Person
Every book Jaron Lanier recommended on podcasts
Jaron Lanier appeared on the Lex Fridman Podcast to discuss virtual reality, social media, consciousness, and the future trajectory of humans and artificial intelligence. During the conversation, Lex Fridman referenced an essay written by Lanier concerning death and human consciousness, which naturally brought up Ernest Becker's prominent work, The Denial of Death, praised as a profound book on the psychological and structural difficulties of the human situation. Later in the discussion, Lanier and Fridman explored philosophical concepts of reality and perception, prompting Fridman to recall an old science fiction story by Isaac Asimov, likely Nightfall, which depicts a curious planet where inhabitants can only rarely observe what lies in the sky. Furthermore, Fridman referenced a specific passage from Jack Kerouac's book Dr. Sax while talking about literary attempts to encapsulate the entirety of human reality and situational existence within a single paragraph.
Books recommended by Jaron Lanier
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Dr Sax
Discussed“there's a passage in kerouac's book dr sachs where somebody tries to just explain the whole situation with reality and people in like a paragraph”
Where to get it
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Nightfall
Discussed“i thought that was a curious kind of thought that reminds me of that uh old isaac asimov story where the cl you know there's this planet where they finally get to see what's in the sky once in a while”
Where to get it
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The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning philosophical and psychological study that argues human behavior is fundamentally driven by an unconscious terror of mortality and the subsequent cultural mechanisms created to deny it.
Discussed“even there there's opportunity to discover beauty now. and so it's that's that's the interesting thing about humans is the capacity to discover uh beautiful in the darkest of moments but there's always the dark parts too well i mean it's our situation is structurally difficult we are um actually no it is it's true we perceive socially we depend”
Where to get it
Books Jaron Lanier wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| #218 – Jaron Lanier: Virtual Reality, Social Media & the Future of Humans and AI | Lex Fridman Podcast | 2021-09-06 | 3 |
Other mentions (4: passing, ad reads, own books)
“i wrote a book about people suggesting people take a break from their social media to see what happens and maybe even it was actually the title of the book was just the arguments to delete your account”
“i wrote a book about an earlier version of it called who owns the future”
“so there's this thing called data dignity that i've been studying for a long time i wrote a book about an earlier version of it called who owns the future”
“uh hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy right of what this uh mostly harmless mostly harmless yeah”