#jaronlanier — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #jaronlanier, aggregated by home.social.
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt Goes To Washington DC, Gets Section 230 Completely Backwards
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Speaking of SillyCon Valley influencers being wrong about things, here's another one from the 'takes that didn't age well' files, quoted in @CodingHorror's blog post;
"... please know I’m not anti–open source. I frequently argue for it in various specific projects. But a politically correct dogma holds that open source is automatically the best path to creativity and innovation, and that claim is not borne out by the facts."
#JaronLanier, 2007
Where do I start?
(4/?)
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Daniel Kwan and VR Pioneer Jaron Lanier to Discuss Storytelling Versus Algorithm at Studio B Salon
#Lifestyle #LifestyleNews #DanielKwan #JaronLanier -
I just finished Jaron Lanier’s "Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now". Despite being published several years ago, its critique of social media’s structural harms remains disturbingly relevant. Highly recommended for anyone reflecting critically on the role of digital platforms in shaping today's and tomorrow's societies.
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Natasha Lyonne Set to Make Feature Directorial Debut With AI Film — With Help From Jaron Lanier (Exclusive)
#MovieNews #Movies #Ai #Independentfilm #JaronLanier #NatashaLyonne #Technology #VR -
Tech pioneer #JaronLanier argues for a different way to think about #ai One thing I worry about is AI accelerating a trend that digital tech in general — and #socialmedia in particular — has already started, which is to pull us away from the physical world and encourage us to constantly perform versions of ourselves in the virtual world (#avatars). We need a business model for #civilization that isn’t self-destructive.
#future #vr #humanity #reality #bigtech
https://www.vox.com/the-gray-area/407154/jaron-lanier-ai-religion-progress-criticism -
@jaureguiberry https://www.linkedin.com/posts/icalzada_there-has-to-be-some-way-that-the-fate-activity-7308272629738532867-OQCs?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAIB35gBlNNDJV_Dx8kyg-7YJPvfKhjOw0M #SocialMedia #Fediverse #X #Mastodon #BlueSky #JaronLanier #HanHemen #EuskalDiaspora #BasqueDiaspora
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Why I have finally quit Facebook (it’s not just about fact-checking) | Zoe Williams https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/14/why-i-have-finally-quit-facebook-its-not-just-about-fact-checking #Socialnetworking #MarkZuckerberg #JaronLanier #Technology #Facebook #Internet #Media #Meta #X
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Who are my Jaron Lanier fans? Anyone else read his books?
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From the Attention Economy to the Addiction Economy
Editor’s note: this post was originally published on February 22, 2024. It has been updated and refreshed.
Food Barker: “Right here, boys! Right here. Get your cake, pie, dill pickles and ice cream. Eat all you can. Be a glutton. Stuff yourselves. It’s all free, boys, it’s all free. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!”
Tobacco Row Barker: “Tobacco Row, Tobacco Row. Get your cigars, cigarettes, and chewin’ tobacco. Come in and smoke your heads off! There’s nobody here to stop you!”
Model Home Barker: “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry! See the model home. It’s open for destruction and it’s all yours, boys, it’s all yours!”
In an iconic segment from Disney’s Pinocchio (1940) – the animated film based on Carlo Collodi‘s book – the villainous Coachman lures young rebellious boys to Pleasure Island. There, they are free to eat all the sweets they want, drink beer, smoke cigars (!!!) and destroy everything in their sight. The cursed island eventually turns these mischievous boys into donkeys… that are then sold to the circus or to salt mines to do labor.
As soon as Pinocchio’s “conscience” Jiminy Cricket surveils the scene, he grows alarmed: “Pinocchio? Pinocchio! There’s something phony about all this. I gotta get him outta here!”
In Italian culture when you call someone a donkey (“asino”) it means the person in question is ignorant, foolish and irresponsible.
I think Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island may be an apt metaphor for the current state of the internet – with Big Tech exploiting human weaknesses and our penchant for pleasure and distraction to turn us all into donkeys.
From the “attention economy” to the “addiction economy”
For over two decades we have heard about the “Attention Economy”… what a rare commodity our attention is and how it’s being exploited and manipulated by platforms and devices – by design – to expose us to ads, make us click and buy things.
Wired magazine first talked about the attention economy in the article “Attention Shoppers!” that ran in December 1997. Its subheader read: “The currency of the New Economy won’t be money, but attention.”
For over twenty years, tech platforms’ engineers have been working in tandem with psychologists to optimize workflows and users’ behaviors, keeping eyeballs on screens for as long as possible.
In his thought-provoking book Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now computer scientist Jaron Lanier wrote:
Now everyone who is on social media is getting individualized, continuously adjusted stimuli, without a break, so long as they use their smartphones. What might once have been called advertising must now be understood as continuous behavior modification on a titanic scale.
Earlier in the week I came across an essay by Ted Gioia that brilliantly describes the state of the internet and our culture in this brave new online world.
A passage that stood out to me and has been haunting me ever since reading it:
The tech platforms aren’t like the Medici in Florence, or those other rich patrons of the arts. They don’t want to find the next Michelangelo or Mozart. They want to create a world of junkies—because they will be the dealers. Addiction is the goal. They don’t say it openly, but they don’t need to. Just look at what they do. Everything is designed to lock users into an addictive cycle.
Summarizing Gioia’s superb essay feels criminal. You need to read it for yourselves from start to finish. Here it is: “The State of the Culture, 2024″.
And if you have an extra ten minutes, you can’t miss this essay by Gurwinder: “TikTok is a Time Bomb (The ultimate weapon of mass distraction)”.
A ray of light
As bleak as these views may seem, there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel: another way of being, of thinking, and of spending time.
I’d love to share with you a new habit I have formed that is rewiring my brain to spend more time reading long articles over bite-sized social media or Reddit posts.
Inspired by an essay by Justin Hanagan – A Well Curated RSS Feed Reader is a Wonderful Substitute for Social Media – I added all the newsletters and blogs I read to an RSS feed reader (Feedly in my case). This way, I can find writings by all my favorite authors in one place, without having to scour the “newsletter” tab of my email account.
As Hanagan wrote:
A well-curated RSS reader can scratch that same ‘Just show me something interesting’ itch, minus most of the addictive and emotionally triggering content that literally fuels the big social media sites. It also can be an important stepping stone to spending less time online overall.
The RSS feed is a world of its own – it feels like a boxed experience, with no temptations to click on something else and get sucked into a time consuming rabbit hole. It’s an experience in line with my values, as it gives me the impression of learning things, thinking deeply, as I am engrossed in long articles by my favorite writers. Social media posts by comparison – as witty as they may be – suddenly feel like junk food, lacking any nourishment. The feeling is perfectly encapsulated by this illustration by Justin Hanagan’s Stay Grounded:
Just like in Disney’s Pinocchio, I feel like I may have successfully escaped from Pleasure Island just in time.
And now whenever I feel tempted to scroll through Reddit or check social media for more than 10 minutes, I think of Pinocchio’s donkeys. And that immediately suppresses any desire for distraction and escapism.
As always, thanks for being here.
Elena
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#addictionEconomy #attentionEconomy #Feedly #JaronLanier #JustinHanagan #Pinocchio #RSSFeeds #socialMedia #StayGrounded #TedGioia #TikTok
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Estava conversando com alunos que trabalham em áreas afins às questões de saúde, sobre como hoje em dia as pessoas aderem ingenuamente às gramáticas das redes sociais e isso também diz respeito ao tipo de clientes que eles encontram, com questões de saúde física e mental relativas a ansiedade, aparência, distorções de autoimagem, de relacionamento com os outros, de autoestima e aceitação, tudo devido às políticas de engajamento.
No que me responderam que a injunção ao engajamento é coisa que eles recebem como positivo até em outras matérias.
Ficou aquele ar de que eu estaria contradizendo outras pessoas, e mais ainda, remando contra a maré. Mas a questão é sempre mais profunda, e diz respeito às pessoas não serem simplesmente levadas como dejetos no curso da vida, mas terem a chance de tomar conhecimento, estudar, saber a respeito desse decurso, para terem a chance de mudá-lo.
Pois as #redessociais, as #BigTechs de #BigData, não são uma fatalidade, e sim empreendimentos muito bem localizados e desenvolvendo certas estratégias, especialmente focadas no governo da conduta das pessoas.
Pessoas como #Thoreau, #Gandhi, #LutherKing, #JaronLanier e tantos outros já o disseram.
Tomo o exemplo de Thoreau, durante a escravidão nos EUA: se um único proprietário de escravos liberta os seus, isso concorre para que os EUA inteiros sejam livres. Se um só de nós nos libertamos dessa injunção ao engajamento, isso concorre para que todos o sejam.
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Room
Giving yourself the time and sapce to think and feel is crucial to your existence. Personhood requires encapsulation. You have to find a way to be yourself before you can share yourself.
slip:4a1434.
#InspirationalQuotesBookSelected_ #JaronLanier #Quotes #SocialNetworks
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"... an individual best achieves optimal stupidity on those rare occasions when one is both given substantial powers and insulated from the results of his or her actions."
#JaronLanier, 2006
https://www.edge.org/conversation/digital-maoism-the-hazards-of-the-new-online-collectivism
Melon Husk is an excellent example of this, but so are most if not all billionaires.
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"The beauty of the Internet is that it connects people. The value is in the other people. If we start to believe the Internet itself is an entity that has something to say, we're devaluing those people and making ourselves into idiots."
#JaronLanier, 2006
https://www.edge.org/conversation/digital-maoism-the-hazards-of-the-new-online-collectivism
This!
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"[There's] a parallel between my discomfort with so-called 'Artificial Intelligence' and the race to erase personality and be most Meta. In each case, there's a presumption that something like a distinct kin to individual human intelligence is either about to appear any minute, or has already appeared. The problem with that presumption is that people are all too willing to lower standards in order to make the purported newcomer appear smart."
#JaronLanier, 2006
https://www.edge.org/conversation/digital-maoism-the-hazards-of-the-new-online-collectivism
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The equivalent of a paraphrased #JaronLanier line of thinking, “the future belongs to those who own the servers" would be “the battlefield belongs to those with weapons of mass #disinformation.”
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No phones inside, so this will have to suffice. #johnzorn #LaurieAnderson #BillFrisell #jaronlanier #davelombardo #slayer #livemusic #sfba
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What if the fears of artificial intelligence are unfounded? Is AI nothing more than a “mashup” of everything available online? And is there zero possibility ...
Jaron Lanier: Artificial intelligence is not a threat to humans | The Bottom Line -
"Holding an oud is a little like holding a baby. While cradling an infant, I feel pretensions drop away: here is the only future we truly have—a sacred moment. Playing the oud, I am exposed. The instrument is confessional to me." —Jaron Lanier for The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/what-my-musical-instruments-have-taught-me
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I wonder what #jaronlanier thinks about the Apple Vision Pro?
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Alguém ainda precisará fazer a história de como a pandemia multiplicou o alcance e o "poder" das Big Techs.
Hoje é uma questão e tanto, ver gente que criou canal no Youtube e fincou pé no twitter e no facebook reclamar da força das #BigTechs.
Mas não há uma coisa sem outra: elas cresceram com cada ação ali depositada por nós; nós é que alimentamos o monstro que não para de crescer.
Remédio? #JaronLanier já o dizia: esvaziar essas redes!
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Jaron Lanier on the potential to manage A.I. thoughtfully, for @NewYorker "A positive spin on A.I. is that it might spell the end of this torture, if we use it well. We can now imagine a Web site that reformulates itself on the fly for someone who is color-blind, say, or a site that tailors itself to someone’s particular cognitive abilities and styles."
https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/there-is-no-ai
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📬 Mit ChatGPT Geld verdienen: Warum KI uns bezahlen sollte
#KünstlicheIntelligenz #ChatGPT #Datenschutz #Datenwürde #Geldverdienen #Grundeinkommen #JaronLanier #OpenAI #Wertschöpfung https://tarnkappe.info/artikel/kuenstliche-intelligenz/mit-chatgpt-geld-verdienen-warum-ki-uns-bezahlen-sollte-273366.html -
“This idea of surpassing human ability is silly because it’s made of human abilities.” He says comparing ourselves with AI is the equivalent of comparing ourselves with a car. “It’s like saying a car can go faster than a human runner. Of course it can, and yet we don’t say that the car has become a better runner.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/23/tech-guru-jaron-lanier-the-danger-isnt-that-ai-destroys-us-its-that-it-drives-us-insane #ChatGPT #aiart #humanity #jaronlanier
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“From my perspective,” Jaron Lanier says, “the danger isn’t that a new alien entity will speak through our technology and take over and destroy us. To me the danger is that we’ll use our technology to become mutually unintelligible or to become insane if you like, in a way that we aren’t acting with enough understanding and self-interest to survive, and we die through insanity, essentially.”
#JaronLanier #ai #socialmedia #consciousness #virtualreality #human #privacy
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/23/tech-guru-jaron-lanier-the-danger-isnt-that-ai-destroys-us-its-that-it-drives-us-insane -
"A recent report from the #Stanford University School of Medicine documents 124 distinct [#COVID19] interventions that #Taiwan implemented with remarkable speed. Many of these interventions bubbled into the public sector through community initiatives, #hackathons, and digital deliberation on the #vTaiwan digital democracy platform, on which almost half the country’s population participates."
- #JaronLanier and #eGlenWeyl
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2020-03-20/how-civic-technology-can-help-stop-pandemic