Although many of the digital gurus started out as idealists, to Lanier there was an inevitability that the internet would screw us over. We wanted stuff for free (information, friendships, music), but capitalism doesn’t work like that…

Beforehand, we would sift through stacks in a record shop or browse in bookshops. ‘We were directly connected to a choice base that was actually larger instead of being fed this thing through this funnel that somebody else controls’.  – Jason Lanier. [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/23/tech-guru-jaron-lanier-the-danger-isnt-that-ai-destroys-us-its-that-it-drives-us-insane](Jason Lanier, Mar 2023)