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A review by jasoncasey
You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier
4.0
Great read about where technology has taken us, how it changes, and where it might be taking us. Written by one of the pioneers of virtual reality.
Quote from the book:
"That is why I feel the need to point out the most obvious overall aspect of digital culture: it is comprised of wave after wave of juvenilia. On any given day, one might hear of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to a start-up company named Ublibudly or MeTickly. These are names I just made up, but they would make great venture capital bait if they existed. at these companies one finds rooms full of MIT PhD engineers not seeking cancer cures or sources of safe drinking water for the underdeveloped world but schemes to send little digital pictures of teddy bears and dragons between adult members of social networks. At the end of the road of the pursuit of technological sophistication appears to lie a playhouse in which humankind regresses to nursery school."
Quote from the book:
"That is why I feel the need to point out the most obvious overall aspect of digital culture: it is comprised of wave after wave of juvenilia. On any given day, one might hear of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to a start-up company named Ublibudly or MeTickly. These are names I just made up, but they would make great venture capital bait if they existed. at these companies one finds rooms full of MIT PhD engineers not seeking cancer cures or sources of safe drinking water for the underdeveloped world but schemes to send little digital pictures of teddy bears and dragons between adult members of social networks. At the end of the road of the pursuit of technological sophistication appears to lie a playhouse in which humankind regresses to nursery school."