Who Owns the Future?

April 8, 2013
Information can’t be free if the digital economy is to thrive, argues this stimulating jeremiad. Noting that the Internet is destroying more jobs than it creates, virtual reality pioneer and cyber-skeptic Lanier (You Are Not a Gadget) foresees a future when automation, robotics, 3-D printers, and computer networks will eliminate every industry from nursing and manufacturing to taxi-driving. The result, he contends, will be a dystopia of mass unemployment, insecurity, and social chaos in which information will be free but no one will be paid except the elite proprietors of the “siren servers”—Google, Facebook, Amazon, and the like—that manipulate our lives. Lanier’s extrapolation of current trends to an economy where almost everyone will be judged redundant is incisive and scary. Unfortunately, his proposal for safe-guarding the middle class—micropayments for the supposedly valuable but currently free information that ordinary people feed into the Web, from consumer profiles and friending links—feels as unconvincing and desperate as the cyber-capitalist nostrums he derides. Lanier’s main argument spawns fascinating digressions into Aristotle’s politics, science-fiction themes, Silicon Valley spirituality, and other byways. Even if his recommended treatment seems inadequate, his diagnosis of our technological maladies is brilliant, troubling, and well worth the price. Agent: Max Brockman, Brockman Inc.

October 28, 2013
Lanier recognizes that the Internet isn’t going away, but also provides a critical analysis of how it operates today (increasingly on mega-servers such as Google and Facebook) and the negative ways it impacts our economy. The author also offers alternative ways users can better enjoy the benefits of the digital age. Narrator Pete Simoneilli’s reading initially comes across as excessively nasal. However, his voice will quickly grows on listeners and feel natural and appropriate by the audio production’s end. Simoneilli conveys Lanier’s cautious but sincere tone throughout, and he does well with emphasis and timing to tease out the sometimes-complex ideas the author presents. Lanier’s prose is non-judgmental, and Simoneilli works hard to show this, shifting between a matter-of-fact tone and one of sympathy. A Simon & Schuster hardcover.