Fisking isn’t my preferred style
I’d much rather collaborate than compete…

But I was particularly annoyed at Lanier’s sustained insistance (repeated in his RSA lecture last night) that anyone who thinks that humans are machines is “loopy”.

It’s easy to say that humans are not “gadgets” and shouldn’t be treated as such. However, machines can be very much more sophisticated than gadgets. It’s obscurantist to view (like Lanier) human nature as somehow beyond scientific investigation and technological improvement. This fits, alas, in a very long line of bad tradition.

I’m all in favour of emphasising and elevating humanity. But that’s fully compatible with recognising our mechanical and computational infrastructure!

That’s a really excellent “fisking” you’ve done there : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisking

> Many people feel uneasy that “humanity” is seemingly being stretched, trampled, lost, and reduced, by current changes in our society

This is hardly news – Alvin Tofler’s Future Shock had a huge impact on me when I read it even though I’m rather impatient to arrive in “the future” rather than fear it. I suggest that it’s likely the similar books have been written in every time period.