Frankfurt / Main.
The American Jaron Lanier gets the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and hence surprised many. The computer scientist, mathematician and musician deals with current issues in his books in a digital society. But also on the bamboo flute knows the author to convince.
Jaron Lanier (54)
is a colorful character. That the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade has surprised him, take him immediately. Others are surprised now to see the computer from the USA in a row with winners such as Albert Schweitzer (1951), Ernesto Cardenal (1980) or Jürgen Habermas (2001). This year’s peace prize winner has programmed a computer game, “Moondust”, and has written three books that deal with current issues in the digital society. In the St. Paul Church, he brings on Sunday further from reach “for the formulation of an old idea, which in the past had many forms: humanism”.
In the view of some critics ranging Lanier’s theoretical depth not much further than the first page of a Google search. “What exactly is actually ‘humanistic’ of Lanier’s vision?” asked about Evgeny Morozov in his review of Lanier’s book “Who owns the future?” in the “Washington Post”. The remuneration of a few cents for the provision of personal data to Google or Facebook – it was but hardly something that could make human-being
Humanism for the Digital Society
. Frankfurt calls Lanier some facets of his idea of humanism for the digital society. This includes the refusal of artificial intelligence and a “post-human movement” that believe in the immortality of art. As an example, lists of winners Google, which was financing an organization with the goal to “conquer death”. No, he had nothing against big companies, insured Lanier, adding that he is currently working for Microsoft -. The software group is for years in a heavy clinch with Google
For his East German novel “kruso” the poet Lutz Seiler was recently awarded the German Book Prize. The dropout poetic story from the summer of 1989, shortly before the turn is Seiler’s debut as a novelist. How he overcomes all the way between poetry and prose, he reveals in an interview.
So much like going to Lanier with his hosts, emphasizes how important it is that book. That’s why he write himself a “creature of digital culture” books -. “When it’s time to take a look at the big picture”
If the Internet is the speech she thinks in Frankfurt at the end the Book Fair publishing industry gathered next to Google and Facebook in particular at Amazon and its e-book reader Kindle. The head of the Association of German Book Trade, Heinrich Riethmueller criticized that providers of e-book platforms analyze the reading habits of their customers, and asks: “Do we want that the author writes what arrives, or do we want rather that the the artist writes, what concerns him is? “
16 tubes for 16 bit
A particular concern is for Lanier the game on the khaen. The traditional bamboo flute from Laos, he has repeatedly brought out at the book fair, only at a press conference, then at a reception of his publisher. On Sunday, he surprised the Frankfurt festival community with a final flute and then explains that the game can be seen on the 16 tubes of flutes as a character with a length of 16 bits: “This is the origin of the computer!” As the corpulent man with dreadlocks acts no longer uncertain as at the beginning of his speech to an unfamiliar audience, with his flute Lanier is one.
What now remains of this award and can continue to work? Lanier accepts the peace prize “on behalf of the world community of digital activists and idealists, even though many of us disagree”. These will also include Edward Snowden, who has made his own way against inhumane handling of data. In St. Paul’s Church Frankfurt Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann’s (SPD) it is a: “Edward Snowden is for me one of the heroes of our time.” The polyphonic debate about the design of the digital future and the disposal of our data has only just begun. (AP)
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