Jaron Lanier: You Are Not a Gadget

Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, philosopher, and author of the manifesto You Are Not A Gadget.
“The thing about information is that it can hypnotize you. It can make you think you’re wise, when you aren’t,” he tells Kurt Andersen. “And as long as you have a dose of self—skepticism and a dollop of empathy and a sense of ethics, I think making the world more transparent is a good thing. But the illusions it can bring about are really quite dangerous.”
Janier explains how our privacy has changed in recent years thanks to social networks and smart phone technology. But he says a certain degree of anonymity is a good thing: “If you were to outlaw anonymity completely, you’d kill a whole lot of culture and personality development – I mean you wouldn’t have Bob Dylan because you’d still see his Facebook page from when he was [Robert] Zimmerman in Minnesota … you’d kill the romance.”
(Originally aired: December 17, 2010)
â?? More with Jaron Lanier