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Reading lists

Books to help you cut down on screen time

A Journey Through Virtual Reality

Dawn of the New Everything

‘The father of Virtual Reality … a high-tech genius’ (Sunday Times) explains why virtual reality presents the ultimate test for humanity

A terrific book by a supremely intelligent guy ... vivid and absolutely extraordinary

Essential reading, not just for VR-watchers but for anyone interested in how society came to be how it is, and what it might yet become

A studied and nuanced interrogation of VR’s potential, as well as a gentle critique of what he sees as a failure of imagination when it comes to the medium’s current proponents ... interspersing the general ideas, principles and promise of VR with intimate autobiography ... aided by the fact that Lanier's childhood was preposterously unusual … combin[ing] tragedy, whimsy and peril in ways that might seem far-fetched for even a David Lynch film

Lanier is a visionary who sees a world suffused with the possibility of good ... As with William Blake, you might first be repelled by the strangeness of it all, the sense of teetering on the edge of madness, but, on looking closer, you realise you are in the presence of a gifted truth-teller

Fascinating as life itself … a modern history of the industry that changed the world

Lanier beautifully describes his fascination with VR as the technology that 'highlights the existence of your subjective experience. It proves you are real'

A tech futurist, researcher and writer, he is well placed to act as guide to the world described in Dawn of the New Everything… A lot of the charm of this highly personal account turns on his description of a childhood that reads like something out of a magical realist novel

A deeply human, highly personal and beautifully told story

It's entirely unexpected and disarming to read about these fascinating ideas about technology and the future from such a personal, unabashedly subjective point of view.  Lanier has thoroughly convinced me that Virtual Reality is the beginning of an enormous paradigm shift in the way humans relate and communicate

Jaron Lanier is a philosopher and computer scientist who has spent his career pushing the transformative power of modern technology to its limits. From coining the term 'Virtual Reality' and creating the world's first immersive avatars to developing cutting-edge medical imaging and surgical techniques, Lanier is one of the premier designers and engineers at work today. He is also one of the most celebrated technology writers in the world, whose previous book Who Owns the Future? was named the most important book of 2013 by Joe Nocera in The New York Times and whose first book You Are Not a Gadget was named one of the ten best books of 2010 by Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, one of the 100 top public intellectuals by Foreign Policy, and one of the top 50 World Thinkers by Prospect. He is currently Interdisciplinary Scientist at Microsoft Research and a highly accomplished musician with one of the largest and most varied collections of rare instruments in the world, all of which he plays.

Named a Best Book of the Year by the Economist, Wall Street Journal &amp; Vox 
 
‘The father of virtual reality’ (Sunday Times) explains why virtual reality presents the ultimate test for humanity. 
 
‘Essential reading, not just for VR-watchers but for anyone interested in how society came to be how it is, and what it might yet become’ Economist 
 
Welcome to a mind-expanding, life-enhancing, world-changing adventure. 
 
Virtual reality has long been one of the dominant clichés of science fiction. Now virtual reality is a reality: from the startling beauty of lifelike video games to the place where war veterans overcome PTSD, surgeries are trialled, and aircraft and cities are designed. VR is, in fact now, the most effective device ever invented for researching what a human being actually is – and how we think and feel. 
 
 More than thirty years ago, legendary computer scientist, visionary and artist Jaron Lanier pioneered its invention. Here he blends scientific investigation, philosophical thought experiment and his memoir of a life lived at the centre of digital innovation to explain what VR really is: the science of comprehensive illusion; the extension of the intimate magic of earliest childhood into adulthood; a hint of what life would be like without any limits. 
 
 We are standing on the threshold of an entirely new realm of human creativity, expression, communication and experience, and as we use VR to test our relationship with reality, it may test us in return. 
 
‘Vivid and absolutely extraordinary’ Evening Standard

Who Owns The Future?

Daringly original ... sharp, accessible ... terrifically exciting

Jaron Lanier is a philosopher and computer scientist who has spent his career pushing the transformative power of modern technology to its limits. He is one of the premier designers and engineers at work today, and has been named one of the top one hundred public intellectuals in the world by Prospect and Foreign Policy. His previous book is You Are Not A Gadget.

As you read this, thousands of remote computers are refining secret models of who you are, using the information to make huge fortunes for a few people. Does the future have to be this way? How can we change it? In this visionary book Jaron Lanier imagines an alternative, where economic power is given back to creators. Drawing on sources ranging from ancient philosophy to the latest technology, he proposes a radical system that truly rewards endeavour - whether it's in the media or manufacturing - and ultimately preserves human dignity.

A Manifesto

You Are Not A Gadget

In You are Not a Gadget digital guru and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier reveals how the internet is deadening personal interaction, stifling genuine inventiveness and even changing us as people. 
 
 Something went wrong around the start of the twenty-first century. The crowd was wise. Social networks replaced individual creativity. There were more places to express ourselves than ever before... yet no one really had anything to say. 
 
 Does this have to be our future? 
 
 Showing us the way to a future where individuals mean more than machines, this is a searing manifesto against mass mediocrity, a creative call to arms - and an impassioned defence of the human. 
 
 'A provocative and sure-to-be-controversial book ... Lucid, powerful and persuasive' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The New York Times 
 
 'There is hardly a page that does not contain some fascinating provocation' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Guardian 
 
 'Short and frightening ... from a position of real knowledge and insight' 
 
 Zadie Smith, New York Review of Books 
 
 'Poetic and prophetic, this could be the most important book of the year' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The Times 
 
 Jaron Lanier is a philosopher and computer scientist who has spent his career pushing the transformative power of modern technology to its limits. From coining the term 'Virtual Reality' and creating the world's first immersive avatars to developing cutting-edge medical imaging and surgical techniques, Lanier is one of the premier designers and engineers at work today. 
 
A musician with a collection of over 700 instruments, he has been recognised by Encyclopedia Britannica (but certainly not Wikipedia) as one of history's greatest inventors and named one of the top one hundred public intellectuals in the world by Prospect and Foreign Policy.

Fabulous - I couldn't put it down and shouted out Yes! Yes! on many pages . . . This is a landmark book that will have people talking and arguing for years into the future.

Lucid, powerful and persuasive . . . Necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace

There is hardly a page that does not contain some fascinating provocation

A pioneer in the development of virtual reality and a Silicon Valley veteran, Mr. Lanier is a digital-world insider concerned with the effect that online collectivism and the current enshrinement of "the wisdom of the crowd" is having on artists, intellectual property rights and the larger social and cultural landscape. In taking on such issues, he's written an illuminating book that is as provocative as it is impassioned.

Michiko Kakutani's Top 10 Books of the Year 2010

In the world of technologists, Jaron Lanier is that rare combination: a pioneer and a skeptic. A legendary computer scientist, he did crucial early work in the field of virtual reality (the phrase is his). But he now recoils at the way Web 2.0 and social media sell us short as human beings, both in our relationships and in our sense of who we are. In purposeful, reasoned steps, always informed by a profound understanding of how software really works, he lays out his vision of where it all went wrong and champions the power of the human brain in an age of ever smarter machines.

Time Magazine Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2010

Jaron Lanier is a philosopher and computer scientist who has spent his career pushing the transformative power of modern technology to its limits. From coining the term 'Virtual Reality' and creating the world's first immersive avatars to developing cutting-edge medical imaging and surgical techniques, Lanier is one of the premier designers and engineers at work today. Linked with UC Berkeley and Microsoft, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the IEEE in 2009. 
 
A musician with a collection of over 700 instruments, he has been recognised by Encyclopedia Britannica (but certainly not Wikipedia) as one of history's 300 or sogreatest inventors and named one of the top one hundred public intellectuals in the world by Prospect and Foreign Policy.

Something went wrong around the start of the twenty-first century. The crowd was wise. Social networks replaced individual creativity. There were more places to express ourselves than ever before ... yet no one really had anything to say. Does this have to be our future? 
 
In You are not a Gadget digital guru and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier reveals how recent developments in our culture are deadening personal interaction, stifling genuine inventiveness and even changing us as people. Showing us the way to a future where individuals mean more than machines, this is a searing manifesto against mass mediocrity, a creative call to arms - and an impassioned defence of the human.

Jaron Lanier

One of the most optimistic books about the Internet I've ever read because it dares to hope for better ... A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read

In every chapter there is a principle so elegant, so neat, sometimes even so beautiful, that what is billed as straight polemic becomes something much more profound

Indispensable. Everyone who wants to understand the digital world, its pitfalls and possibilities should read this book – now

A witty and fiercely intelligent attack on the ethics and business model of big tech and a romping read to boot. Lanier is a modern day Luther, calling for a digital reformation and nailing his theses to the door

An eloquence that is hard to argue against … Every time you log on, you are adding to a fire that is burning your house down

Everything is here, from status anxiety, to wage degradation, to the death of context … This is Lanier at his best, taking the language of the internet and turning it back on itself

A short, snappy, impassioned takedown of the surveillance capitalism operated by the giant Silicon Valley corporations

Informed, heartfelt and often entertaining ... a timely reminder that even if we can’t bring ourselves to leave social media altogether, we should always think critically about how it works

Powerful ... Lanier's ten arguments are strong and convincing, and become more so as they accumulate

Ten Arguments is more compelling than the many similar treatises on social media published since 2016 because of Lanier’s intimate knowledge of the private sector

Written in Lanier’s engaging conversational style… [Ten Arguments] hits all ten nails bang on the head

[Lanier’s] argument…is a profound one… I heeded his plea and deleted my account

Incredibly accessible. The conversational tone makes for light reading, yet it’s also a hard-hitting and well-constructed polemic

Jennifer Egan author of A Visit from the Goon Squad

Social media is supposed to bring us together - but it is tearing us apart. 
 
 'A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read' Zadie Smith 
 
The evidence suggests that social media is making us sadder, angrier, less empathetic, more fearful, more isolated and more tribal. 
 
Jaron Lanier is the world-famous Silicon Valley scientist-pioneer who first alerted us to the dangers of social media. In this witty and urgent manifesto he explains why its toxic effects are at the heart of its design, and, in ten simple arguments, why liberating yourself from its hold will transform your life and the world for the better. 
 
 WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 ‘Informed, heartfelt and often entertaining ... a timely reminder that even if we can’t bring ourselves to leave social media altogether, we should always think critically about how it works’ Sunday Times 
 
 ‘Indispensable. Everyone who wants to understand the digital world, its pitfalls and possibilities should read this book – now’ Matthew d’Ancona, author of Post-Truth

Jaron Lanier

Praise for Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

One of the most optimistic books about the Internet I've ever read because it dares to hope for better ... A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read

In every chapter there is a principle so elegant, so neat, sometimes even so beautiful, that what is billed as straight polemic becomes something much more profound

Indispensable. Everyone who wants to understand the digital world, its pitfalls and possibilities should read this book – now

One of the most optimistic books about the Internet I've ever read because it dares to hope for better ... A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read

In every chapter there is a principle so elegant, so neat, sometimes even so beautiful, that what is billed as straight polemic becomes something much more profound

Indispensable. Everyone who wants to understand the digital world, its pitfalls and possibilities should read this book – now

One of the most optimistic books about the Internet I've ever read because it dares to hope for better ... A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read

In every chapter there is a principle so elegant, so neat, sometimes even so beautiful, that what is billed as straight polemic becomes something much more profound

Indispensable. Everyone who wants to understand the digital world, its pitfalls and possibilities should read this book – now

Books by Jaron Lanier

Articles featuring Jaron Lanier

Books to help you cut down on screen time

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