Jaron Lanier

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As one of the pioneers and even inventors of the concept of “virtual reality”, Jaron Lanier certainly has a very concrete sense of what it should mean to be human in the 21^st century. In his hit manifesto You Are Not A Gadget, the Berkeley based technologist, musician and  theorist argues that today’s crowd sourced content on the Internet is creating a culture of stifling conformity.

Lanier – one of Time magazine’s 100 people who have most influenced the world in 2010 has emerged from inside the technology community as a critical counter to the techno-utopianism of thinkers like his friend Kevin Kelly.  So it was with relish that B&N contributor Andrew Keen sat down with Lanier earlier this month at the Jupiter bar in Berkeley to discuss gadgets, (digital) humanism and why today’s music all sounds the same.

Below, an excerpt (5:42)  from the conversation, in which Jaron Lanier addresses the question of whether young adults today are uncritically accepting of a gadget-enabled life.

Click here to see the full version of the interview (16:38).