• USA Today has an interview with computer scientist Jaron Lanier, who has written a new book entitled, "Who Owns The Future," in which he suggests that there is an "underlying worldview permeating tech culture that he believes is wrong on both a technical and spiritual level. It's a way of looking at the world, he says, in which the information gathered from people is more valuable than the people themselves."
He says: "If you design machines for the sake of making sort of an ascendant global brain, it's natural enough that all glory goes to the central computer, and people don't get paid for what they contribute to, because you don't value people. And the more you pursue that dream, the less people will be advantaged in that system...and oh, by the way, the people who run those big central brains that are supposed to be autonomous, they are the richest people in the world."
The story says that "from Lanier's perspective, we have a choice. We can either find a way to fairly compensate people for their contributions to computer networks or face a future in which most people are poor, and the only people who have money are the ultra-rich tech barons who run the 'siren server' networks."
He says: "If you design machines for the sake of making sort of an ascendant global brain, it's natural enough that all glory goes to the central computer, and people don't get paid for what they contribute to, because you don't value people. And the more you pursue that dream, the less people will be advantaged in that system...and oh, by the way, the people who run those big central brains that are supposed to be autonomous, they are the richest people in the world."
The story says that "from Lanier's perspective, we have a choice. We can either find a way to fairly compensate people for their contributions to computer networks or face a future in which most people are poor, and the only people who have money are the ultra-rich tech barons who run the 'siren server' networks."
- KC's View:
