Anyone interested in connecting over social media with Jaron Lanier, virtual reality pioneer, computer scientist and consultant for a number of well-known films, is out of luck. He’s not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Reddit for one simple reason: He doesn’t want to be manipulated.

Lanier (pictured) is so concerned about the subject of commercial manipulation that’s he has just written a book — “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now” — to make his case. The arguments include making politics “impossible,” denying a person’s capacity for “empathy” and creating an overall sense of unhappiness.

The veteran technologist is not alone in airing his concerns. A Google search for “danger of social media” yields 169 million results, ranging from a child predator warning on YouTube (54 million views) to concerns addressed by a former Facebook executive in a recent CBS interview.

“If two people want to do anything online together, the only way that’s possible is if there’s somebody else who’s around to pay to manipulate them sneakily,” Lanier said. “That’s stupid. We can do better than that, and I’m sure we will.”

Lanier spoke with Dave Vellante and Stu Miniman, co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the LiveWorx 18 event in Boston. They discussed the advertising model for social media, ways that users could take more control of their data, criminal influence online, Lanier’s work as a film consultant and how to make machine learning more transparent. (* Disclosure below.) This week theCUBE features Jaron Lanier as its Guest of the Week.

Retaking control of personal data

Financial incentives are part of the current problem Lanier sees with social media.  Advertising on social platforms is forecast to be over $51 billion in 2018, which translates to $17 spent per user.

As online algorithms become more sophisticated, the ability to channel user behavior on social media represents an essential element for advertiser success. Advanced techniques, such as hosting webinars and Twitter chats or running contests, are only a few of the ways that advertisers are pursuing the holy grail of lead generation.

“Within the companies in Silicon Valley, a lot of the top engineering talent really wants to pursue ethical solutions to the problem,” Lanier said. “The underlying business plan keeps pulling us back. It kind of pulls us into this darker and darker territory.”

At the heart of the social media advertising model is an inescapable reality: Data has value. In the current world online, users get services for free in exchange for allowing social media sites to make money from personally provided information.

There have been rumblings over the past year indicating a move toward making some changes to the current model. A report prepared in February by the European Commission offered the possibility of a tax on digital company revenue based on where user data is collected. And a recent book by Eric Posner and Glen Weyl — “Radical Markets” — floats the possibility that online users could rise up collectively and force payment for data, a form of digital labor unionization.

“If I ran the world, I’d make every single person into a microentrepreneur where they can package, sell and price their data in any way they want,” Lanier said. “What we’d see is a flowering of this giant global marketplace that would organize itself and create wonders.”

Social media, weaponized and manipulated

Economic flaws in the social media world are not the only issue. Online manipulation of data is giving rise to concerns that social media could become “weaponized,” used to rig elections, control public opinion or marshal recruits for terrorism.

Some social media companies are trying to fix themselves. Twitter recently revealed that it had suspended 1.2 million terrorist accounts since 2015. But those trying to take advantage of the platforms are constantly finding ways around the new limitations.

“We’re creating this giant underground of people trying to manipulate search results or social media feeds,” Lanier warned. “These people are getting more sophisticated, and if we keep on doing this, we’re going to have criminals running the world.”

Hollywood manipulates reality

When he’s not focused on the perils of social media, Lanier continues to be involved in the field of virtual reality. In 1984, he founded VPL Research, which created some of the first VR headsets and, more recently, authored a book, “Dawn of the New Everything,” a memoir chronicling the development of VR’s technology.

Lanier has served as a technology consultant for a number of movies, including “Minority Report,” which was released in 2002. The film sends a warning about tech-driven society, envisioning a world where computer algorithms planted inside human brains predict the future.

In several scenes from “Minority Report,” actor Tom Cruise dons special gloves to interface with giant computer screens, manipulating virtual objects in space. Although this view of the future might look intriguing to some, it runs afoul of technology’s own limits.

“Glove interfaces give you arm fatigue, so the truth is, if you look at those scenes, they’re physically impossible,” Lanier noted.

Concerns about danger and distrust have influenced Lanier’s thinking about machine learning as well. The VR pioneer is interested in finding ways to demystify the machine learning process, essentially removing it from the “black box” and giving it transparency.

To move machine learning to the “clear box,” some companies are building technology that exposes how algorithms are designed to make predictions. Optimizing Mind is one such firm that is allowing developers to peek inside of networks and gain a better understanding of what they are doing.

“Any ordinary person … who can learn even a tiny bit of programming at a coding camp, making the turtle move around or such, should be able to get to the point where they could understand basic machine learning as well,” Lanier said. “We have to get there.”

Here’s the complete interview below, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the LiveWorx 18 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE was a paid media partner for the LiveWorx event. Neither PTC Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE