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Who Owns the Future? a non-fiction book written by Jaron Lanier published by Simon & Schuster in 2013. The was well received and won multiple awards in 2014: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, The Goldsmith Award, and Top honors at the San Francisco Book Festival.

additions to current wiki article for this book: add to cover photo information of book: my own photo, Genre, publication date, media type,website

Overview
Lanier's (2013) book is an interesting perspective on digital media, specifically social networks like Facebook and large corporations like Goggle. The overall all theme of the book is to make readers really think about how the use and interact online. How the information required by almost any online website. Social media or search engine will require some form of payment. Like your email address which seems like nothing in the moment you need whatever you have search for on the net. What Lanier is saying throughout the book is that the free data all users put on the net that is used by companies to advertise or market things users should get reimbursed monetarily.

Name drop
Lanier doesn't hide the fact that he is or was part of the problem that he talks about in the book. He also doesn't shy away from naming some of the large companies and social networks: Walmart, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Lanier makes this clear early in the book in chapter two saying, "At the end of the day, even the magic of machine translation is like Facebook, a way taking free contributions from people and regurgitating them as bait for advertisers or others who hope to take advantage of being close to a top server."

Siren Servers
Lanier compares corporations like Google or any that I previously mentioned to sirens. Yes, sirens the mythical singing creatures that call sailors by song to their demise. Lanier has dubbed these corporations as "Siren Servers" in chapter five. Lanier's official definition is "an elite computer or coordinated collection of computers on a network."  He explains in the rest of the chapter and book how important information is to siren servers and what they really want is your information. That is the true gold mine (figuratively) for siren servers, information, free information to sell to companies online for profit.

Foreshadowing
There is mention of Karl Marx in the book mainly as a reference point for readers to think about the information they willing give out on a continual basis online to siren servers. Lanier weaves in the implications of Marxism in the book, but Lanier is advocating for the middle class saying, "Whatever the intent might have been, the result is a wielding of digital technology against the future of the middle class."   In chapter eight gives the example of 3-D printers and how they could reduce humans carbon footprint by no longer needing goods transported because they could make their own with a 3-D printer. 3-D printers are one example Lanier provides another example of future technology could effect traffic flow no more stop lights, because the self-driving cars would know where all the other car are and stop automatically.

Final thoughts
Lanier will drop hints that his book is for humanity to ensure that they aren't completely replaced by robots and technology as he says, "Someone like me a humanist softie, will complain about the oppressive feeling of having to feed information systems in order to get by." His book backs that up throughout even the interludes that are spread throughout the book, each one is written with humanity in mind to ensure the reader remembers that they are still valuable humans not just free data for siren servers to mine endlessly.

Structure
The book it's self is divided into nine parts plus a conclusion (golden nuggets) that readers should continue to think about utilize siren servers or apps. Also, at the end of each part Lanier has put in interludes. Each one tailor to the theme of that section. Sometimes the interlude i a mini fictional story and others are suggest guides to how a reader would interpret the theme f the chapters with in each part. Lanier has a strong tie to music and each interlude seems like a jazz rift on an original melody.

The books collection of parts:

 * 1) First Round
 * 2) The Cybernetic Tempest
 * 3) How This Century Might Unfold, from Two Points of View
 * 4) Markets, Markets, Energy Landscapes, and Narcissism
 * 5) Contest to Be Most Meta
 * 6) Democracy
 * 7) Ted Nelson
 * 8) The Dirty Pictures (or, Nuts and Bolts: What a Humanistic Alternative Might Be Like)
 * 9) Transition
 * 10) Conclusion

Reviews
 The New York Times 

Janet Maslin's review compares  Lanier to Micheal Jackson he King of Pop vs. Lanier dubbed the father of Virtual Reality. The most interesting part of the review was a mention of Karl Marx book Das Kapital. Maslin gives a quick detail about Lanier listening to something while driving and he links that to Marx. Maslin writes, "If you select the right passages, Marx can read as being incredibly current." – Janet Maslin

 The Guardian 

Laurence Scott gave a unbiased review of the book in 2013. In his article he focuses on Lanier's idea of personal data and being compensated for it's use by big data companies. Scott explains it saying, "In such an economy we would, throughout our lives, be financially buoyed by an accumulation of small remunerations for both our intellectual and biometric property." – Laurence Scott

 Columbia Journalism Review 

Lanier's book was reviewed along with several others in this article by Lauren Kirchner whose review focuses on Lanier label "Siren Servers". Which, Kirchner describes as, " to describe networks that lure us in with free services or low prices while siphoning off valuable personal information."

 San Francisco Chronicle 

Parag gives a thorough review of the entire book and notes the writing progression of Lanier from his first book You Are not A Gadget (2010). Parag points this out in the article, "Lanier celebrates technology as a tool of creativity, pointing to the promise of profitable mashups versus the stifling role of intellectual property protections, which should be more rapidly phased out." – Parag Khanna

Published Works

 * 1) You are not A Gadget (2010)
 * 2) Who Owns the Future? (2013)
 * 3) Wenn Träume Erwachsen Werden (When Dreams Grow Up) (2015)
 * 4) Dawn of the New Everything (2017)
 * 5) Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (2018)