Jaron Lanier, author of Who Owns The Future?, asserts that the rise of digital networks led our economy into recession and decimated the middle class.
Looking forward, he says it is time for ordinary people to be rewarded for what they do and share on the web.
In an interview with Nieman Lab, Lanier argues:
If you have universal backlinks, you have a basis for micropayments from somebody’s information that’s useful to somebody else… Every backlink would be monetized. Monetizing actually decentralizes power rather than centralizing it. Demonetizing a network actually concentrates power around anyone who has the biggest computer analyzing it.
Monetizing decentralizes power. Perfect! Americans love freedom and money.
I also love to provide information that might be useful to somebody–like this very article–thus, I am fully behind a workable micropayments system that rewards me (and others) for being prolific and readable.
