rogers’ style. “I made a vow early in my profession as a pc sport designer that I’d by no means work on a sport that I did not need my kids to play.”
Whereas he now not considers himself a gamer, he nonetheless scratches the gaming itch every now and then. His go-to is racket sports activities — desk tennis when he is in New York and pickleball every time he is in Hawaii.
Roger mentioned racket sports activities are how he will get in his “cardio.” He would not take pleasure in train with out a component of competitors and there is little probability you will catch him on the health club: “If I had a coach that was gamifying it, then I’d.”
