A review by ristew
Anbruch einer neuen Zeit: Wie Virtual Reality unser Leben und unsere Gesellschaft verändert by Jaron Lanier

4.0

Lanier has lived a very interesting life, as he recounts in this book. I particularly enjoyed his evolving thoughts on virtual reality and the construction of a new dynamic medium, which is especially relevant now as VR starts to become commoditized. The book is a little undirected in places, as memoirs tend to be, but the ego promotion stays low, in some places veering into self-therapeutic. Before reading, I would recommend his recent interview with Lex Fridman, in which you can see more of his philosophy. What really drew me in was a striking essay about computation and ontology, https://www.edge.org/conversation/jaron_lanier-why-gordian-software-has-convinced-me-to-believe-in-the-reality-of-cats, which he touches on in parts of the book as well as dedicates an appendix towards.