- Contact:
- Website
Microsoft Labs
Researcher at Microsoft Labs, and a computer systems expert widely credited with helping develop "virtual reality;" author of You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto and Who Owns the Future?
PROFILE
Jaron Lanier
Host
FROM Jaron Lanier
To the Point
Should Digital Networks Pay Us for Our Info? Jaron Lanier was a pioneer of virtual reality. He sold a start-up to Google and helped Walmart, Fannie Mae, banks and hedge funds learn to use computerized information. He's now working on several projects for Microsoft. All that has made him a uniquely authoritative critic of the digital economy he has helped to create. Last year in Who Owns the Future he argued that Google, Facebook and Twitter should be paying all their users for making those companies rich. Since then, we've learned more about the downside of "Big Data." Who Owns the Future is now out in paperback and Lanier joins us in our studios in Santa Monica. Jaron Lanier will be at Pages Bookstore in Manhattan Beach tonight, April 23, at 7pm.
To the Point
In the Age of Big Data, Is Privacy No Big Deal? Last year two US Senators who couldn't provide details said, "most Americans would be stunned" if they knew the extent of government surveillance. Now people know more, and a recent poll shows they're not "stunned" after all. Sixty percent are ready to sacrifice privacy in the interests of security. But others claim the government's gathering much more than it needs to know, accessing the Big Data of Internet giants like Google and Apple. As the companies make big money on what users give them for free, is the government amassing power that could weaken Democracy?
Recommended
Left, Right & Center
President Trump: US to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord Trump says he was elected to serve Pittsburgh, not Paris.
To the Point
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
To the Point
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
To the Point
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?