"Who Owns the Future?" Author's Talk with Jaron Lanier

FREE and OPEN to the public.

"Scientist, musician and bestselling author Jaron Lanier–the father of virtual reality-- argues that the rise of digital networks—Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others—has led our economy into recession and decimated the middle class. Now, as technology flattens more and more industries, we face even greater challenges to employment and personal wealth. In Who Owns the Future?, Lanier envisions a singularly bold model for a highly humanistic economy—one that will reward people for the valuable information they share with networks and the companies that control and profit from them.

Jaron Lanier is the bestselling author of You Are Not a Gadget and one of the most influential thinkers of our time. He received a Lifetime Career Award from the IEEE in 2009 for his contributions to the field. Time Magazine named him as one of the “Time 100” in 2010. A profile in Wired Magazine described him as “the first technology figure to cross over to pop-culture stardom.” He has worked both in an academic context, particularly in connection with Internet2, and in the private sector, helping to create companies that were eventually acquired by Oracle, Adobe, and Google. He received an honorary Doctor of Science from NJIT in 2006 and a 2012 honorary degree from Franklin & Marshall College. Lanier also writes orchestral music and plays a large number of rare acoustic musical instruments. He is currently a partner architect at Microsoft Research."
http://cooper.edu/events-and-exhibitions/events/authors-talk-jaron-lanier-who-owns-future

Talk-About: For those who wish to further discuss this topic after the event. Talk-Abouts are a way to continue the conversation, find out what others thought about the event, and share perspectives. Please find Yen (see member profile picture). The Talk-About will be held in a coffee shop or restaurant nearby and will be free.

Proposed Agenda

6 pm - Meet inside The Great Hall lobby and get introduced.

After the lecture, meet again at the lobby of The Great Hall. For those who wish to further discuss this topic after the event, we will continue the conversation at a coffee shop or restaurant nearby.

About the Moderator: Yen is a "recovering physicists" (much like a recovering alcoholic). He has totally abstained from doing any higher order math and frequenting labs for over 10 years. He worked briefly as physicist before pursuing a career in aviation with the US Air Force. Yen is a parent of two sons and currently serves as a manager at Lyhun Realty.

About the Founder: Ron Gross is the founder of "Conversations New York." He's been organizing exciting, important CONVERSATIONS for 20 years, and currently holds them regularly on the Columbia University campus and elsewhere through the city. He's the author of 23 books on LIFELONG LEARNING. He was recently honored for lifetime achievement in the field by the International Society for Self-Directed Learning. The late Buckminster Fuller said of Ron's work: “If humanity is to pass safely through its present crisis on earth, it will be because a majority of individuals are now doing their own thinking. Ronald Gross’ work has pioneered in improving the climate for such thinking in the United States.”