I have noticed that a lot of people are saying that Mr. Lanier's book is full of ramblings and half-answered questions but I believe that he intended his book to be. I agree that I found the way he wrote quite annoying but Jaron Lanier is known as the father of virtual reality technology, thus one can assume he wrote his book for the computer techy reader; which explains all of the technical words that we have trouble wrapping our heads around. As for the half-answered questions and ramblings, I believe that Lanier wrote his book as if it was a blog; by leaving his questions unanswered he is opening the door for his readers to try and think of the answer on their own. This makes sense since he is all about human intelligence and the need for people to formulate their own opinions.
Moving onto part 2 of his book, Lanier is addressing a series of issues, from file sharing to the role of technology in creating a new way to express art--musically. However, what caught my attention was his war on file sharing and the need for technology to preserve humanity. Lanier was clearly against file sharing, he viewed it as a roadblock for upcoming musicians, and from the looks of it he viewed the Facebook/Twitter generation as the creators of this roadblock. I understand where Lanier is coming from because file sharing is taking money from the music industry but at the same time I do not feel that we should get all of the blame. There are artist such as Radiohead who use file sharing as a means to promote their music. This is because with file sharing it is reaching more people faster thus providing the wanted publicity for the artist, so for Lanier to say that file sharing is hurting the industry is a bit farfetched.
On a different note, when Lanier spoke about the role technology plays in the preservation of humanity I instantly thought of a quote by Albert Einstein:
“It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity.”
The reason for this is because we have become so dependent on technology that if it was to be taken away there would be absolute chaos, can you imagine New York City without traffic lights or a world without internet access? It is for this reason that I agree with Lanier’s claim. I am not saying that technology is the savior of humanity but it sure as hell is pretty damn close.
Part 2 of Lanier’s book was similar to that of part 1, filled with unanswered questions that made you want know more and I believe that Lanier does a great job at this.
why exactly do you feel like he is blaming the facebook and twitter generation? might he be blaming the movement he calls Open Culture? might he be blaming a segment of the programming and business tech community he associates with digital maoism? might he be blaming the creators of twitter and facebook? I'm asking because it seems to me that your remarks indicate a feeling of being criticized (like, you and your age group are somehow lacking or at fault). If my assumption is right, then I think others in the class share this feeling and I'd like to figure out where it comes from. If my assumption is wrong, then maybe you can point out my error.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why I feel this way is because on page 84, he starts off this comparison with the piracy of movies and the free downloading of music and then goes of to say that the younger you are the more likely you are to download for free. Through his book he has been critical of the younger [Facebook/Twitter] generation and view this as him blaming us for the 'failing music industry.' I am not saying that he blames people who use Facebook but today the younger generation are who is on the social sites that he despises, it is the younger generation, that tend to think collectively, so I believe that it is safe for me to assume that he is blaming the younger generation for piracy.
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