Jaron Lanier

Every time we give a musician the advice to give away the music and sell the T-shirt, we're saying, 'Don't make your living in this more elevated way. Instead, reverse this social progress, and choose a more physical way to make a living.' We're sending them to peasanthood, very much like the Maoists have.

After my mother's death, I had such difficulty relating to people.

Wal-Mart impoverished its own customer base. Google is facing exactly the same issue long-term, although not yet.

Google's thing is not advertising because it's not a romanticizing operation. It doesn't involve expression. It's a link. What they're doing is selling access.

I mean, you can't have advertising be the only official business of the information economy if the information economy is going to take over.

It is impossible to work in information technology without also engaging in social engineering.

Advertising is the edge of what people know how to do and of human experience and it explains the latest ways progress has changed us to ourselves.

Anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks and lightweight mash-ups may seem trivial and harmless, but as a whole, this widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communication has demeaned personal interaction.

Governments oppress people, but so do mobs. You need to avoid both to make progress.