Name: Dawn of the new everything
ISBN: 9781250097408

Dawn of the new everything

Named one of the best books of 2017 by The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, & Vox The father of virtual reality explains its dazzling possibilities by reflecting on his own lifelong relationship with technology Bridging the gap between tech mania and the experience of being inside the human body, Dawn of the New Everything is a look at what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility. Through a fascinating look back over his life in technology, Jaron Lanier, an interdisciplinary scientist and father of the term “virtual reality,” exposes VR’s ability to illuminate and amplify our understanding of our species, and gives readers a new perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world. An inventive blend of autobiography, science writing, philosophy and advice, this book tells the wild story of his personal and professional life as a scientist, from his childhood in the UFO territory of New Mexico, to the loss of his mother, the founding of the first start-up, and finally becoming a world-renowned technological guru. Understanding virtual reality as being both a scientific and cultural adventure, Lanier demonstrates it to be a humanistic setting for technology. While his previous books offered a more critical view of social media and other manifestations of technology, in this book he argues that virtual reality can actually make our lives richer and fuller.

What Hacker News says

pramseyAug 2023

Both genius. Other readable computers books from an earlier time, that still resonate.

- Soul of a new Machine, Tracy Kidder - Dawn of the New Everything, Jaron Lanier

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moron4hireJan 2023

I keep confusing this book with "The Dawn of The New Everything" by Jaron Lanier. When people started to talk about it on Twitter, I got excited that Lanier's excellent book was having a mini resurgence. Made for an awkward argument with a friend because we had vastly different opinions on the quality of "this" book, until I admitted "maybe I'm just a Lanier fan", to which he replied "who's Lanier?"

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roughlyNov 2022

Lanier’s books are very, very good - he’s a genuinely novel thinker with a deeply humanistic perspective on technology. I highly recommend “You are not a gadget” and “Who owns the future?”, and “Dawn of the new Everything” will get you genuinely excited about VR.

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gdubsJun 2022

You might like “The Dawn of The New Everything” by Jaron Lanier.

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dhrAug 2021

I'm not sure how much this is a tech book, but Dawn of the New Everything by Jaron Lanier is great.

Jaron is a pioneer from the early days of VR (he started/helped start VPL Research Labs). The book is a combination memoir and thoughts on what VR is and isn't. It opened my mind as to what is possible with VR but also the dangers it poses.

Regarding the tech side, it did get me interested more in the math of computer graphics, so if anything, I would call it a gateway tech book :)

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Cybotron5000Jul 2021

I would recommend anyone interested in this topic read ‘Dawn of the New Everything’ by Jaron Lanier, which is really quite honest about both the positives and negatives of VR. Having only recently had a chance to try it out, I feel like it’s really just another medium (a rather intense and currently flawed one I find), like other interactive media, with potential for expression, utility, unique communication and imagination, but also for disconnection from reality/escapism, addiction, dystopia, tracking, control etc. A lot of pronouncements in this article and the Wired one feel as overblown and one-sided as the hype is on the other side of the fence… There are perfectly good use cases for VR/AR whereby we could save on travel/pollution by telepresence collaboration, help people with eg. disabilities, perform remote work in hostile environments, offer therapeutic treatments, experiment with identity etc. or just as another form of daft escapism or art (and a potentially more active one than some at that). Nothing stops people from using it for short periods and then enjoying rich and fulfilling real lives, in the same way that you’ve got couch potatoes vs. people who just enjoy the escapism of occasionally watching a couple of tv shows/playing games etc. …I do find FB’s closed/sign-in etc. subsidised uber-tracking thang is worrying though…

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