IMHO one of the most important books so far this century —philosophically & politically—is Jaron Lanier’s WHO OWNS THE FUTURE? A quote: “The information economy that we are currently building doesn’t really embrace capitalism but rather a new form of feudalism. We aren’t creating enough opportunity for enough people online. The proof is simple. The wide adoption of transformative connecting technology should create a middle-class wealth boom, as happened when the Interstate Highway System gave rise to a world of new jobs in transportation and tourism, for instance…. Instead we’ve seen recession, unemployment, and austerity.” Lanier follows this with an EULA (End-User License Agreement) for a kid’s lemonade stand as if it were a smartphone app under the current rules of the game. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so scary. A lot of people don’t have the bandwidth to follow Lanier all the way, but those who don’t already belong to their computer appliances, their appliance does not belong to them. Game over.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 02:43:21 +0000
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