My dad has sometimes felt that I grew up a little lacking in sufficient eccentricity - in the sense that I'm willing to live as an adult in a house with walls that are parallel to each other, that sort of thing. Jaron Lanier More Quotes by Jaron Lanier More Quotes From Jaron Lanier Anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks and lightweight mash-ups may seem trivial and harmless, but as a whole, this widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communication has demeaned personal interaction. Jaron Lanier vapid communication practice We should talk about the ultimate cause of war. It's a question we should never stop asking, because if we do, there's a chance, however remote, that we might miss an opportunity to reduce the occurrence of war. Jaron Lanier missing opportunity war I'm astonished at how readily a great many people I know, young people, have accepted a reduced economic prospect and limited freedoms in any substantial sense, and basically traded them for being able to screw around online. Jaron Lanier economic able people Facebook says, 'Privacy is theft,' because they're selling your lack of privacy to the advertisers who might show up one day. Jaron Lanier privacy one-day might One thing that I have been trying to do is bring together in places like Bosnia technologists who create ever-more destructive land mines [and convince them not to build more dangerous mines]. And that has actually worked. Jaron Lanier land together trying Information doesn’t deserve to be free. It is an abstract tool; a useful Jaron Lanier information tools way There were studies that asked people in different cultures to draw pictures of their enemies, and the pictures all looked remarkably the same. They always had exaggerated canine teeth and a certain sort of expression. That led to speculation about whether at an earlier stage in the human experience we were hunted by some sort of carnivore. Jaron Lanier expression people enemy People try to treat technology as an object, and it can't be. It can only be a channel. Jaron Lanier technology trying people Advertising is the edge of what people know how to do and of human experience and it explains the latest ways progress has changed us to ourselves. Jaron Lanier progress people way Emphasizing the crowd means de-emphasizing individual humans in the design of society, and when you ask people not to be people, they revert to bad, mob-like behaviors. Jaron Lanier design mean people Advertisers and marketers should be looking to bring new experiences to different parts of the brain. It's a more profound idea than just dropping a billboard into a video game. Jaron Lanier new-experiences games ideas It's possible, without taking sides or playing the statesman game, to reduce destruction simply by reducing the development of technology of destruction. Jaron Lanier technology development games There's no question that males are more violent and more prone to the type of hierarchical organizations that lead to war. War is largely a male activity. In fact, there is some correlation [between making war and] having an excess of males in the population. Jaron Lanier population organization war I think that one can seek a way to eliminate war, and still agree that fighting the Nazis was a good thing. Jaron Lanier fighting war thinking If war stems from unmet needs related to male adolescent ritual, that's something that we need to examine. I'm interested in the possibility of simply getting rid of war. I'd be no more willing to let go of that than to let go of the possibility of eradicating cancer. That's not to say I'm certain we can, but I am willing to use any energy at all in the quest. Jaron Lanier cancer letting-go war Of all the things you can spend a lot of money on, the only things you expect to fail frequently are software and medicine. Jaron Lanier software medicine failing In fact, one reason I am interested in developing things in virtual reality is that they're so fascinating. I can come up with problems that are harder than warfare to take up people's time. Jaron Lanier warfare reality people I have been around military technology people a lot because of my role in virtual reality I've seen weapons from conception to implementation. And there is an extraordinary gadget lust that drives the military. So it's possible that war is just the ultimate expression of creativity. Jaron Lanier creativity military war We should treat computers as fancy telephones, whose purpose is to connect people.... As long as we remember that we ourselves are the source of our value, our creativity, our sense of reality, then all of our work with computers will be worthwhile and beautiful. Jaron Lanier creativity beautiful reality If you're old enough to have a job and to have a life, you use Facebook exactly as advertised, you look up old friends. Jaron Lanier old-friends jobs looks
