Style used to be an interaction between the human soul and tools that were limiting. In the digital era, it will have to come from the soul alone. Jaron Lanier on alone
What does it mean to not be alone? I've approached that question through music, technology, writing and other means. Jaron Lanier on alone
My parents were kind of like me in that they had tons and tons of weird, amazing stuff. Jaron Lanier on amazing
Anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks and lightweight mash-ups may seem trivial and harmless, but as a whole, this widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communication has demeaned personal interaction. Jaron Lanier on communication
Musicians and journalists are the canaries in the coalmine, but, eventually, as computers get more and more powerful, it will kill off all middle-class professions. Jaron Lanier on computers
My dad has sometimes felt that I grew up a little lacking in sufficient eccentricity - in the sense that I'm willing to live as an adult in a house with walls that are parallel to each other, that sort of thing. Jaron Lanier on dad
After my mother's death, I had such difficulty relating to people. Jaron Lanier on death
The wisdom of crowds works when the crowd is choosing the price of an ox, when there's a single numeric average. But if it's a design or something that matters, the decision is made by committee, and that's crap. You want people and groups who are able to think thoughts before they share. Jaron Lanier on design
The basic problem is that web 2.0 tools are not supportive of democracy by design. They are tools designed to gather spy-agency-like data in a seductive way, first and foremost, but as a side effect they tend to provide software support for mob-like phenomena. Jaron Lanier on design
Advertising is the edge of what people know how to do and of human experience and it explains the latest ways progress has changed us to ourselves. Jaron Lanier on experience
If there's any object in human experience that's a precedent for what a computer should be like, it's a musical instrument: a device where you can explore a huge range of possibilities through an interface that connects your mind and your body, allowing you to be emotionally authentic and expressive. Jaron Lanier on experience
Web 2.0 ideas have a chirpy, cheerful rhetoric to them, but I think they consistently express a profound pessimism about humans, human nature and the human future. Jaron Lanier on future
We're losing track of the vastness of the potential for computer science. We really have to revive the beautiful intellectual joy of it, as opposed to the business potential. Jaron Lanier on science
I've always felt that the human-centered approach to computer science leads to more interesting, more exotic, more wild, and more heroic adventures than the machine-supremacy approach, where information is the highest goal. Jaron Lanier on science
I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface. Jaron Lanier on technology
Style used to be an interaction between the human soul and tools that were limiting. In the digital era, it will have to come from the soul alone. Jaron Lanier on technology
Advertisers are not thinking radically enough - they look for technology to lead instead of trying the neuroscience approach and thinking about what parts of the brain haven't been activated before. These new experiences bring new capabilities to the brain. Jaron Lanier on technology
People try to treat technology as an object, and it can't be. It can only be a channel. Jaron Lanier on technology
What does it mean to not be alone? I've approached that question through music, technology, writing and other means. Jaron Lanier on technology
Technologists provide tools that can improve people's lives. But I want to be clear that I don't think technology by itself improves people's lives, since often I'm criticized for being too pro-technology. Unless there's commensurate ethical and moral improvements to go along with it, it's for naught. Jaron Lanier on technology