But I'm thrilled to tell you that Jaron Lanier's book is out, You are not a widget. Lanier coined the term "virtual reality." I read his essay, "The Serfdom of Crowds," in February's Harper's. His message: kill the hivemind. It's a real grumpy Guss look at social media and the degradation though which we put ourselves to share 140 char bits about ourselves.
Can't wait to read the book.
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I've read it. Twice.
I've also viewed the many lectures Lanier's given about the book's themes. Also, anyone who read "One Half Of A Manifesto", the Edge.org posted essay he wrote several years ago, will already be acquainted with many of the ideas Lanier presents.
I broadly agree with his critique and I appreciate that it's coming from a technophile and not some eco-romantic. But at base there's a mushiness to it which spoiled my overall impression. One of his often repeated complaints is about freetards' insistence on, well, getting everything for free. He laments the shattering on his youthful dream of getting rich (or at least, doing quite well) from the Internet-based sale of his music.
We've discussed the freetard problem before and know its contours. As I see it, Lanier's proposed solutions are all over the place and curiously blind to the models which currently work, such as iTunes. Maybe blanket micropayments are the answer he suggests, or some version of micropayments.
It gets muddled.
A linked problem is his celebration of "innovation" as the product of heroic individualism. This flows from his criticisms of the "hive mind" and echoes his long-standing view of open source and Linux ('Is this the best thousands of minds can do? He wrote, years ago in "One Half Of A Manifesto".)
In other words, the 'solution' to hive-mind-ism is a return to an old, or forging of a new vision of lone wolf creativity.
After awhile, I grew annoyed at his apparent inability to understand the points you made in your "Baking Your Own Bread And Circuses" posts -- here and at your long gone, but not forgotten blog.
That is, Lanier is so fixated on the collective evils of freetards and other Internet scoundrels he almost totally fails to see how group generated content has become yet another money making tool for many firms. From what I've read and seen, Lanier has little or no understanding of the way Google and others have leveraged the hive to make money, encouraging its growth because of profit-taking opportunities.
There's the usual whiff of libertarianism in the memetic air.
However! You'll come for the grumpiness and stay for the Web 2.0 bashing pr0n.
.d.