A Plurality Atlas

Who is Jaron Lanier?

A computer scientist and writer who pioneered the field of "virtual reality" (VR) in the 1980s. He advocates "data dignity", linking data to the people who made it and sometimes paying them, and has co-written a series of pieces with Glen Weyl. The book *Plurality* treats him as one of its forerunners.

Free online services take our data in return. Who made that data, and shouldn't they receive something? This question was raised early on by this person, known as a pioneer of VR (virtual reality).

In short

Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist and writer who pioneered the field of "virtual reality" in the 1980s [1]. The data we hand over online in exchange for free services has makers too. Lanier argues that data should be linked to the people who made it, and in some cases they should be paid. This is "data dignity" [2].

Connection to Plurality

An endorser. He is among those who endorsed the book. His titles are given as inventor of Virtual Reality, author of Who Owns the Future? and other books, and a scientist in Microsoft's Office of the Chief Technology Officer [3]. A footnote in chapter 6-1 of the book notes that Glen Weyl's title at Microsoft paralleled "the title of his colleague Jaron Lanier" [4].

One who walked the "lost dao". Chapter 3-3 of the book, "The Lost Dao", describes Lanier as "a student and critic of AI pioneer Marvin Minsky" who "sought to develop a technological program of the same ambition as AI, but centered around human experience and communication". It also writes that through his research and entrepreneurship during the 1980s, this developed into the field of "virtual reality" [1].

According to the same chapter, Lanier carried forward the computer pioneer Ted Nelson's critique of the internet: the lack of base layer protocols supporting payments, secure data sharing and provenance (tracing where data came from). The book says that this advocacy, combined with the emergence of Bitcoin, inspired a wave of work in web3 communities [1].

The coiner of a term. Chapter 5-1 of the book presents "post-symbolic communication" as "a term coined by Jaron Lanier" [5].

Collaboration with Weyl. With Weyl, he wrote "A Blueprint for a Better Digital Society" (HBR) in 2018, and in 2020 "AI is an Ideology, Not a Technology" (WIRED) and a piece in Foreign Affairs on Taiwan's COVID-19 response [6][7][8].

Main ideas

Data dignity. Instead of today's system of trading data for free services, the idea is to link digital things to the people who made them, and in some cases pay them. Lanier himself writes that this has also been called "data as labor" and "plurality research" [2]. In the HBR piece with Weyl, they proposed organizations that negotiate the terms for data collectively on behalf of individuals [6]. → Data dignity

There is no AI. In a 2023 piece for The New Yorker, he argued that today's AI should be seen not as an independent intelligence but as a new form of cooperation among people [2]. Reading it alongside the book's chapter on generative foundation models shows both how close the ideas are and where they differ.

Sharing experience beyond symbols. This is the direction of sharing experience beyond symbols such as words and pictures, including the feel of touch and bodily sensation. The book takes this up in chapters 5-1 and 5-2, and also cites VR research that Lanier co-wrote [5][9]. → Immersive shared reality

A critique of worshipping the crowd. In his 2006 essay "Digital Maoism", Lanier criticized the trend of revering nameless collectives [10]. It is a position that does not praise "collective intelligence" unconditionally.

Further reading

  1. TED2018, "How we need to remake the internet" (English, talk) — https://www.ted.com/talks/jaron_lanier_how_we_need_to_remake_the_internet
  2. The New Yorker, "There Is No A.I." (English, essay, 2023-04-20) — https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/there-is-no-ai
  3. Plurality, 3-3 "The Lost Dao" (English, book) — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-3/eng/
  4. Lanier and Weyl, "A Blueprint for a Better Digital Society" (English, article, HBR 2018) — https://hbr.org/2018/09/a-blueprint-for-a-better-digital-society
  5. Edge, "Digital Maoism" (English, essay, 2006) — https://www.edge.org/conversation/jaron_lanier-digital-maoism-the-hazards-of-the-new-online-collectivism

Sources

  1. Plurality, 3-3 "The Lost Dao" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-3/eng/ ［CC0］
  2. Jaron Lanier, "There Is No A.I." (The New Yorker, 2023-04-20) — https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/there-is-no-ai
  3. Plurality, endorsements — https://www.plurality.net/
  4. Plurality, footnote in 6-1 "Workplace" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/6-1/eng/ ［CC0］
  5. Plurality, 5-1 "Post-Symbolic Communication" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-1/eng/ ［CC0］
  6. Lanier and Weyl, "A Blueprint for a Better Digital Society" (HBR, 2018) — https://hbr.org/2018/09/a-blueprint-for-a-better-digital-society
  7. Lanier and Weyl, "AI is an Ideology, Not a Technology" (WIRED, 2020) — https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-ai-is-an-ideology-not-a-technology/
  8. Lanier and Weyl, "How Civic Technology Can Help Stop a Pandemic" (Foreign Affairs, 2020-03-20) — https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2020-03-20/how-civic-technology-can-help-stop-pandemic
  9. Plurality, footnote in 5-2 "Immersive Shared Reality" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-2/eng/ ［CC0］
  10. Jaron Lanier, "Digital Maoism" (Edge, 2006) — https://www.edge.org/conversation/jaron_lanier-digital-maoism-the-hazards-of-the-new-online-collectivism
Related: What is data dignity? ・ What is Post-Symbolic Communication? ・ What is Immersive Shared Reality (ISR)? ・ What is The Lost Dao? ・ Who is E. Glen Weyl? ・ What are generative foundation models (GFMs)?

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