You Are Not A Gadget Summary
Human Potential in the World of Digital Technologies
In the excerpts from his work You Are Not a Gadget for the first time, Jaron Lanier seems to be criticizing his colleagues, the developers of digital technologies, for limiting human experiences. However, after reading it more closely, phrases, such as “faith in human nature” and “different potentials in human nature”, begin to stand out in the text. Seeing as the title of his work is also referring to the user of technology in second person, assuring them that they are “not a gadget”, it is safe to assume that Lanier is addressing both the developers and the consumers of modern technologies with his text. But what is he trying to tell them? While his main focus is on how technologies influence and limit humans, we can certainly find his philosophy regarding human nature buried between the lines discussing MIDI …show more content…
“The type of faith I’m criticizing thrives when you can pretend that computers do everything and people do nothing.”(16) This kind of philosophy gives way to theories like Singularity and noosphere. According to Lanier, when you start believing in such future “you might cease to design technology to serve humans, and prepare instead for the grand events it will bring.” Within this philosophy, humans are irrelevant. They are simply the tools that will bring on a better future, dominated by technologies. However, “a computer isn’t even there unless a person experiences it.”(26) And a future without humans is meaningless. To Lanier, human is something much more than what can be put into a program. That’s the main point he tries to articulate in his work. “Being a person is not a pat formula, but a quest, a mystery, a leap of faith.”(5) Therefore, computers could never replace humans. They could never even come close to being as complex as humans
In the excerpts from his work You Are Not a Gadget for the first time, Jaron Lanier seems to be criticizing his colleagues, the developers of digital technologies, for limiting human experiences. However, after reading it more closely, phrases, such as “faith in human nature” and “different potentials in human nature”, begin to stand out in the text. Seeing as the title of his work is also referring to the user of technology in second person, assuring them that they are “not a gadget”, it is safe to assume that Lanier is addressing both the developers and the consumers of modern technologies with his text. But what is he trying to tell them? While his main focus is on how technologies influence and limit humans, we can certainly find his philosophy regarding human nature buried between the lines discussing MIDI …show more content…
“The type of faith I’m criticizing thrives when you can pretend that computers do everything and people do nothing.”(16) This kind of philosophy gives way to theories like Singularity and noosphere. According to Lanier, when you start believing in such future “you might cease to design technology to serve humans, and prepare instead for the grand events it will bring.” Within this philosophy, humans are irrelevant. They are simply the tools that will bring on a better future, dominated by technologies. However, “a computer isn’t even there unless a person experiences it.”(26) And a future without humans is meaningless. To Lanier, human is something much more than what can be put into a program. That’s the main point he tries to articulate in his work. “Being a person is not a pat formula, but a quest, a mystery, a leap of faith.”(5) Therefore, computers could never replace humans. They could never even come close to being as complex as humans