You Are Not A Gadget

You Are Not A Gadget (a manifesto) is a book written in 2010 by vr (virtual reality) specialist, computer programmer (that works at Microsoft), and musician Jaron Lanier. I've actually written about one of his other books before and that can be found here. In the book Lanier states that the developments of web 2.0 is elevating the collective hive mind at the expense of the individual. He uses Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Linux as examples. On Wikipedia we have a sort of mob rules from anonymous editors with a weakness in non-scientific content. He also criticizes the open software crowd by saying that they can't create something truly unique, new, or innovative.

In addition, he states that the open source approach has made it difficult to create a middle class of financed content, instead we have "lords of the clouds', people who by luck or virtue make it to be one of the masters of the universe within the cloud.

Lastly, and most importantly be brings up MIDI electronic notes for music. Here he makes a lot of criticisms about the new music standard and the life of musicians in modern times, how hard it is for them to make a living. He has much to say on the topic, after all he is a musician too. He was quite dark on the topic. In fact, he believes we're going through an artistic dark ages. He's probably right.

Anyways, the book is quite the manifesto. He has many ideas but all of these ideas are only useful if you look at them from every angle as a whole. The book makes me envision and wonder about the future more than ever. In some ways we're already living in the future but this book makes me aware of the fact that human evolution still has a long way to go, especially with our mammoth machines, computers, the collective hive mind, and the internet.

It was a fast and short read, only two-hundred pages. I recommend this book to internet users, computer techies, futurists, and science fiction readers. The book is pure electronic philosophy, and its engaging, fun, and intellectually stimulating.

“Funding a civilization through advertising is like trying to get nutrition by connecting a tube from one’s anus to one’s mouth.”