Dawn of the New Everything

Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality

By: Jaron Lanier

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this captivating audiobook, Jaron Lanier - the father of virtual reality - explains its dazzling possibilities by reflecting on his own lifelong relationship with technology

Bridging the gap between tech mania and the experience of being inside the human body, Dawn of the New Everything is a look at what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility.

Through a fascinating look back over his life in technology, Jaron Lanier, an interdisciplinary scientist and father of the term virtual reality, exposes VR's ability to illuminate and amplify our understanding of our species and gives listeners a new perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world. An inventive blend of autobiography, science writing, philosophy, and advice, this audiobook tells the wild story of his personal and professional life as a scientist, from his childhood in the UFO territory of New Mexico to the loss of his mother, the founding of the first start-up, and finally becoming a world-renowned technological guru.

Understanding virtual reality as being both a scientific and a cultural adventure, Lanier demonstrates it to be a humanistic setting for technology. While his previous publications offered a more critical view of social media and other manifestations of technology, in this audiobook he argues that virtual reality can actually make our lives richer and fuller.

©2017 Jaron Lanier (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"[Oliver Wyman] narrates in a reflective tone that fits well with Lanier's mix of recollections, philosophy, and explanations of technology...Lanier takes the listener through VR breakthroughs like Nintendo's Power Glove and delves into the psychology involved in the VR experience." (AudioFile Magazine)

Extremely impactful, rewarding audio journey

This book was magical. I am sure it is partially due to me being a child of the era. Cyberpunk, Joseph Campbell, George Lucas, Jazz, Dome Houses, Timothy Leary, Addis Huxley, lawnmower man, and of course virtual reality. Holy smokes this book shook me. Every time I picked it up I had a moment of connection to some part of my life followed with the author’s intelligent insight. Bravo!

useful perspective and philosophy grounded in lived experience

Lanier opens the kimono on the history of virtual reality from a pro human and pro tech perspective with personal reflections that kick Silicon Valley’s ass. In a constructive way. This audio book starts slow. It takes you in many directions and ultimately goes deep. His suggestions for the future deserve to be heard, discussed and somehow integrated in people’s and society’s learning. I loved listening to this audiobook.

I really don't want to come off as overly generous

...but as far as I am concerned this book deserves 5 stars across the board.
If you follow or are interested in any of Jaron Lanier's work, you will love this book.

good but geared toward Virtualreality specialists

The below is a review of the Audible audiobook edition of this work

In a nutshell, this book is part biography, part history of virtual reality and Silicon Valley and part a reflection of the author’s many, many interesting views on virtual reality, software, hardware, technology and internet based social media (among other topics).

The book starts off with Mr. Lanier’s youth which was not exactly bright. His mother died when he was relatively young and he lived most of his youth, with his father, living in adjunct poverty. His family was so poor that he even lived in a shack that his father had built in the desert in New Mexico. Then the book moves to his adventures in early adolescence which were very haphazard and, at least from a financial perspective, very marginal. Then it moves on to him moving on to success albeit, quite surprisingly considering his poverty filled roots, with little mention of money. He, instead of pursuing this, pursued intellectual activities and priorities. The money flowed not from direct effort targeting it but, instead, indirectly by happenstance. The book provides quite a bit of insight into his personality.

The book then progresses beyond his early life to his “professional” and describes, based on his very active participation in, the field of virtual reality. Much of this occurred in the early stages of virtual reality’s development (i.e., 1980s and 1990s) in a Silicon Valley environment. Hence the reader obtains a picture of how that field developed technologically, a picture of Silicon Valley and its culture of the time and venture capital of the time in that environment. There is also an in-depth discussion of his at VPL Research, one of the first companies developing virtual reality technology. Much of this discussion is quite detailed and technically oriented hence, at least in this reviewer’s opinion, would be more of interest to the specialist (and practioner in the field of virtual reality) than the layman.

In addition, and very importantly, it includes the large number of interesting views of the author regarding the internet, social media, software, human-machine interfaces and, of course, the many aspects of technology relating to virtual reality (i.e., software, viewing hardware, human-machine interfaces in this environment, etc.). He presents many interesting views and beliefs, for example, his belief on why software with a phenotropic architecture would be much more secure than what is being used today. Also, how and why current software architecture came to be adopted instead of that alternative. His views regarding this technology, again and this reviewer cannot stress it enough, are very interesting albeit a layman may not comprehend (or appreciate) this as much as the specialist, the technologically savvy and practioners in the field of virtual reality.

The book does have a few weaknesses. For example there is little discussion on the potential benefits and pitfalls of virtual reality. There is little to no discussion regarding the use of virtual training as a training tool or the dangers of becoming addicted to virtual reality worlds. Perhaps this is because the author believes that the main audience this book is written for, the technologically knowledgeable, would not need such a discussion. Unfortunately laymen may not. This is the main weakness of the book in this reviewer’s opinion. It is really geared to that audience and laymen would not gain that much out of it.

With respect to the audible version of this book, it is relatively well read. Never monotone or uninteresting.

The future and how we will get there

I didn’t know Jaron Lanier before reading this book. He is a fascinating person who has contributed a lot to our modern society. He offers important insights into the creation of our technology and its limits and flaws. He is also a grea

Interesting biography that teaches about VR

I would've preferred it narrated by the author, but nonetheless Jaron Lanier is always an interesting read/listen. His candid discussion of his far-from-ordinary upbringing would render this a worthy listen on it's own, and the discussion of computing, social media, and the future of AI is refreshing and ahead of the curve.

WORLDS OF IMAGINATION

Both Da Vinci (as characterized by Walter Isaacson) and Jaron Lanier are self-effacing geniuses without formal education. Both manage to create worlds of imagination. Lanier’s memoir illustrates how refinement of virtual reality is as groundbreaking as Da Vinci’s understanding of light. History will not likely view Lanier as the Da Vinci of our era but there are interesting similarities.

Lanier is one of the pioneers of facial recognition. Facial recognition is a tool that can be used by humanities’ tyrants as well as benefactors. In conjunction with digitizing the lives of everyone, facial recognition implies a “Brave New World” as eminently realizable.

The “Dawn of Everything” gives a clearer picture of what it was and is like to become a part of the Silicon Valley. He candidly recounts his rise as a tech mogul, failure, and gadfly. Lanier’s memoir is at once enlightening and disheartening. He offers a virtual picture of modern life that is influencing, but not yet controlling. Lanier is optimistic. Many listeners will leave his memoir skeptical.

terrible book

this guy has obviously issues,
his life is not interesting no matter how hard he tries to make a story out of it. read borntrom's superintelligence if you want to learn about AGI. Lanier wrote this lausy book so he can sell himself in the media as an expert. give some interviews, appear in some documentaries.
I wish I could get my money back.

A great memoir

If you love reading Richard feinman you'll love this book. A great story of a well lived life and a history of a well lived life.

Great, but a little techy

Someone recommended I watch the documentary "The Social Dilemma". The topic was a little interesting, but most of the details and talking heads were boring, except for this one guy who spoke plainly and made sense. That was Jaron Lanier. I looked up what he had written and chose this book. I have zero social media and I am confident I can deal with any targeted advertising associated with my browsing history, so his books warning about social media are not applicable to me. Although I don't play any video games, I am interested in the ideas behind VR and have worked in AI so this is the book I picked.

The author parallels an interesting and unusual autobiography with a quirky history of hackers, VR, and AI. If you believe AI is a powerful technology that may even rival human intelligence in the near future, this is a good book to dispel that idea. AI is sometimes a useful tool in limited domains but currently no where close to the intelligence of a mouse, let alone humans. Instead the author points to the potential of VR to alter human outlook on reality. This does get a little deep into the bits & bytes for non-programmers, and the explanations of the wilder futures of VR (like becoming a crab in VR) are difficult to understand if you haven't previously been exposed to the ideas.

This is worth the listen even if you have no programming background. You my miss out on some of the more technical bits but there is a lot of interesting stuff anyone could appreciate.

The narration was excellent, clear and understandable, with great expressions of the emotional content.