Jaron Lanier

Jaron Lanier, born in 1960, is an American computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author widely regarded as a founding figure of virtual reality. A pioneer of the field in the 1980s, he helped popularize the term and built some of the earliest VR systems through his company VPL Research.

Lanier has become one of technology's most prominent in-house critics, writing about the social and economic costs of the digital systems he helped create. His books include You Are Not a Gadget, Who Owns the Future?, Dawn of the New Everything, and Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now.

His central concerns are human dignity in the face of algorithmic manipulation, the hidden costs of free online services, and the case for paying people for the data and creativity that fuel digital platforms. Ten Arguments became an international bestseller and a touchstone in debates over the effects of social media.

Named one of Time magazine's hundred most influential people and a recipient of the German Book Trade's Peace Prize, Lanier has also worked for years as a researcher in the technology industry while continuing to compose and perform music on a large collection of rare instruments.