( Named one of the best books of 2017 by The Economist, T...)
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 VRs 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.
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Jaron Zepel Lanier was born in 1961 in New York City, United States. Lanier grew up in a geodesic dome home in New Mexico surrounded by his twin loves, mathematics and music. He was the son of a science-writer father and a concert pianist mother (who died when Lanier was nine).
He had dropped out of high school, was nevertheless allowed to attend college courses at age 14. Lanier told Hamilton that from that early age he was "consumed by math's beauty, " while at the same time he studied several musical instruments.
Drawn to computers, Lanier moved to California in 1980 and found work designing video games, "earning a reputation as a prodigious hacker, " as Time reporter Philip Elmer-Dewitt described. As a programmer in demand, Lanier eventually acquired the capital to form his own company, VPL Research Inc. , in 1984.
At that time, the technologies involved in virtual reality were already in place and in use; but, as Hamilton went on to say, the software was hugely expensive and restricted to specific applications, such as flight simulators. Lanier's contribution was to develop virtual-reality (or "VR") software to run relatively inexpensive systems-sets of computers, gloves, and goggles that commercial users could tailor to any application they liked. Lanier's notion of VR for the masses was accepted quickly. Now, any ordinary person could strap on a special helmet, don a power glove, and travel through space and time under the influence of computer-generated environments that added a new dimension to 3-D.
More practical uses for VR soon came into focus. In 1992, Lanier lost control of his company, VPL Research Inc. , to French technology giant Thomson-CSF. Once a friendly partner, Thomson turned into an angry creditor. And after VPL was unable to retire the French company's loans, Thomson seized all of VPL's patents and intellectual property, leaving Lanier flapping in the wind.
Lanier left VPL and embarked on a number of new projects. According to the June 20, 1994, Computerworld, Lanier has been active in the field of virtual surgery, doing individual research as well as serving as chief scientist for New Leaf Systems and co-chair at Medical Media Systems. He has taught classes at New York University's film school and done a stint as a visiting scholar at Columbia. The multi-talented designer even released a CD of original musical compositions called Instruments of Change. Lanier's interest in music befits his image, according to Hamilton.
He was a pioneer in the field of virtual reality. Together with Thomas G. Zimmerman he founded VPL Research, Inc. , the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves. Lanier was the Chief Scientist of Advanced Network and Services, which contained the Engineering Office of Internet2, and served as the Lead Scientist of the 'National Tele-immersion Initiative', a coalition of research universities studying advanced applications for Internet2.
He received IEEE Virtual Reality Career Award in 2009. He was named one of TIME's 100 most influential people in 2010. He was awarded the Goldsmith Book Prize for best trade book in 2014.
( Named one of the best books of 2017 by The Economist, T...)
Quotations: As Lanier told Time: "The internal experience of reality is much more a product of your central nervous system than of the actual external world. That's why virtual reality works. Provide enough visual clues [on the screen], and millions of years of evolution will kick into gear. "
He was a founding member of the International Institute for Evolution and the Brain.
