Jaron Lanier is a pioneering computer scientist, a creator of
virtual reality, a musician, and the author of You Are Not a
Gadget, which takes a skeptical view of the role we have given
technology in our lives. Contrary to a view that the internet
encourages creativity (with its infinite possibilities to share
content), Lanier worries that it discourages originality and
uniqueness in the generation that’s grown up with social media
and broadband. “If your paradigm of reality is that there’s a
network structure in place and you fit into it, there are two
positions — a peripheral node or a central node. That has
profound implications for the way they approach science, art,
and creativity,” Lanier says. “There’s a sense that the network
encompasses everything. Kids embrace a worldview in which every
category of knowledge is already precategorized, and you’re
filling in pieces. Ambition becomes one of climbing the network,
rather than penetrating further into the mystery that surrounds
us.” Lanier is an advisor t