Blog blurty
By Denise Gershbein - November 10, 2011
I've been skimming Jaron Lanier's "You are Not a Gadget" recently (skimming because I'm too busy with all my social media and attendant gadgets to read a real book) and all kidding aside, this idea that we are being locked in by our software is really stuck in my brain. The thesis is that our humanity is being locked in to limited practices by the limitations of the software and devices that we use ("locked in" being borrowed from engineering and the lock down of code). One example he gives is the MIDI language for music on computers, and how its early development originally meant as a very simple way to quickly model musical notes on computers became "locked in" as the musical standard and now not only defines but limits our ability to experience the full range of musical sounds in a digital context.
