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Jaron Lanier on the Semi-Closed Internet

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-quite-as-gory-as-i-was-hoping dept.

Will Wilkinson writes "Jaron Lanier's recent essay, The Gory Antigora: Illusions of Capitalism and Computers, kicks off a discussion of 'Internet Liberation: Alive or Dead?' at the Cato Institute's new blogazine, Cato Unbound. In Lanier's essay today, find out how the 'brittleness' of software has kept the Internet from realizing its potential as 'a cross between Adam Smith and Albert Einstein; the Invisible Hand accelerating toward the speed of light.' Also, find out why, upon meeting Richard Stallman, Lanier's reaction was: 'An open version of UNIX! Yuk!'"

4 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bunk. by Number6.2 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Hello, this is the fricking CATO INSTITUTE. Their real problem with the Internet is the fact that you don't get charged for every minute you loiter at a website and every KB you download from same.

    As far as I'm concerned, they're about as pro Adam Smith as Stalin was pro Marx ("pro" only as far as being able to pronounce the word, and sure that saying it will get them what they want).

    (start tongue in cheek mode) and another thing: there's too much free speach on the Internet. I hear even Al-Jezeera is on it. It can't be good. Why does the Internet hate America? (end tongue in cheek mode)

    --
    "If god did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him" --Voltaire
  2. Jaron's Title by pHatidic · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Gory Antigora

    For those who don't know, this is what is known as a Chiasmus. That is, a sound pattern of ABBA. Other famous examples include, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" and "Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you."

    The reason I point this out is that of all the literary devices, the Chiasmus is probably both the coolest and also the most difficult to come up with. So props to Jaron for this one.

  3. They can't usually rent non-console games legally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Copyright law prohibits the rental of software, generally speaking, unless the software is specifically for video game machines (i.e. not for a general-purpose computer) or cannot be odinarily copied (e.g. a hardwarre game cartridge). See 17 USC 109(b). (This section was originally written to stop "record rental", but was later expanded to software.)

    Nonprofit lending by libraries, however, is exempted from this prohibition.

  4. Re:Self promotion as the major accomplishment by Animats · · Score: 2, Informative
    Jaron Lanier does have something of a cult image, but he once did real technical work. He did build the first immersive virtual reality system with a head-mounted display and input gloves. I tried it, back in the mid-80s, and met Jaron. The system took two SGI machines to drive it, and the lag was terrible. No collision detection. You couldn't do much more than look around. But it did work.

    Eventually the lag and cost problems were solved. But that wasn't the real problem. Friends of mine at Autodesk tried to do a 3D CAD system in virtual reality. Real work in a gloves-and-goggles environment turned out to be painful, and much slower than keyboard-and-mouse. Remember those Hollywood movies about VR, where people are making gestures and reaching for things? It can be, and has been, implemented, but it's hell to use. VR is good for moving and shooting. That's about it.

    Eventually Jaron's company, VPL, tanked, because there weren't any useful applications for gloves-and-goggles VR.