Dawn of the New Everything (2017) by Jaron Lanier

 



Dawn of the New Everything (2017) by Jaron Lanier


This is a book about the development, and the ideologies behind, Virtual Reality. It’s also largely the story of the author’s own life, as Lanier was arguably VR’s pioneer in the 80s and 90s.


And Lanier’s life is fascinating - as are his viewpoints on technology in general. He strikes me as a genius - and I mean that in the objective “prodigy of arts and academics” sense. But unlike most people in that category, he has a refreshing and inviting self-awareness that he brings to his creative and computer-science pursuits (which can’t be fully separated from one another). Granted, he vocalizes his cynicism toward the state of technology today, and not without warrant, but Lanier also seems to have sustained a certain childlike wonder about the world’s potential that has never left his viewpoint.


The ideological angle he presents about VR is probably the most fascinating aspect of this book. I’d never previously considered VR as more than a gimmick for rhythm games or 360-degree music videos, but Lanier sees it as so much more. Even beyond its current positive and useful applications in fields like surgical training, Lanier envisions VR as a road to “postsymbolic communication” - a novel means of expression more imaginative and emotionally responsive than language or traditional media. He optimistically views this potential for VR as a way to create more empathy between people in the future, and to give humanity greater personal depth and understanding of each other. In this vein, Lanier’s philosophy in computer science as a whole is to build for people, not computers themselves - since we’re the ones who bestow any meaning whatsoever on all the 1s and 0s processed by these otherwise cultureless machines.


Although I’m not personally interested in using VR myself, I’m always fascinated by the potentials of technology and how they’re likely to affect society. Unfortunately, Lanier comments on the negatives of such affects as they relate to our social media landscape today. And even though his thoughts in this arena often get too political for me, I’m interested in reading his other books on how we affect the tech we use, and how the tech we use affects us back. It’s a scary era we live in, under the shadow of corporate algorithms, AI, and the like - but I’m glad to know technology can always be a force for good, if a positive ideology behind it’s development can place value in the people the technology is for, and not the other way around.

 

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  1. UnknownJune 3, 2025 at 12:03 PM

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