Jaron Lanier Quotes

A computer is a wonderful thing, but it's cold, and what comes out of it is sort of cold.

Computers are really, basically, computing elements and a lot of memory. They are pretty easy to understand, as compared to the brain, which was designed by evolution.

Technology is making design more exciting, with color, wallpaper, textures, fabrics that could never have been created without the technology.

It's going to be interesting to see how society deals with artificial intelligence, but it will definitely be cool.

Technology is only an enabler, which can help achieve the intention of the person who is using it.

I became convinced that the whole essence of the computer revolution is interactivity. That was very early in my career. At the time I did that it was heresy.

Technology is making gestures precise and brutal, and with them men.

It's Microsoft versus mankind, with Microsoft having only a slight lead.

I do two things. I design mobile computers and I study brains.

Computers are great tools, but they need to be applied to the physical world.

My little self-analysis is that consumer technology is the closest thing we have to magic. You push a button and something happens at your command. The things that get me fired up the most have always been the things that seem the most magical.

I've always been interested in technology, but specifically how we can use machines to engage the imagination. I started using computers when I was young and was fascinated by creating rules and instructions that allow a computer to engage in a dialogue with humans. The stories found in the data all around us can do just that.

Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take it no philosophical ice is cut by such examples.

Looking back, video game design seems a natural fit, although there was no such thing when I was growing up. I built a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine in my teens which went up in smoke on the night it was scheduled to go to a science fair.

People are good at figuring out what's attractive, and computers are good at quickly searching and finding. You put them together, and bang!

I have problems with machines which aren't gestural.

The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body.

Through our evolution, we're so specialized for social interaction. So, if you can really design robots that can interact with people, in this very natural, interpersonal way, I think that would be great. You wouldn't have to have people read manuals, in order to operate them.

I see technology as being an extension of the human body.

As a society, we are underinvesting resources in research on the societal implications of AI technologies.

It won’t be long before we all number synthetic creatures among our friends.

The computer is incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Man is unbelievably slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. The marriage of the two is a force beyond calculation.

In a few years the androids will be working for us. Let’s hope that we never have to work for them

Technology will save us if it doesn't wipe us out first.

New technologies, however remarkable they might seem, are fundamentally just tools made by people for people.