Brilliant talk at the RSA tonight – one of those events that give you a payoff you’re not fully expecting, and all the more satisfying because of it. Jaron Lanier – pioneer of Virtual Reality and musician amongst many other things – launched his book of the above title which, in essence, is a manifesto for people over technology, delivered with an unremitting optimism for the potential of the human spirit. His argument goes, and of course I’m paraphrasing, that after a generation of experiment, the evidence shows the web not to have delivered some of the things early evangelists (of which he was one) said it would. For example, the idea that open source would deliver the kind of bountiful return that would make producers (of music, software, literature etc) rich from the seed of their own generosity just hasn’t happened. The evidence, as you know from speaking to any musician trying to make an honest living these days – is that freemium has left many people poorer despite opening up the closed systems that went before.
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