You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto (Vintage): Amazon.co.uk: Jaron Lanier: Books

Review

Fabulous - I couldn't put it down and shouted out Yes! Yes! on many pages . . . This is a landmark book that will have people talking and arguing for years into the future. (Lee Smolin )

Lucid, powerful and persuasive . . . Necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times )

A remarkable book punctuated by expansive ideas . . . For those who wish to read to think, and read to transform, You Are Not a Gadget is a book to begin the 2010s (Times Higher Education )

A pioneer in the development of virtual reality and a Silicon Valley veteran, Mr. Lanier is a digital-world insider concerned with the effect that online collectivism and the current enshrinement of "the wisdom of the crowd" is having on artists, intellectual property rights and the larger social and cultural landscape. In taking on such issues, he's written an illuminating book that is as provocative as it is impassioned. (Michiko Kakutani's Top 10 Books Of The Year 2010 New York Times )

In the world of technologists, Jaron Lanier is that rare combination: a pioneer and a skeptic. A legendary computer scientist, he did crucial early work in the field of virtual reality (the phrase is his). But he now recoils at the way Web 2.0 and social media sell us short as human beings, both in our relationships and in our sense of who we are. In purposeful, reasoned steps, always informed by a profound understanding of how software really works, he lays out his vision of where it all went wrong and champions the power of the human brain in an age of ever smarter machines. (Lev Grossman Time Magazine Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2010 ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Fabulous - I couldn't put it down and shouted out Yes! Yes! on many pages ... This is a landmark book that will have people talking and arguing for years into the future. Lee Smolin Lucid, powerful and persuasive ... Necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace Michiko Kakutani, New York Times There is hardly a page that does not contain some fascinating provocation Guardian Mind-bending, exuberant, brilliant Washington Post A pioneer in the development of virtual reality and a Silicon Valley veteran, Mr. Lanier is a digital-world insider concerned with the effect that online collectivism and the current enshrinement of "the wisdom of the crowd" is having on artists, intellectual property rights and the larger social and cultural landscape. In taking on such issues, he's written an illuminating book that is as provocative as it is impassioned. -- Michiko Kakutani's Top 10 Books Of The Year 2010 New York Times In the world of technologists, Jaron Lanier is that rare combination: a pioneer and a skeptic. A legendary computer scientist, he did crucial early work in the field of virtual reality (the phrase is his). But he now recoils at the way Web 2.0 and social media sell us short as human beings, both in our relationships and in our sense of who we are. In purposeful, reasoned steps, always informed by a profound understanding of how software really works, he lays out his vision of where it all went wrong and champions the power of the human brain in an age of ever smarter machines. -- Lev Grossman Time Magazine Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2010 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

Thought-provoking and useful 15 Feb 2010

By J. Rutherford

Format:Hardcover

If you have ever felt uneasy about the way things are developing on the internet... how creativity and originality seem to be being buried under a landslide of mash-ups, viral jokes and cut-and-paste blipverts... how the opinions of thousands of idiots seem to be more important than those of experts.

Read this, and find out why you are right to feel uneasy.

This book, from a man who helped design the way things are now, is explaining what has gone wrong and how it could get much worse if things are not fixed. It's not too technical, and he does a good job of linking it to current theories about artificial intelligence and linguistics, among other fields.

He's better at saying what's wrong than how to fix it, but very much worth a read if you have the slightest interest in modern computer technology and how it is affecting society.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Thought provoking challenge to current digital thinking 12 Jan 2011

By Steve Hearsum

The essence of the book is Lanier's attempt to answer the question: "What happens when we stop shaping technology and technology starts shaping us?"

An early Silicon Valley visionary, Lanier's book essentially has two halves. The first is an inquiry into what happens to human relationships the more we cede our social interaction to technology. He then shifts gear and expounds a new philosophy as he explores possible future directions for human society and our relationship with technology. I got a little lost in the latter, and I suspect the book could have done with a bit more editing (or my brain is not big enough; you decide....)

The strongest sections are when Lanier paints a coherent picture of what happens when technology is elevated above humanity. He talks of the "digital hive growing at the expense of humanity", and in many ways the first few chapters are a re-stating of the primacy of physical reality when it comes to the lived experience of human society. It argues that the 'noosphere' - a supposed global brain formed of the sum of all the brains connected to the internet - leads us to become little more than computer peripherals. Social networking is seen as something that reduces us as people. And 'the wisdom of crowds', increasingly invoked by some as both a 'good thing' and a possible solution to helping society find answers to the more intractable challenges we face, is challenged.

If you look at what Lanier is saying through the lens of a systems thinking, he is arguing for a reappraisal of the patterns that we are creating around human society and technology, and exploring what conditions we might change or add in order to improve things e.g. a reappraisal of how we pay for data/content. His alternative commercial model challenges what we have today, and it also demonstrates there is (at least one) alternative.

He also makes some telling points about the roll, and reduction in value, of authorship in digital society, and how the headlong rush to laud technological innovation has resulted in an erosion of ethical and moral positions. This translates into a spiritual failure: the denial of the mystery of experience ("hope is redirected from people to gadgets") and the invocations to anonymity and crowd-based identity both undervalues humans and distorts behaviour.

One of the books we selected for the book group I am part of, "You Am Not A Gadget" was quite some journey. Not an easy read, it is none the less rewarding.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

swimming against the tide 22 April 2010

By C. W. Beveridge

I found You are not a gadget to be a compelling book, especially worthy of attention by anyone who has embarked on the perilous journey of making a living from the web.

Jaron Lanier is a man after my own heart: someone who is not afraid to swim against the tide, even when the gathering waters seem irresistible.

Lanier has taken on the mantle of the boy in the story of The Emperor's New Clothes and points out some essential home truths about the prevailing tide of enthusiasm for washing away established business models and human behaviour.

He is a global heavyweight who has substantial experience at the bleeding edge of technology and talent in the world of music.

Lanier is credited with coining the term Virtual Reality and has impeccable credentials in that field.

Now, in his book You are not a gadget Lanier swims against a tide, that he has formerly surfed quite happily, by speaking out against some of the fundamental tenets of Web 2.0, the Hive mind, Creative Commons, the Singularity and the so-called Long Tail; all of which he categorises as worrying elements in the previously inexorable trend towards what he terms Cybernetic Totalism.

The book is insightful and highly recommended.