Dawn of the New Everything

Named one of the best books of 2017 by The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, & Vox
The father of virtual reality explains its dazzling possibilities by reflecting on his own lifelong relationship with technology
Bridging the gap between tech mania and the experience of being inside the human body, Dawn of the New Everything is a look at what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility.
Through a fascinating look back over his life in technology, Jaron Lanier, an interdisciplinary scientist and father of the term "virtual reality," exposes VR's ability to illuminate and amplify our understanding of our species, and gives readers a new perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world. An inventive blend of autobiography, science writing, philosophy and advice, this book tells the wild story of his personal and professional life as a scientist, from his childhood in the UFO territory of New Mexico, to the loss of his mother, the founding of the first start-up, and finally becoming a world-renowned technological guru.
Understanding virtual reality as being both a scientific and cultural adventure, Lanier demonstrates it to be a humanistic setting for technology. While his previous books offered a more critical view of social media and other manifestations of technology, in this book he argues that virtual reality can actually make our lives richer and fuller.

Preface: Virtual Reality's Moment

Introduction

1. 1960s: Terrors of Eden
2. Rescue Spacecraft
3. Batch Process
4. Why I Love VR (About the Basics)
5. Bug in the System (About the Dark Side of VR)
6. Road
7. Coast
8. Valley of Unearthly Delights
9. Alien Encounters
10. The Feeling of Immersion
11. To Don the New Everything (About Haptics, with a Little About Avatars)
12. Nautical Dawn
13. Six Degrees (A Little About Sensors and VR Data)
14. Found
15. Be Your Own Pyramidion (About Visual Displays for VR)
16. The VPL Experience
17. Inside-Out Spheres (A Little About VR "Video" and Sound)
18. Scene
19. How We Settled Into a Seed for the Future
20. 1992, Out
21. Coda: Reality's Foil

Afterword

Appendix 1: Postsymbolic Communication (About the Reveries of One of My Classic VR Talks)
Appendix 2: Phenotropic Fevers (About VR Software)
Appendix 3: Dueling Demigods