Josh Harris grew up in Ventura, California, majored in communications at University of California San Diego and later was a graduate student at the University of Southern California"s ( University of Southern California) Annenberg School for Communication.
In 1986, he founded the technology consulting firm Jupiter Communications. Harris owned and operated Livingston Orchards, Limited Liability Company, a commercial apple farm in Columbia County, New York from 2001–2006. Harris was the Chief Executive Officer of the African Entertainment Network, based in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia., where he lived after leaving New New York
Harris was the Chief Executive Officer of The Wired City, an internet television network based in New York City Harris is the focus of director Ondi Timoner"s documentary film,, an entry at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
The documentary was awarded the award in the United States documentary category at the festival. Among Harris" experiments featured in the film is the art project "Quiet:," an Orwellian, Big Brother type concept developed in the late "90s which placed more than 100 volunteers in a human terrarium under New York City, with many webcams following and capturing every move they made.
The project was forced to shut down on January 1, 2000 by order of the New York Police Department. On the Swedish television show Kobra, Harris stated that he had been widely influenced by the 1998 movie The Truman Show.
He strongly believes that the technological singularity will be reached and the human being will cease to be an individual, while the machine becomes the new king of the jungle.
A few months later, Harris started weliveinpublic.com, a project that entailed himself and his then girlfriend, Tanya Corrin, living at home under 24-hour internet surveillance viewable by anyone. After a few months Corrin left Harris and the project citing mental and emotional stress. Harris continued "living in public" for a few more weeks, finally ending the site due to the mental, personal, and financial losses the project caused him.
In 2001, an episode of director Errol Morris" First Person television series centered on Harris and the weliveinpublic.com project
In 2011, Harris ran an unsuccessful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to resurrect The Wired City, a streaming television network which would allow viewers to interact with each other.
