Something went wrong around the start of the 21st century. Individual creativity began to go out of fashion. Music became an endless rehashing of the past. Scientists were in danger of no longer understanding their own research. Indeed, not only was individual creativity old-fashioned but so were individuals themselves. The crowd was wise. Machines, specifically computers, were no longer tools to be used by human minds - they were better than humans. Welcome to the world of the digital revolution. Yet what if, despite Web 2.0, despite OpenSource, despite the wisdom of crowds, and the creation of Wikipedia, only people are meaningful? After all, when the printing press was invented, the mechanism was ultimately less impressive than the authors. What if, by devaluing individuals, we are deadening creativity, risking weaker design in engineering and science, losing democracy, and reducing development in every sphere? Jaron Lanier delivers a searing manifesto in support of the human and reflects on the good and bad developments in design and thought 20 years after the invention of the web. This is a deeply felt defence of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.

Reviews

Popularly known for his ruminations on the social pathology of information technology, computer scientist Lanier is immensely concerned that the design patterns of today's omnipresent 2.0 web services are about to be locked in. He argues that technology prophets from many disciplines have us blissfully ignorant of the sacrifices we make when submerging our individual identities into online collectives like Facebook. In addition, the web's early promise in terms of innovation, democracy, and interpersonal communication has not come to be; instead, an online culture has emerged that undermines the foundation of the knowledge economy. Flows of information, Lanier notes, are more important than what is being shared, whole expressions of creativity and arguments are replaced by fragments, and authors are successful by simply reusing the past instead of producing genuinely new works. Still, Lanier is optimistic that it's not too late to move away from cybernetic totalism by taking the "red pill" his book offers-for the web does not design itself, we design it. Verdict If you can't imagine a world without today's social technologies, this is a must read for 2010. [100,000-copy first printing; see Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/09.]-James A. Buczynski, Seneca Coll. of Applied Arts & Technology, Toronto Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Computer scientist and Internet guru Lanier's fascinating and provocative full-length exploration of the Internet's problems and potential is destined to become a must-read for both critics and advocates of online-based technology and culture. Lanier is best known for creating and pioneering the use of the revolutionary computer technology that he named virtual reality. Yet in his first book, Lanier takes a step back and critiques the current digital technology, more deeply exploring the ideas from his famous 2000 Wired magazine article, "One-Half of a Manifesto," which argued against more wildly optimistic views of what computers and the Internet could accomplish. His main target here is Web 2.0, the current dominant digital design concept commonly referred to as "open culture." Lanier forcefully argues that Web 2.0 sites such as Wikipedia "undervalue humans" in favor of "anonymity and crowd identity." He brilliantly shows how large Web 2.0-based information aggregators such as Amazon.com-as well as proponents of free music file sharing-have created a "hive mind" mentality emphasizing quantity over quality. But he concludes with a passionate and hopeful argument for a "new digital humanism" in which radical technologies do not deny "the specialness of personhood." (Jan.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.