https://www.ft.com/content/8de9a8b2-d04b-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6
But will they truly set us free? Or will they turn us into digital serfs, forced to play our part in a preprogrammed world built around the values and objectives of some big corporation or government? That question has reared its head most recently in the debate about artificial intelligence. Smart software could be a useful servant to the human race — if it doesn’t become the master. So what about virtual reality? A medium that relies on tricking the senses in order to subvert our perception of the “real”, VR sounds like the ultimate dystopian technology. This, according to Jaron Lanier, is all wrong. A tech futurist, researcher and writer, he is well placed to act as guide to the world described in Dawn of the New Everything. In the 1980s, Lanier founded the first VR company — indeed, is credited with inventing the term — and remains a passionate advocate. In his view, there is something inherently more humanist about VR than most other technologies. But then he is, by his own admission, an incurable romantic.
https://www.ft.com/content/8de9a8b2-d04b-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6
