Lanier Comments on Technology, Communication

Lanier Comments on Technology, Communication
BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY
Rice News Staff
Nov. 5, 1998

The cuttlefish, with its ability to communicate by changing colors as fast
as thought, is the model for good computer technology, because communication
should be technology’s driving force, said Jaron Lanier, an expert in virtual
reality and the most recent speaker in the President’s Lecture Series.

Lanier, who coined the term "virtual reality" (VR) and started the
first VR company, VPL Research Inc., presented a lecture titled "Technology
and the Future of the Soul" on Oct. 28 in the Grand Hall of the Rice Memorial
Center.

Lanier is now the lead scientist for the National Tele-immersion Initiative,
a coalition of universities studying advanced shared environment applications
on the Internet. He serves as a visiting scholar in computer science at Columbia
University. In addition, he is a pianist and is working on a new recording for
Sony Classics.

Lanier held the attention of his audience as he carried them along a thought
process that started with cuttlefish and moved on to computer code.

Although humans have a fantastic ability to receive input through their eyes
and ears, their output leaves a lot to be desired, he said. Humans struggle
to communicate through music, dance and technology, while cuttlefish are the
great communicators.

Cuttlefish have the ability to communicate by shifting the colors upon their
bodies and by changing the texture of their flesh by raising welts, a process
Lanier called morphing.

"The purpose of computers is to turn people into cuttlefish," Lanier
told his audience. "I’m desperately jealous of these creatures."

Technology is an attempt by humans to communicate with others, Lanier said.
Good technology furthers communication and can shape our culture. For example,
embedded in the code of the World Wide Web are ideals of civil rights, equality
and freedom found in the U.S. Constitution. The Web, he said, is probably the
first time millions of people cooperated without coercion to make something
big.

"[The Web] is an empirical demonstration of the good aspects of human
nature," he said. "The Web shows us human potential."

To the young computer scientists in the audience, he said they have a chance
to influence human ideas and ideals through the code they write. Code embeds
human ideas and ideals–both good and bad.

In conclusion, Lanier said the "sacred duty" of artists and those
writing computer code is to "distract human kind from mass suicide by making
things of great beauty."

Preferably in emulation of cuttlefish.