9/19/11
'You Are Not A Gadget' Author Jaron Lanier To Speak At SLU
CANTON - A presentation called "You Are Not a Gadget: An Evening With Jaron Lanier" will take place on Tuesday, September 27, at 7 p.m. in Eben Holden at St. Lawrence University. The event, part of the Contemporary Issues Forum, is open to the public, free of charge and will be followed by a book signing of Lanier's 2010 volume You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto.
Lanier was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. In his book, he offers a provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse. Lanier will discuss the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter are elevating the "wisdom" of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals.
He will also show how 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse; how file-sharing is killing the artistic middle class; how a belief in a technological "rapture" motivates some of the most influential technologists; and why a new humanistic technology is necessary.
More: Contemporary Issues Forum website
