# Who Owns the Future? *By Jaron Lanier. Simon & Schuster (US), 2013.* > I did not read the whole book. The description and contents come from the publisher's description (as repeated on library and retailer pages), a library catalog record and a Perlego contents list. What the book argues comes from those descriptions, a Guardian review, a Salon interview and the Wikipedia article, as linked below. I read page text, not audio or video, and I make no claims about specific passages beyond what those pages quote. The source that mentioned the book, a StarTalk Plus episode note, names it only in a one-line bio of the guest. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Who Owns the Future?* | | Author | Jaron Lanier | | Publisher | Simon & Schuster, New York, May 7, 2013 (US hardcover). UK: Allen Lane, 2013. Later paperbacks: Simon & Schuster 2014; Penguin UK 2014 | | ISBNs | US hardcover 9781451654967 (ISBN-10 1451654960); the publisher page's own listing 9781451654998; Allen Lane 9781846145223 (Open Library; publisher page) | | Pages | 416 (US hardcover per Open Library and the publisher page). Open Library lists xxviii + 411 for the 2014 Simon & Schuster paperback and 359 for Allen Lane | | Language | English. German edition: *Wem gehört die Zukunft?* (2014, per Open Library) | | Audiobook | Unabridged, about 12 hours, read by Pete Simonelli (Simon & Schuster Audio, July 16, 2013) | **Where it came up.** One mention: - [Neil deGrasse Tyson And Jaron Lanier on the AI Illusion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ZKYH8v_do) (StarTalk Plus). My vault note on the episode lists the book in a one-line bio of Lanier, with *You Are Not a Gadget*, *Dawn of the New Everything* and *Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now*. Vault note: [[Video Summaries/StarTalk Plus/Neil deGrasse Tyson And Jaron Lanier on the AI Illusion]]. I did not check whether the episode discusses the book itself. ## 2. Book resources **Free (legal).** The book is in copyright; these are library routes only. - **Libby/OverDrive.** The Los Angeles Public Library catalog lists an [ebook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/1306647) and an [audiobook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/5554092). You need a library card, and I did not check availability or wait times. Your own library may differ. - **Internet Archive controlled lending.** [whoownsfuture0000lani](https://archive.org/details/whoownsfuture0000lani) is the US hardcover scan. Open Library flags it as print-disabled, which means lending or accessibility access only, not open reading. I did not open the borrow page. (A separate scan of the German edition, *Wem gehört die Zukunft?*, is listed as borrowable.) - **Hoopla.** Its [search page](https://www.hoopladigital.com/search?q=who+owns+the+future) loads, but I could not see availability from my box. - [Open Library work OL16801714W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16801714W) and the [US hardcover edition record](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25424120M). - **Project Gutenberg.** Not available; the book is in copyright. - **Excerpts the author's page links.** [Strategy+Business "Author's Choice" excerpt](https://www.strategy-business.com/article/ac00050) (with an introduction by George Dyson) and the [Edge essay "The Local-Global Flip"](https://www.edge.org/conversation/the-local-global-flip), a related piece. **Paid.** - Audiobook: [Audible, read by Pete Simonelli](https://www.audible.com/pd/Who-Owns-the-Future-Audiobook/B00DYY0EN2) (12 hr 2 min per Audible's author page); also [Apple Books](https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/who-owns-the-future-unabridged/id1439492321). - Publisher page: [Simon & Schuster](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Who-Owns-the-Future/Jaron-Lanier/9781451654998). It returned a 403 to my box, so I link it from search results only. - Amazon and Kindle: the author's page links [Amazon (ISBN 1451654960)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451654960/simonsayscom). I did not open it, so I have not checked price, stock or Kindle availability. The OverDrive record lists Kindle among its library ebook formats, which is a loan, not a purchase. - The author's [resource page for the book](https://www.jaronlanier.com/futurewebresources.html) collects dozens of reviews and interviews. **Cover:** [Open Library cover image](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/8598274-L.jpg) (US hardcover edition). ## 3. Author biography Jaron Lanier (born May 3, 1960, in New York City, raised in Mesilla, New Mexico) is a scientist, musician and writer best known for his work in virtual reality. He enrolled at New Mexico State University at 13. In 1985 he left Atari with Thomas Zimmerman to found VPL Research, the first company to sell VR goggles and wired gloves. He has worked at Microsoft since 2006 and at Microsoft Research since 2009; his own biography gives his title as "octopus". Honors on his site and Wikipedia include the 2014 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, TIME 100 (2010) and Prospect's top 50 World Thinkers (2014). Other books: *You Are Not a Gadget* (2010), *Dawn of the New Everything* (2017), *Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now* (2018). Sources: [his biography page](https://www.jaronlanier.com/general.html); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaron_Lanier). Simon & Schuster's own author note says he is "a scientist and musician best known for his work in Virtual Reality research, a term he coined and popularized." ## 4. Author interviews and talks The author's [resource page](https://www.jaronlanier.com/futurewebresources.html) lists many; I read the page text or description of each below, not audio or video. - **Salon, May 12, 2013.** [Q&A: "Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class"](https://www.salon.com/2013/05/12/jaron_lanier_the_internet_destroyed_the_middle_class/). Starts from the book's opening Kodak and Instagram example. I read the introduction and first question only. - **The Guardian, March 17, 2013.** [Profile: "Jaron Lanier: digital pioneer and rebel"](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/17/jaron-lanier-digital-pioneer-rebel). I confirmed the page loads; I did not read it in full. - **Scientific American.** [Lanier's own piece, "How to Think About Privacy"](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-think-about-privacy/). Page loads; not read in full. - **New York Public Library.** [A conversation with Paul Holdengräber](https://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/jaron-lanier), with a 5-minute [video excerpt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4kmCrfbOvw). I did not view or listen to either. - **Colbert Report, Charlie Rose, PBS NewsHour (Paul Solman), BBC and others.** The author's page links them. The Colbert and PBS links failed from my box and the Commonwealth Club talk returned a 403, so I did not open them. - **The New York Times op-ed, June 8, 2013, "Fixing the Digital Economy".** Listed on the author's page; it returned a 403 to my box and I did not open it. ## 5. Summary **What the book is (publisher description).** "His visionary reckoning with the most urgent economic and social trend of our age: the poisonous concentration of money and power in our digital networks." Lanier shows how "Siren Servers, which exploit big data and the free sharing of information, led our economy into recession, imperiled personal privacy, and hollowed out the middle class." The publisher says there is an alternative: "an information economy that rewards ordinary people for what they do and share on the web." The publisher's tagline is that "to fix our economy, we must fix our information economy." **The argument as described by others.** - Laurence Scott's Guardian review: Lanier "questions the trajectory of economic value in the information age", argues the economy has taken a "fundamental misstep" in going digital, and disputes the demand that we hand over our information for free. His alternative is a "humanistic information economy" in which people reach "economic dignity" by being paid in proportion for their contributions to big data. The review's example: a couple who met on a dating site, whose compatibility data is later used to pair another couple, would receive a tiny royalty. - Salon's introduction says the book opens with Kodak (at its peak 140,000 employees, $28 billion) and Instagram (13 employees when Facebook bought it in 2012 for a billion dollars) and asks "Where did all those jobs disappear?" Salon adds that much of the book looks at how Internet technology erodes employment and the middle class, and that Evgeny Morozov challenged the micropayments proposal in The Washington Post. - Wikipedia's article says Lanier calls such firms "Siren Servers", and proposes a two-way linking structure based on Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu that would point back to the source of any piece of information and enable micropayments. Wikipedia also says the book has nine parts plus a conclusion, each part ending with an interlude, and that some interludes read like short fiction. I take these as reported, not checked against the book. **Contents.** From the catalog record at [Quincy/OCLN](https://quincy.ocln.org/Record/131824) (library contents list; no page numbers, because I did not open a printed table of contents), cross-checked with the Perlego contents list for the paperback's front and back matter. - Prelude (Perlego lists an Introduction to the Paperback Edition first) - Part One, First Round: Motivation; A Simple Idea. *First Interlude: Ancient Anticipation of the Singularity* - Part Two, The Cybernetic Tempest: Money as Seen Through One Computer Scientist's Eyes; The Ad Hoc Construction of Mass Dignity; "Siren Servers"; The Specter of the Perfect Investment; Some Pioneering Siren Servers. *Second Interlude (a Parody): If Life Gives You EULAs, Make Lemonade* - Part Three, How This Century Might Unfold, from Two Points of View: From Below: Mass Unemployment Events; From Above: Misusing Big Data to Become Ridiculous. *Third Interlude: Modernity Conceives the Future* - Part Four, Markets, Energy Landscapes, and Narcissism: Markets and Energy Landscapes; Narcissism. *Fourth Interlude: Limits Are for Muggles* - Part Five, The Contest to Be Most Meta: Story Lost; Coercion on Autopilot: Specialized Network Effects; Obscuring the Human Element; Story Found. *Fifth Interlude: The Wise Old Man in the Clouds* - Part Six, Democracy: Complaint Is Not Enough; Clout Must Underlie Rights, If Rights Are to Persist. *Sixth Interlude: The Pocket Protector in the Saffron Robe* - Part Seven, Ted Nelson: First Thought, Best Thought - Part Eight, The Dirty Picture (or, Nuts and Bolts): What a Humanistic Alternative Might Be Like (Perlego prints "The Dirty Pictures"): The Project; We Need to Do Better Than Ad Hoc Levees; Some First Principles; Who Will Do What?; Big Business; How Will We Earn and Spend?; Risk; Financial Identity; Inclusion; The Interface to Reality; Creepy; A Stab at Mitigating Creepiness. *Seventh Interlude: Limits Are for Mortals* - Part Nine, Transition: The Transition; Leadership. *Eighth Interlude: The Fate of Books* - Conclusion: What Is to Be Remembered? - Paperback extras (per Perlego): Afterword to the Paperback Edition; Appendix: First Appearances of Key Terms; Acknowledgments; Notes; Index **Reception (as reported by others).** The author's page quotes Joe Nocera ("the most important book I read in 2013"), Neal Stephenson, George Dyson, Tim Wu and W. Brian Arthur, and lists it as Amazon's 11th best book of 2013. Wikipedia quotes the Guardian review as calling it an "intelligent and subtle book" with an "inspiring portrait of the kind of people that a democratic information economy would produce", and says Scott also thinks Lanier's love of Silicon Valley keeps him from weighing the downsides. I read only the first part of that review. Wikipedia lists 2014 awards: the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Goldsmith Book Prize and top honors at the San Francisco Book Festival. The Peace Prize went to Lanier as an author; I did not check whether it named this book. **Why it is here.** The StarTalk Plus note lists it in the guest's bio. The episode is about AI, which is a different topic from this book's. ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **supported** for the publication facts. The arguments are the author's and reviewers' accounts, not my reading. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Simon & Schuster, May 7, 2013; 416 pages; ISBN 9781451654967 | Supported | Open Library OL25424120M; publisher page (search result) lists the same date and length for its listing | | Audiobook read by Pete Simonelli, about 12 hours, July 16, 2013 | Supported | Audible author page; Apple Books; Simon & Schuster Audio listing in search results | | Nine parts, a conclusion and eight interludes | Supported | Library contents list; Perlego contents list; Wikipedia | | Contents titles | Supported | Library contents record and Perlego list agree, with spelling variants noted | | Page numbers | Not given | I did not open a printed table of contents | | Library ebook and audiobook exist in OverDrive | Supported | Los Angeles Public Library catalog records | | Internet Archive lending copy | Print-disabled only | Open Library flag | | Wikipedia: book won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade | Unverified | The prize was awarded to Lanier in 2014; I did not check whether it named this book | | Kodak 140,000 employees and $28 billion; Instagram 13 employees | As quoted | Quoted from the book's prelude in Salon; not checked independently | ## 7. Citations and references - Author's resource page: [Web resources for the book](https://www.jaronlanier.com/futurewebresources.html); [Brief biography](https://www.jaronlanier.com/general.html). - Catalogs and listings: [Open Library work](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16801714W); [edition OL25424120M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25424120M); [Quincy/OCLN record](https://quincy.ocln.org/Record/131824); [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/whoownsfuture0000lani); OverDrive [ebook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/1306647) and [audiobook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/5554092); [Perlego contents](https://www.perlego.com/book/778546/who-owns-the-future-pdf) (from search results). - Audio: [Audible](https://www.audible.com/pd/Who-Owns-the-Future-Audiobook/B00DYY0EN2); [Apple Books](https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/who-owns-the-future-unabridged/id1439492321); [Simon & Schuster Audio](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Who-Owns-the-Future/Jaron-Lanier/9781442368408) (from search results). - Reviews and articles: [The Guardian, Laurence Scott, Feb 27, 2013](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/27/who-owns-future-lanier-review); [Salon, May 12, 2013](https://www.salon.com/2013/05/12/jaron_lanier_the_internet_destroyed_the_middle_class/); [Wikipedia, *Who Owns the Future?*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Owns_the_Future%3F). - Author: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaron_Lanier) - Interviews: the pages linked in section 4 - Source: [Neil deGrasse Tyson And Jaron Lanier on the AI Illusion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ZKYH8v_do)