Jaron Lanier

Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author. He is credited with coining the term “Virtual Reality,” and was a founding contributing editor of Wired. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (but certainly not Wikipedia) includes him in its list of history’s 300 or so greatest inventors.  Below, the author of You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, tells us more about himself.

Q. What is the last habit you tried to kick?

A. My incessant attachment to the Bay Area sense of entitlement and superiority versus Los Angeles. I’m working very hard on losing that. It’s quite difficult.

Q. Who was your childhood hero?

A. That’s a hard one for me. I had a difficult childhood, which would take a while to explain, but the short version is that I grew up in a quite isolated place in the desert. I was very, very close to my mom, who was a concentration camp survivor and died when I was young. I ended up in this space where I wasn’t that aware of the outside world. It took me a long time to climb out, to be aware of things, to have heroes.

Q. What is your idea of the greatest simple pleasure?

A. Noticing that consciousness exists.

Q. What music have you listened to today?

A. I’ve been playing some music today. Not to promote myself, but that is the last music I listened to.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. Each word by itself is meaningless, so there is no way to answer that.

Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?

A. I’m sure everybody says God, right? Any day now everyone will say it.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. Whenever I’ve had sleep.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?

A. I wouldn’t. The question is part of the trend that I oppose with all my being.

Q. If you could take only one more journey where would you go?

A. It would be awfully nice to see another planet with elaborate life.

Q. If you could live in any other time, when would it be?

A. So far as I’m able to understand history, this is the best time there has ever been on every level.

Q. What is your most prized material possession?

A. I have a large collection of unusual instruments, a rare and wonderful material possession.

Q. Who would you want to write your biography?

A. Descartes. That would be funny.

Q. What is the greatest gift you have ever received?

A. My daughter.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?

A. Alan Turing.

To read about Lanier’s talk, click here. To buy his book, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.