What if, by devaluing individuals, we are deadening creativity, endlessly rehashing past culture, risking weaker design in engineering and science, losing democracy, and reducing development in every sphere? Jaron Lanier delivers a manifesto in support of the human and reflects on the good and bad developments in design.

As you read this, thousands of remote computers are refining secret models of who you are, using the information to make huge fortunes for a few people. Does the future have to be this way? How can we change it? In this visionary book Jaron Lanier imagines an alternative, where economic power is given back to creators. Drawing on sources ranging from ancient philosophy to the latest technology, he proposes a radical system that truly rewards endeavour - whether it's in the media or manufacturing - and ultimately preserves human dignity.

Jaron Lanier, `the father of Virtual Reality ... a high-tech genius' (Sunday Times), tells the extraordinary story of how in just over three decades Virtual Reality went from being a dream to a reality - and how its power to turn dreams into realities will transform us and our world.

Social media is supposed to bring us together - but it is tearing us apart.

A blisteringly good, urgent, essential read Zadie Smith

The evidence suggests that social media is making us sadder, angrier, less empathetic, more fearful, more isolated and more tribal.

Jaron Lanier is the world-famous Silicon Valley scientist-pioneer who first alerted us to the dangers of social media. In this witty and urgent manifesto he explains why its toxic effects are at the heart of its design, and, in ten simple arguments, why liberating yourself from its hold will transform your life and the world for...