Who Owns the Future? Paperback - 2014

The âÈêbrilliantâÈë and âÈêdaringly originalâÈë (The New York Times) critique of digital networks from the âÈêDavid Foster Wallace of techâÈë (London Evening Standard)âÈ'asserting that to fix our economy, we must fix our information economy.

Time and again, computer scientist, musician, and digital visionary Jaron Lanier has predicted the ways in which technology has revolutionized our culture. His âÈêmind-bending, exuberantâÈë writing (The Washington Post) about the online worldâÈçs effect on our lives has shaped national conversations on employment, economics, privacy, culture, and moreâÈ'and the influence of his seminal work on the Internet and in virtual reality reaches from media to medicine to manufacturing.

In Who Owns the Future?, Lanier tells âÈêthe central economic story of our timeâÈë (The New Republic): âÈêhow to help ordinary people survive and prosper at a time when advances in computer technology make it increasingly difficult for some people to find a jobâÈë (USA TODAY). Lanier asserts that the rise of digital networks led our economy into recession and decimated the middle class, and he charts the alternative to allowing technology to own our futureâÈ'a new information economy that will grow the middle class. As Lanier writes, âÈêinformation is just people in disguiseâÈëâÈ'and our digital economy must reward people rather than take advantage of them.

Insightful, original, and provocative, Who Owns the Future? is necessary reading for anyone who lives in our digital world and is vested in what tomorrow will bring.