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    You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto
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    You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto
    Unavailable
    You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto
    Audiobook7 hours

    You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto

    Written by Jaron Lanier

    Narrated by Rob Shapiro

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, written more than two decades after the web was created, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse.

    The current design and function of the web have become so familiar that it is easy to forget that they grew out of programming decisions made decades ago. The web’s first designers made crucial choices (such as making one’s presence anonymous) that have had enormous—and often unintended—consequences. What’s more, these designs quickly became “locked in,” a permanent part of the web’s very structure.

    Lanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals.

    Lanier also shows:

    • How 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse
    • How file sharing is killing the artistic middle class
    • How a belief in a technological “rapture” motivates some of the most influential technologists
    • Why a new humanistic technology is necessary

    Controversial and fascinating, You Are Not a Gadget is a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 12, 2010
    ISBN9780307577061
    Unavailable
    You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto
    Author

    Jaron Lanier

    Jaron Lanier is a scientist and musician best known for his work in Virtual Reality research, a term he coined and popularized. Time named him one of the “Time 100” in 2010. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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    Reviews for You Are Not a Gadget

    3.5/5

    240 ratings31 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Didn’t hold up to a re-read.

      Jaron has some interesting thoughts, and I share his broad pessimism, but this reads like a series of fragmentary blog posts and anecdotes. which is a bit funny, considering his beef with fragmentary modes of communication.
    • 3/5
      A critique of the technophilic attraction for the hive mind and piracy of artists's and writers' works by a technophile.
    • 4/5
      An interesting manifesto about the changing face of the internet and digital culture vis a vis its relation to human beings. I appreciate Lanier’s humanism as I agree that the value of computers lies only in its relation to the humans who use them. I’m not so sure if I agree with his statements that the internet is culturally reactive rather than active. While this may be true in the general sense (and definitely the reason why I avoid YouTube if I can *rimshot*) I’ve seen some powerful activism and creativity online. In these cases, crowds and the hive mind are able to draw together otherwise isolated and silenced individuals. There are other things that I feel he overlooks, and there are certain presumptions he makes about people in general when talking about what is better for people. But overall, an interesting book. I’m not overly educated in philosophical discussions of the web so I’m not the best person to process Lanier’s arguments, but for someone who is, it’s worth reading.
    • 4/5
      The ideas contained in this book will keep reverberating long into the future. I got lost a couple of times on terms and concepts.
    • 5/5
      eye opening read. one of those books that makes you think why didn't i think of that before. and then i get to the bit where he does write about something i thought about recently. its always great when somebody else backs up your own theory's. this book backed up some of my theory's and opened my eyes to many many more possibilities and pathways that technology may be headed down, but doesn't necessarily have to.
    • 3/5


      Some interesting observations here, don't agree with it all (especially his rant about modern music, and his seemingly almost complete ignorance of electronic music) but he's on to a couple of things in terms of how culture is not catching up with technology. Have to admit much of this, especially near the end went way over my head and the short sections aren't my ideal way to read but an interesting book nonetheless.
    • 3/5
      I liked it too much to rate it any lower than 3 stars, but it also pissed me off a lot more than any other book I haven't physically thrown across a room.(I have only ever thrown a very few books across a room.)
    • 3/5
      I tend to align myself with many of those that Lanier directly criticizes, but I found a lot that is valuable in this book. I was a little disappointed that Lanier's arguments hadn't taken into account the responses to his digital Maoism essay but that disappointment was greatly outweighed by a very excellent book.

      While I do not buy into Lanier's negative arguments, I do buy into his positive arguments for humanism and that we can control the direction that technology grows in. I wouldn't have thought myself to be a technological determinist, but Lanier's line of reasoning about lowering our standards of humanity and intelligence in order to make machines seem more human.

      While I don't blame Lessig, Shirky, or the fine minds at the Berkman Center for dehumanizing technology, I do buy the idea that we can infuse our technological choices w/ our deepest values and affect the outcome.
    • 4/5
      Lanier crafts an argument with his experience as a technologist, and as a fellow humanist, I agree with him. He thinks that we are indulging in lazy thinking when we compare a computer with a person, or cede personhood to the cloud. He discusses the need to hold on to the ability for creative people, especially musicians, writers, and filmmakers, to get paid for their work. There are also some fuzzy ideas that make less sense to me, but mostly I enjoy his writing about issues that seem extremely important, especially how computer programs have taken over Wall Street. People don't even know how to explain the financial instruments they are selling.
    • 4/5
      Brilliant thoughts covering a wide gamut of software evolution and its impact.
    • 4/5
      An interesting manifesto about the changing face of the internet and digital culture vis a vis its relation to human beings. I appreciate Lanier’s humanism as I agree that the value of computers lies only in its relation to the humans who use them. I’m not so sure if I agree with his statements that the internet is culturally reactive rather than active. While this may be true in the general sense (and definitely the reason why I avoid YouTube if I can *rimshot*) I’ve seen some powerful activism and creativity online. In these cases, crowds and the hive mind are able to draw together otherwise isolated and silenced individuals. There are other things that I feel he overlooks, and there are certain presumptions he makes about people in general when talking about what is better for people. But overall, an interesting book. I’m not overly educated in philosophical discussions of the web so I’m not the best person to process Lanier’s arguments, but for someone who is, it’s worth reading.
    • 5/5
      Lanier is not only an innovator, he ponders deep questions. This is simply the most satisfying critique of the current shape of the digital revolution that I have encountered. Lanier makes a case for reconsidering the conventional wisdom about open source software, the future of digital culture, and much more. His basic assumption that human beings as individuals have dignity and worth in themselves doesn;t sound revolutionary until one explores the limitations of Facebook, Wikipedia and similar phenomena.
    • 3/5
      "It might at first seem that the experience of youth is now sharply divided between the old world of school and parents, and the new world of social networking on the internet, but actually school now belongs on the new side of the ledger. Education has gone through a parallel transformation, and for similar reasons.

      Information systems need to have information in order to run, but information underrepresents reality. Demand more from information than it can give, and you end up with monstrous designs. Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, for example, US teachers are forced to choose between teaching general knowledge and "teaching to the test." The best teachers are thus often disenfranchised by the improper use of educational information systems.

      What computerized analysis of all the country's school tests has done to education is exactly what Facebook has done to friendships. In both cases, life is turned into a database. Both degradations are based on the same philosophical mistake, which is the belief that computers can presently represent human thought or human relationships. These are things computers cannot currently do."

      -pg. 69
    • 3/5
      I was so blown away by the excerpt of this book in Harper's that I deleted my facebook account before I even finished it. I also enjoyed the book, though I got lost about one exit after the 'songle'. But this is to be expected. Manifestos have a good first half or however much is apportioned to stating the problem. Therein lies recognition and the endorphin bath of connected dots. Solutions are harder to express. There's maybe one* person born per generation who can show us those unseen patterns that open the invisible doors to the future. But for illustrating a new variable of the human condition that we ignore at our own risk, Lanier is tops and I read this with close attention.

      *this number comes from the ass-o-meter. I don't really know, nor do I have an opinionated estimate. Though I wish I did.
    • 4/5
      An excellent, honest and informed look at online trends and the state of computing technology and its effect on our culture today. I recommend it to anyone who works even vaguely closely to IT.
    • 3/5
      You Are Not a Gadget is Jaron Lanier's critique the modern internet's tendency to favor the wisdom of crowds over the individual. Basically, he's warning against how we devalue our human uniqueness while pursuing an increasingly smarter computer mind. That's the gist, I think. The topics within the chapters often stray so it's not always clear what point he's trying to make.Mr. Lanier is no doubt intelligent - best known for being one of the main contributors to the technology of virtual reality - and I more or less agree with his entire premise. Unfortunately, his arguments come across like the rants of an older man who doesn't like the change he sees coming. You half expect him to start lamenting about not understanding kids these days.The truly frustrating part is that he's probably right, but his convoluted delivery makes me doubt him.
    • 5/5
      Jaron Lanier criticizes the received wisdom about how the internet and Web 2.0 relate to true creativity, freedom and authorship. Lanier zeroes in on how our present technologies and softwares lock us into certain patterns of thought and belief that are inherently limited and limiting. Lanier, who was a tech pioneer in the early days of the internet, finds the present configuration of the web to be an impoverished place for people to grow as artists and citizens. This book was very provocative, and very deep. Lanier is a corrective to Clay Shirky, who argues the other side: Web 2.0= utopian forms of social organization, of action and creation (pardon my shorthand, but that's the gist of Shirky as I remember his book "Here Comes Everybody").
    • 3/5
      I like Jaron, I think his ideas are insightful and passionate, but I don't think this book did justice to his nuanced romantic perspective. I wish this book was better structured and, frankly, better written, but I still enjoyed Jaron's ideas so I'll briefly address them. The main thesis of 'You Are Not a Gadget' is that if we are not careful in designing our information technology systems with the proper reverence for the ineffable individual human person, then we risk creating techno-social architectures which may mold our culture into acquiescing a diminished human experience. He lambasts the free/open-source/creative-commons/web2.0 movements that have come to dominate the mainstream ideology of most technologists these days, blaming them for preventing the formation of a large middle class of artists and creative professionals that was hoped for in the early days of the internet. He also derides the increasingly popular futurist ideas of the technological singularity, holding in contempt what he views as simplistic notions of intelligence and our primitive abilities to model them in software. What those groups all have in common is their threat to subjugate the individual to the hive mind, influencing us into making our most important decisions for the benefit of the machines or the collective instead of the human.Jaron doesn't only criticize, he also offers up his own suggestions for fixing the current state of affairs and has his own future scenario of how he'd like to see humans using information technology. I think some of his suggestions are exciting and worthy of discussion, but the limited and superficial treatment of them in the book don't amount to much. Again, I wish this book was better written because I really believe in many of these ideas, but as it stand I have to recommend reading Jaron's essays online or listening to his talks instead of reading this book in order to get a better appreciation of his ideology.
    • 3/5
      Jaron Lanier is a musician who by circumstance ended up in the world of new technologies. His book is his cry from the heart about the dehumanizing effects of cyber technology. Naturally the interaction between technology and us is two way. Hence it is easy to let technology dominate our lives and even change our attitudes and behaviours. In this context, Lanier lays bare the human impact of this technology’s culture on the artistic community. He worries that the reach of the internet will turn us into simple peripheral units, and society will not sufficiently reward people for their creative work.Certainly read this book for his critique, feelings and impressions. There were parts that I especially liked. However, be warned that, as a digital humanist, he opines that one can dispense with rational arguments. Indeed the presented post-rationalization of his feelings is flimsy at best. Furthermore his coverage of issues is somewhat narrow, shallow and lopsided. Indeed many of his more careless assertions have obvious counter examples. Essentially he intuits a colourful broad-brush picture of issues. Thus this picture should be viewed from afar without attention to localized detail.
    • 2/5
      This is a book which argues passionately for sustained thought, aesthetics, and relationships, in a world which is becoming increasingly "fragmentary" due in part to the philosophical lock-in created by the way we use and design our information tools.Ironically, the book is written in a frustrating series of loosely-connected one to three page micro-essays. Following Lanier's thought is made more difficult by this; he hops from gripe to gripe, expecting the user to follow his train of thought with little aid other than the force of his invective. It is a "manifesto," and as such it is sorely lacking in the trappings of deep thought like attributed sources, or clear definitions of concepts.I agree with a lot of what Lanier says, which is one of the things which makes this sloppy book so frustrating. For example, he quite rightly states that anonymity is a de-personalizing force which enables much of the worst, most harmful behavior on the Internet. However, he never credits Facebook for fighting this trend by opening their authentication system to other web sites. Instead, he attacks Facebook for its oppressive, impersonal graphic design - a fair criticism, but it seems, a missed opportunity for balance in this "manifesto". In a similar example, in one chapter he criticizes the idea that "open science" could lead to discoveries in evolutionary biology, and then in the next he praises the advances in computational linguistics made possible by large electronic text collections. Again, both criticisms seem fair based on my limited knowledge of the disciplines... but Lanier doesn't address that aspect, or even the similarity of the two efforts.At the end of the day, I find myself wishing for a more scholarly book by Lanier on a smaller subset of these topics. Particularly in the computing areas where I respect his vast knowledge - the nature of the operating system, the possibilities of virtual reality, the very nature of "intelligence", artificial or not, and the way all of these areas have social effects - I know Lanier has a lot to teach me. Unfortunately, this book isn't about "teaching." It's about "convincing."
    • 2/5
      I didn't get it. It appears as though the author is attempting to philosophize about technology/internet as if it had a mind of its own or something.I dunno. Technology isn't people. And I don't need to read a book to tell me this, especially when his arguments don't really make much sense.And, on top of that, I can't stand the way the pages are broken out with headers and subheaders - as if it were an academic paper with subsections. It ain't an academic paper so don't go trying to pretend it's more than some musings with half-baked "evidence"
    • 2/5
      Lanier has been around a while, so what he has to say about UNIX and asynchronous time, the shaping of consciousness and "cybernetic totalism", and the early stuff of codes and commands, are pretty interesting. But he likes to pick on Wikipedia and MIDI too often and in fairly superficial ways (not that I would stand to defend either). The redundancy only goes to show that I think he is best at being the experienced computer scientist and not the half-baked musicologist, sociologist, or cultural critic. And he's a terrible philosopher, despite his humanist bent and good intentions. I enjoyed the beginning, where Lanier flies as the informed and thoughtful historian. But 3/4 of the way, his points become horribly oblique and just plain weird in that Wired magazine kind of way (just examine the headings). I wanted to like this book, but the end just fell apart for me.
    • 2/5
      intriguing and provocative, but I thought many of the arguments were not well made.
    • 4/5
      The book You are Not a Gadget contains musings of the author, Jaron Lanier, about how technology has and will continue to affect individuals as well as human society in general. Lanier is a computer scientist, visual artist and musician, and has worked with associates in a variety of science fields. He pulls historical and contemporary examples of philosophy, psychology, religion, music, art & technology and applies those concepts to today's technology. This five part (fourteen chapters) book raises important questions and provides useful discussion on the topics at hand. It is a well written book that is both thought provoking and quick reading, and will make readers pause to evaluate how they incorporate technology in their own lives. This book might be useful for promoting classroom discussion about technological issues at either the undergraduate or graduate levels.
    • 4/5
      requires a reply; i've got considerable notes on this book; i like someone who offers "triangulation" as lanier does; my daughter recommended this to me as sort of a rebuttal to nicholas carr's "big switch". for some time, i've been among the digerati, saying "it's over, we won." thanks to lanier, i can indefinetly postpone that kindle purchase. there are things worth retaining. while he's an analog person -- heck, the whole virtual reality thing is based on voltage, and not bits -- and i'm still digital, i'm quite comfy with his critque of my neighborhood. literarily, his last few chapters are of the and-let-me-get-this-off-my-chest variety. so, they're not up to the sharp invictive of his earlier ones. compared to carr, he gives unix it's larger place in the pantheon, and it's not without a proportionate share of the problems, according to laneir.lanier woke me up to how software tends to "lock down" certain decisions. in his case, the midi music format is one of those: "how do keypresses model rich tonality" is his challenge as a music maker. well enough. any bit of software makes choices for us in ways we don't always see. even with taleb's black swan, challenging "the bell curve", i still insist any individual's rating _must_ follow the binomial relationship. giving lanier's "gadget, U R ~" a 4.0 doesn't disturb the balance of my ratings.
    • 1/5
      The writing was absolutely atrocious and I couldn't make it past the second chapter. Manifesto indeed.
    • 2/5
      I agree with many of Lanier's points, especially regarding the damaging effects of technology that reduces our humanity. But his superficial, frantic ramblings are lamentable---this is a manifesto against the crowd-based technophilia exemplified by Wired magazine, written precisely in Wired's hyped, glitzy, mock-philosophical style.
    • 5/5
      Everyone who uses social media should read this book. Lanier, an insider of the Silicon Valley community, describes the development of our modern day computing tools and speaks to their implications for our society. Anyone who has ever been frustrated by default settings, or forced to do more typing when Microsoft Word incorrectly intuits the next tab space in a document, will appreciate Lanier's critique. Read this and share the ideas with your colleagues.
    • 4/5
      You Are Not A Gadget is a fantastic manifesto. Jaron states his positions firmly in some cases. In other cases it is obvious he has thought deeply on the issues but hasn't come to a workable conclusion on how to better processes and software. He admits he doesn't have the answers but has some hope that technology, especially the internet, will improve in the future before it gets locked into inanity. He is critical of Web 2.0 (including FaceBook) and the online hive mind. Crowds are not always wise, sometimes they are pretty stupid. He takes on the ability of artists, with a focus on musicians, to earn a living in this environment. It hasn't worked out well for them. He rails against the Singularitarians and their rabid zeal that compares to fundamentalist's eager anticipation of the rapture. He touches are many other areas on technology and the ways he thinks it is bereft of the possibilities that could be with greater vision. A manifesto doesn't have to be completely agreed with by the reader. Very few are. A manifesto should decree the manifesto writer's position on the issues written about. In this instance he has created a manifesto that will be discussed and referred back for quite some time. It's going to fester under some technologist's skin and inspire others to create software 'that doesn't suck'. Some will write Lanier off as a 'goofball'. I found he made me think more deeply about the internet and to continue to think about its direction.
    • 3/5
      I admit that about 25% of the book went over my head; I'm not a software engineer. But, a lot of what Lanier (the father of virtual reality) says resonates with me. The unquestioning acceptance of the "wisdom of the crowd" for one being a tenant that definitely needs questioning. Why programming decisions made decades ago (like making the individual's presence anonymous) now have consequences -- such as trolling and the trivialization of online discussion. Lanier makes a strong and eloquent case for replacing the anonymous Wikipedia collaboration model with more human, individual, creative and context-rich model. Lanier also points out that we have experienced a paucity of musical and popular cultural innovations in the past several decades (with some notable exceptions like Pixar films (yay!)) and he blames the ubiquity of file sharing which demotivates artists. As someone who isn't that much of a devotee of popular culture and music, not a software engineer -- not sure whether I really am able to judge or critique Lanier's book effectively. But as a human who uses Web 2.0 tools a lot, and an information seeker -- much of what he said resonated. Thought provoking.