Aug 2019

Jaron Lanier is an American computer philosophy writer, computer scientist and musician. He has been named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and has written a number of books on digital innovation.

Considered a founding father of virtual reality, he is as extraordinary and unconventional as he is brilliant. He critiques the trajectory of the tech giants with unsettling precision and clarity that should make us all sit up and think about our lives and where we, as a global community, are heading; attacking the business model of big tech with a ferocity tempered only by deep humility and sincerity as well as a lovely touch of humour.

In this book, Lanier urges us to think about our own situations and how we can 'remain autonomous in a world where you are under constant surveillance and are constantly prodded by algorithms run by some of the richest corporations in history, which have no way of making money except by being paid to manipulate your behaviour'.

He urges us to 'detach from the behaviour-modification empires for a while'. Reading this book is a good excuse to do exactly that. (For those of you who have visited our offices, you may well have noticed that our reception meeting room is called 'The Lanier Room' which may betray the fact that we are admirers of his work!)