The much-anticipated art and technology festival known as Moogfest takes over downtown Durham May 19-22. We’re updating regularly during the festival with photos, stories and other updates. Day three is below, and here are day one and day two updates.
Saturday 5/21
Jaron Lanier
One of more than 2,000 instruments in Jaron Lanier’s Silicon Valley-area home is the khene, a Laotian mouth organ that he says influenced many modern day instruments. Like many of his public appearances, he began his keynote address at Moogfest with a performance of the bamboo instrument.
He went on to discuss today’s political environment, his dislike of social media and his fears of artificial intelligence (Does it know so much about us that it informs what we do, stifling creativity and exploration?), peppering in stories from throughout the history of computing, the Internet and virtual reality, a field he helped to pioneer. He left the audience with the request that they use and view technology for its intended purposes of collaboration, connection and expression, versus the zero sum game that it tends to ignite today.
