Rate this book

You Are Not A Gadget (2010)

by Jaron Lanier(Favorite Author)

3.47 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0307269647 (ISBN13: 9780307269645)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Alfred A. Knopf

review 1: I really was not a fan of this book, for reasons regarding both structure and content.Structure is the simpler objection, so we'll start there. It is essentially formatted like a very long blog. Lanier writes in a sort of non-linear stream of consciousness style. There are a lot of tangents, and it feels like he is just scribbling thoughts down as they occur to him. As such, it can be a bit tricky to read.Looking past that at the actual text, I am still nonplussed. Part of the problem for me is the obvious contempt Lanier has for my generation. He has a tendency to generalize us, and he seems to be under the impression that because of our choices regarding our use of technology we are loosing our personhood. Ouch.I grant that he is clearly very knowledgeable about technolo... moregy and the rise of the internet. His personal network contains a lot of big names (which he is happy to drop as often as it takes to make sure you notice). Many of his points are valuable. For instance, I think the concept of 'lock-in' is very valuable to understand.Even so, I could not love this book. I think Lanier likes to be radical for the sake of being radical alone, and it bothers me that he cannot seem to appreciate people who have different value systems than his own.
review 2: The author is a serious techie (at least he says so) and he doesn't like some of the stuff he's seeing on the Internet and in computing. I'm not sure how much I agree with him and I didn't see much in the way of solutions for the problems he points out in the book (but I might have missed things). I'm also not sure that the Internet is the cause of some of the things he blames on it. For example, the mid-list authors and musicians have been endangered species for longer than the Internet has been around. The point about design choices locking things in is good, but I don't see a remedy. Worth reading. less

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