You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier

You Are Not A Gadget A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier

Jaron Lanier is making a statement against the current state of the internet. He was one of the original creators of virtual reality and proponents for creative commons. He is arguing that the internet has become dehumanizing, mob ruled, economically destructive, and poorly designed. This book is an argument for a different kind of internet; a single payer web, a place with less anonymity, a place where authors are acknowledged for their work, and a place where humans are more important than systems and codes.

The book is very much focused on a humanistic view of computing. The computer serves the individual to help them become more creative. It is against many network oriented ideologies. He thinks large computer networks threaten individual freedom and the idea of a singularity or the point where machines become smarter than humans is counterproductive.

There is a very nice reminder to not be fragmentary and try not to be anonymous. I feel that I need a little bit of anonymity to present some of my views. Jaron Lanier wants people to bring back a degree of civility to the computer world. In his view, the point of networks and social networks is to connect with other people. People are more important than networks.

Social networks are a way to connect with people. I am going to be at Book Expo America and the Bookbloggers Convention as part of this. Networks are not just disembodied voices. If you are using networks correctly, you will be invited to events in the real world like the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art receptions, librarian meetups, conventions, or lunches.

Some of the ideas he is talking about are front and center. There is currently a copyright war that is about digital rights. Central to this idea is who is the author. If there is no acknowledged author which people respect for creative works, the author cannot make a living. Very few people can make money selling knick knacks or speaking. He is correct on this. The internet has disenfranchised many authors, newspeople, and musicians. Acknowledge where you get your content from.

This is an excellent counterpoint to authors like Chris Anderson who talk about the wonderful new opportunities on the web. It is a counterargument against the impersonality of Wikipedia, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and other new media darlings.

The writing is eclectic. It touches on some surprising subjects; cephalopod intelligence, the circle of empathy, theories of computation, music, virtual reality, the noosphere, and the singularity are just a few of the subjects.

If you want to read a very creative personal manifesto about the way the internet is heading, you will find this different. It is a humanistic and individualistic counter to many of the prevailing ideas. Some of it is a little far fetched, but still worth thinking over. I liked reading it.

Daily Thoughts 2/14/2010

Photo of Jaron Lanier performing at the Garden of Memory Solstice Concert June, 2009 taken by Allan J. Cronin. Original uploader, Gnu Free Documentation License, found on Wikimedia.

This morning, I finished reading You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier. The writing is very iconoclastic and original. Pieces of it are a little strange and philosophical. For example, he writes about cephalopods and virtual reality as well as computer programming concepts. It is a book worth reading. I will probably write a review of it later today or tomorrow.

I read some more of The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar this afternoon. A colleague recommended it to me. It is a bit of a different experience reading about the authors life. The book is quite different from what I usually read. Taking in reading that is different opens ones horizons a bit. Right now, I am reading about Patricia Highsmith's stay at the Yaddo artists colony. Truman Capote recommended her for the colony. She is writing her novel, Strangers on a Train. The book describes her drinking heavily and reading the bible every day in addition to writing.

Some of the biography is quite hard to read. What lightens it up is Patricia Highsmith's quirkiness; keeping pet snails, her love of cats, reflections on writing, and the constant social climbing and parties in the literary scene of Manhattan. The biography is quite revealing. It writes frankly about Patricia Highsmith's lesbianism and her struggles with the social mores of the 1940s and 1950s.

Right now, I am about half way through reading the book. There is a map of Manhattan which shows where Patricia Highsmith was as well as a year by year summary of her life as appendixes at the back of the book. I still have quite a bit more to read.

I've also been looking at the community of users at my library as part of my Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management course online. It is a bit different doing this. It makes me think hard about what each thing we do at the library serves what population. It is rather interesting.

Daily Thoughts 2/13/2010

Embroidered bookbinding, The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul, manuscript by the Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I of England) at age 11, 1544, and presented to her stepmother Catherine or Katherine Parr. "...Translated 'out of frenche ryme into english prose, joyning the sentences together as well as the capacitie of my symple witte and small lerning coulde extende themselves.' ...dedicated: 'From Assherige, the last daye of the yeare of our Lord God 1544 ... To our most noble and vertuous Quene Katherin, Elizabeth her humble daughter wisheth perpetuall felicitie and everlasting joye.'

Daily Thoughts 2/13/2010

Last night I read a bit of You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier. It is a very nice counterpoint to some of the stranger ideas that are coming out of Web 2.0 and the technology field. He takes on the idea of the noosphere (the totality of the web and information) being a superbenevolent thing. He also attempts to counter the rather irrational idea of the Singularity, that not far from now, machines will become smarter than us. Personally, I think if machines become intelligent and free willed they will go in a far different direction than we can imagine because ultimately they will be different than us.

Jaron Lanier focuses on the individual being more important than the mob and decries the focus on massive networks of people instead of unique thought by a single person. He tries to counter the focus on smart mobs and makes statements against the idea of a massive totality of information without identifiable authors. There has been a tendency by many people in the technology industries to discount the importance of authorship and people being identified with a work.

On a personal level, massive impersonal networks can be a bit disconcerting to me. I often ponder Aristotle's statement on Masters and Slaves in his book Politics, " For if every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others, like the statues of Daedalus, or the tripods of Hephaestus, which, says the poet, of their own accord entered the assembly of the Gods; if, in like manner, the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not want servants, nor masters slaves. " I sometimes think that we have already reached the point where automation can bring greater freedom, but are having problems with society that don't let it happen.

While reading the February 1, 2010 issue of Publishers Weekly, I came across a book which should be quite interesting, The Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel. He also wrote The Library At Night which is quite entertaining, especially if you are a book person.

In the February 8, 2010 issue of Publishers Weekly, there is an article called The Single Copy Web by Sarah F. Gold on Pp. 17-19. It is a profile and interview of Jaron Lanier focusing on the book You Are Not A Gadget. This book is something worth reading. It challenges a lot of Web 2.0 ideas at just the right time. It reminds us that so many people are losing their livelihoods because of changes in the way information is disseminated, especially artists, musicians, and writers who depend so much on copyright and other creative institutions.

Two things came in for me to read next week, Charlie Huston, Sleepless and Adam L. Penenberg Viral Loop From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves. Also the movie of Ask The Dust came in. It is based on John Fante's novel.

I am on vacation next week. I worked a bit today on my online class, Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, getting some census data and reading an article on library marketing. I also cleared up my desk and wrote a few emails.