Who Owns the Future?

De: Jaron Lanier

Narrado por: Pete Simonelli

The “brilliant” and “daringly original” (The New York Times) critique of digital networks from the “David Foster Wallace of tech” (London Evening Standard)—asserting that to fix our economy, we must fix our information economy.

Jaron Lanier is the father of virtual reality and one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers. Who Owns the Future? is his visionary reckoning with the most urgent economic and social trend of our age: the poisonous concentration of money and power in our digital networks.

Lanier has predicted how technology will transform our humanity for decades, and his insight has never been more urgently needed. He shows how Siren Servers, which exploit big data and the free sharing of information, led our economy into recession, imperiled personal privacy, and hollowed out the middle class. The networks that define our world—including social media, financial institutions, and intelligence agencies—now threaten to destroy it.

But there is an alternative. In this provocative, poetic, and deeply humane book, Lanier charts a path toward a brighter future: an information economy that rewards ordinary people for what they do and share on the web.

Listen with an open and attentive mind

Had no real idea of this man's mental prowess. Both in rational thought and an mind that frames the ordinary in an extraordinary way. Here's a quote (one of many).."Moral hazard has never met a more efficient amplifier than a digital network" Speaking in a context of the financial meltdown and middle class disenfranchisement of the last few years. Had to write this review before going any further in the book but I can't wait for each word of the book.

Still relevant until the future arrives

There are many things to admire in what Jaron presents here, but the most impressive might be that in the end one thinks, "I'm on board, but where is the evidence of his taste and skill at predicting the future?".

Then, in the last chapter, he predicts in 2013 with uncanny skill what his 6 year old daughter and her peers might think of driverless cars in 2023.

I believe, from my mountaintop of 2022, he is dead-on.

I intend to re-read the book with renewed attention and awe.

good combinatiion of stories and facts

I appreciate his blended experiences and perspectives as both an artist and a technologist of conscious integraty. Short segments made up the chapters which reminds me of normalized learning nuggets. My second time through I know will reveal even more low hanging mass imicro information monitary creation deliberately aggregated into diverse sustainable strategies for greater involement in arts and teknowledgy life styles, ithat ncludeds me..

On another note he mentioned the linux community, several times, as being the other extreem that is not seconomically sustainable, either so it begs the question of what operating systems does he use and what other system exit or needs to be established to facilitate communications and transactions between us?

humanistic technocrat - a rare and needed species

Jaron impresses me as a human being and as a technologist. outspoken, educated, presenting well-thought ideas, abstaining from extremes, being a pragmatist - just what the world needs today.

Interesting idea proposed but short on detail

Is there anything you would change about this book?

More justification of how Lanier's economy would be implemented. How secure would it be and what would be done to mitigate issues that arise.

Would you be willing to try another book from Jaron Lanier? Why or why not?

Maybe, I think it would really depend on the topic

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Performance was decent, the book is a bit tough at the end. No reader is going to compensate for that.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Oh god no!

Any additional comments?

I really like his thinking here. I believe to a certain degree you have to be out there to innovate and this concept qualifies. That said, there is a lot more justification and details on implementation that need to be addressed.