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YOU ARE NOT A GADGET
By: Jaron Lanier
A Manifesto
Knopf
January 2010
On Sale: January 12, 2010
224 pages
ISBN: 0307269647
EAN: 9780307269645
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Jaron 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 webβs first designers made crucial choices (such as making oneβs presence anonymous) that have had enormousβand often unintendedβconsequences. Whatβs more, these designs quickly became βlocked in,β a permanent part of the webβs 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 βwisdomβ 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 βraptureβ 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.
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