You are Not a Gadget: A ManifestoJaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, written more than two decades after the web was created, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse. The current design and function of the web have become so familiar that it is easy to forget that they grew out of programming decisions made decades ago. The web's first designers made crucial choices (such as making one's presence anonymous) that have had enormous--and often unintended--consequences. What's more, these designs quickly became "locked in," a permanent part of the web's very structure. Lanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the "wisdom" of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals. Lanier also shows: How 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse How file sharing is killing the artistic middle class; How a belief in a technological "rapture" motivates some of the most influential technologists Why a new humanistic technology is necessary. Controversial and fascinating, You Are Not a Gadget is a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture. |
Contents
PART THREE | |
Chapter 9 | |
Retropolis | |
Digital CreativityEludesFlat Places | |
I Am a Contrarian Loop | |
Chapter 14 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
advertising algorithms andthe anonymous become behavior believe bits blog brain canbe cephalopods CHAPTER circle communication computationalism computer science computing cloud connected create creative crowd cybernetic digital culture digital revolution economic empathy engineering example experience expression Facebook Forinstance Gadget global Google happen haveto hive mind human idea ideology illusion individual instance intelligence inthe isthat isthe itis Kevin Kelly kindof language Linux lock-in machine Maoism mashups meaning metaphors MIDI Moore’s law morph movie musicians neoteny neurons noosphere odors ofthe olfaction olfactory one’s onthe open culture patterns person personhood possible potential problem Ray Kurzweil robots scientists Silicon Valley simulation social networking someone songles synthetic biology thatit thatthe there’s thereis thesame things thought tobe tomake tothe troll Turing Turing test understand UNIX users virtual reality wecan weird what’s Wikileakers Wikipedia youare YouTube