TECH

Father of virtual reality suggests Facebook and Google payments
What if Facebook was not free? Or if you needed a monthly fee to do searches on Google? The ideas are from the philosopher and technological visionary Jaron Lanier, considered one of the creators of virtual reality, in one of the most provocative talks of TED, a speeches event that takes place until Saturday (14) in Vancouver."We can not have a society where if two people want to communicate, the only way is if it's funded by a third person who wants to manipulate them," said Lanier, author of several manifests and books.The most recent, to be released in June, is called "Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Now".For Lanier, 57, the consumer would have more advantage paying for Facebook, getting rid of ads."What started out as propaganda can no longer be called propaganda. It's behavior modification."He founded, in 1984, VPL Research, one of the first to develop and sell virtual reality products. The firm declared bankruptcy in 1990 and its patents were purchased by Sun Microsystems.Lanier suggested that Facebook and Google might have paid service options, just as it does for quality TV content such as Netflix or HBO."We made a mistake in the 1990s when digital culture had this socialist, leftist mission that everything on the internet should be free," Lanier said. "We have to fix this."



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