Some selections from Jaron's Writings:


Computer Science and Culture

Wired asked me to write about the last five years for their 5th Anniversary Issue.

Here's a vintage interview that captures the delirious, infectious way I used to talk about VR in my twenties.

Wired published an itsy-bitsy reduction of some posts of mine to a discussion group about digital persistence. I agreed on condition that they include a link to here. So here is a slightly more comprehensible version.


The Association for Computing Machinery asked various people to write essays on the subject of "hope" in the next fifty years of computing. These will be published in a forthcoming fiftieth anniversary book and/or issue of the ACM's Communications magazine. Here's my contribution, titled "The Frontier Between Us".

Here's an abstract for a lecture on the future of natural and computer languages that I gave at Columbia.

And here's an old but fun article on applications of VR to programming.

Business and Computers

My New York Times op/ed piece on Microsoft and other digital monopolies.

I seem to have been the provider of journalistic punchlines for this year's World Economic Forum in Davos- see last paragraphs of stories here and here.

I think the PICS proposal is bad news. Here's my anti-PICS mini-rant that appeared in Wired.

What does "push" technology, or whatever you wish call web-based emulation of television, have to tell the transportation industry? Here's another rant that I published in Wired that tells all.

Here's my chapter in the Digerati book.

Here's an essay on Culture, Business, and Information Technology. It was first published in Global Business Network's magazine and might turn into a book.

Here's a modest proposal for the future of the world wide web (predicting Java and web-based network computers) that I wrote in 1994. You read it here first!

Here's one on information economics. This one is on HotWired, so you have to register with them to see it.

The Electrical Engineering Times published a long interview about the state of the computer industry, but beware- even though the interview is worth reading, there are some serious mistakes in the transcription.

Philosophy and Computers, or
My Problem with Artificial Intelligence


-In Brief-


Here's an artful rant attacking Intelligent Agent software that was finally, after years of lobbying, published in Wired Magazine.

Here's a 1000 word statement of my position that I wrote for the Sunday Times in London.

My take on the Kasprov/Deep Blue Chess Game, originally published in IBM's Think Magazine


-In Depth-


This is a chapter from a forthcoming book on Consciousness Studies. There are two opposing chapters on machine intelligence, with the "pro" position supported by Danny Hillis. I take the "anti" position.

Here's an essay attacking artficial intelligence that has proven to be quite controversial. This one is on Voyager's ezine. The idea is that whenever AI works, we can't tell if we've made computers smarter or people stupider. It was also published on paper in the ACM Interactions.

A humorous essay for the Journal of Consciousness Studies; a proposal that computers don't exist, and that we can explore our mysterious nature based on our ability to recognize them anyway.

A forthcoming essay for about death denial and consciousness.

(Here's where to find other people's articles on consciousness studies.)


-Debate-

This debate with Pattie Maes was on HotWired

Here's a debate about the value of "memes" as metaphor.

... and even a rather friendly discussion with Richard Dawkins, the meme man himself, that was originally published in Psychology Today.

-Reportage-

Wired's coverage of a conference at which these ideas were presented.


Music and Computers

-In Brief-

A Manifesto I wrote for a Knitting Factory music festival supplement in the New York Times.

-In Depth

My record, Instruments of Change's liner notes, include an interwoven essay on music, computers, and meaning.

This is an article about VR music performance that was first published in the Whole Earth Review.

Polular Culture and Politics

Here's a brief essay on the "Internet as Commons" that appeared in the Whole Earth Revieew.

Here's an essay, Mild Qualms, I wrote for the Sci-Fi Channel about the VR-inspired TV mini-series Wild Palms.

An op-ed piece I wrote for the New York Times (January 2, 1996) about the IRS and wasteful ignorance of the Internet.

Another op-ed piece I wrote for the New York Times (January 2, 1996) about the Communications Decency Act.

Here are odds and ends related to an issue of SPIN magazine (November '95) that I guest-edited.

Here's information about a book with a long interview that is probably the best published general introduction to my ideas. Here's a small excerpt (note that the questions don't match the answers in the excerpt- they DO match in the complete version).

Here's a recent interview on the ezine Feed, available as both text and real audio.

Here's a controversial essay on Newt Gingrich. This is also on the ezine Feed.

Here's yet another interview on the ezine C|net.

The New York Times published a review of this very web page.

Here's what a Brazilian web mag has to say.

(yet more interviews are available at the bottom of the bio page)

Yikes, there's no editor here, so I'll include a poem...

Go back to Jaron's home page.