I’m not sure what I think of Jaron Lanier’s [amazon_link id=”B004OBIZFI” target=”_blank” ]You Are Not A Gadget[/amazon_link], not least because it’s written in a foreign language which closely resembles English but reflects a way of thinking completely alien to me. Which is odd, because there’s a lot of overlap between the categories ‘economist’ and ‘nerd’, so I can usually cope with techno-literature, and you don’t really get anyone closer to the heart of the techno-aristocracy than Lanier. Maybe it’s because, towards the end of the book, Lanier explains that he would quite like to be cephalopod like an octopus or squid, creatures he seems to hold in far higher regard than he does the majority of humans he comes across on the internet.

Or maybe it’s because the entire book is a blast against reductionist logic. Although, despite repeatedly stating that he has a mystical view of human beings whose inherent spirit he fears is being undermined by the internet, he is highly critical of those technologists like Kevin Kelly who have a mystical view of the machine instead, and await breathlessly the dawn (or whatever) of the ‘Noosphere’. I don’t have a mystical view of anything, so this clash of mysticisms is a bit – mysterious, I guess.

Anyway, it was a perfectly enjoyable if slightly brow-furrowing read. Here’s what I got out of it. There is a long section arguing that the way computers and the internet have developed has locked in certain unfortunate characteristics that do not correspond to the way humans really perceive or think. I’m sure this is correct. Lock-in is what technologies do – take the internal combustion engine, for example. I also, as an economist frequently on the receiving end of similar criticisms, enjoyed this statement:

“What I’m struck by is the lack of intellectual modesty in the computer science community. We are happy to enshrine into engineering designs mere hypotheses – and vague ones at that – about the hardest and most profound questions faced by science.” (p51 Vintage paperback)

But stating that history has happened can only be a first step in a polemic. What should we do about it? It seems that Lanier’s main answer is to end anonymity online. I have great sympathy with this, as there is far too much nastiness occurring under the cloak of anonymity, and making it somewhat harder to hide one’s true identity would do a lot to restore to the online world the everyday civility that makes normal life possible. However, I don’t share his hope that having to use a genuine identity would make people less celebrity and Lolcat obsessed. It isn’t possible to reverse-engineer out human stupidity and triviality by changing online conventions of behaviour.

Lanier’s other big point is to rail against the culture of ‘free’ among the techno-enthusiasts. He argues that a lot of online material is parasitic on material originated by old media organisations, which are decreasingly able to finance its creation. And that open source projects such as Wikipedia and Linux are not as good as they’re made out to be, and indeed inferior to something that could be produced commercially – although their existence now makes that impossible. These points both have some validity. Certainly, there are important public goods aspects to creative and high quality online content, and it is likely to be under-supplied without a serious effort to populate the ‘digital public space‘. But there are countervailing arguments, of course, not least the bone-headedness of thinking ever-longer extensions to copyright terms will somehow bring the law out of its current disrepute. For me, You Are Not A Gadget is weakened by omitting all the economic arguments, but then I would say that.

The best bit is Lanier’s description of the experience of immersive virtual reality being like becoming an octopus. He explains the way that the mind can find ways to manipulate extra limbs (tentacles?) inside the virtual reality, and experiences the virtual world as real. It sounds an extraordinary experience, and I hope it becomes widely available. Trouble is, all the Lolcat-lovers will want to use it too.

[amazon_image id=”B004OBIZFI” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]YOU ARE NOT A GADGET: A MANIFESTO BY Lanier, Jaron(Author)PaperbackFeb-08-2011[/amazon_image]