Jaron Lanier among the 100 most influential people according to Time

Jaron Laniertoo is an old acquaintance of Meet the Media Guru. The first meeting with this brilliant composer, performer, scientist, philosopher, in fact, dates back to 1990, when Jaron – at that time the visionary paladin of Virtual Reality – participated in the first conference on Virtual Worlds in Italy , in Venice, together with a handful of other brilliant visionaries (Derrick de Kerckhove, William Gibson, Timothy Leary, Scott Fisher and others).

Today Jaron, as we all know, got back under the spotlight at the beginning of this year thanks to his latest, controversial book You’re not a Gadget– and also garnered the appreciation of Time, which ranks it as one of 100 people able to leave a strong mark in 2010.

His book – translated in Italy by Mondadori in the Strade Blu seriesand published last September – has lit the fire of debate. We are sure that the echo of his concerns about the “dangerous turn” the web 2.0 is taking and the barbarization of the network is destined to last very long.

We invite everyone to read very carefullyYou’re not a Gadget . You may not always agree with his ideas, but Jaron Lanier is certainly not a Luddite and neither is he a misoneist. His perplexities are not the angry rant of an opinion leader riding the wave of fear and discontent but rather the result of deep and grounded reflections. By reading this book you will have the feeling that You are not a Gadget will take, in the near future, the status of an inalienable cultural point of reference. The debate is certainly open.