A Dire Warning From The 'Father of Virtual Reality'

The Takeaway | Nov 21, 2017

Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. 

You might think that the so-called "father of virtual reality" would be big on escaping the real world. Turns out, not so much.

"It's not about escapism at all," says Jaron Lanier, the computer scientist who coined the term virtual reality. He’s spent his career developing it and tracing its potential, and he has a new memoir out today, called “Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality." 

“If we don't get our act together as a society, virtual reality could be so manipulative and so dark it could be the end of us, I just have to be clear about that," he tells The Takeaway.

Lanier joins the program to discuss his new book, and the future of virtual reality. 

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich

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