You are not a gadget

I tend to be leery of computer geeks waxing philosophical about social contracts or economic systems, usually because there's something so strangely entitled about them as a group. Why does being a hacker make you understand democracy and freedom better than everyone else? I'm looking at you, Anonymous. Is it just because you can bully others into hearing your viewpoint, because “information should be free!” is so simple a rallying call and Bank of America is so easy to hack? Anyway. Jaron Lanier is not a hacker from Anonymous. But he does suffer from that computer geek cheekiness of thinking he knows what's best for society. I guess he would argue that that's because the internet is swallowing up all our lives, society is moving online, and poorly-designed softwares/websites are locking us into behavioral grooves that devalue us as human beings (i.e. living only in a way that is filterable into Facebook status updates). This part of his argument, I can agree with. The part about how we should establish financial systems and online payment, I get a bit fuzzy on. But apparently he took all of that from early 90s Ted Nelson, so I may seek some answers there. Overall, though, Lanier offers an important alternative to the slightly crazy-eyed techno-utopianism of Singularists and Creative Commonsists and BoingBoing readers. Of which I am one, if not completely zealously. It's refreshing to see that, yes, there is Another Way.