{"product_id":"you-are-not-a-gadget-a-manifesto-1","title":"You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto","description":"Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, written more than two decades after the web was created, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse.\n\nThe current design and function of the web have become so familiar that it is easy to forget that they grew out of programming decisions made decades ago. The web’s first designers made crucial choices (such as making one’s presence anonymous) that have had enormous—and often unintended—consequences. What’s more, these designs quickly became “locked in,” a permanent part of the web’s very structure.\n\nLanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals.\n\nLanier also shows:\nHow 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse\nHow file sharing is killing the artistic middle class;\nHow a belief in a technological “rapture” motivates some of the most influential technologists\nWhy a new humanistic technology is necessary.\n\nControversial and fascinating, You Are Not a Gadget is a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 0307269647\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: BVV.0307269647.A\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Acceptable\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Lanier, Jaron\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: The item is very worn but is perfectly usable. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn and creased covers, folded page corners and minor liquid stains. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Page edges may have foxing  age related spots and browning . May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Blue Vase Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42993293525053,"sku":"BVV.0307269647.A","price":5.89,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0589\/4225\/9261\/files\/0307269647-0.jpg?v=1771104489","url":"https:\/\/www.bluevasebooks.com\/products\/you-are-not-a-gadget-a-manifesto-1","provider":"Blue Vase Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}