Yo, technology.

What is it all about?

If the species dies and some future species of intelligent flying octopus inherits the earth and they go back over us, they'll probably blame Facebook for our demise.

Hello and welcome to Danny in the Valley. Thank you for tuning in as ever.

Now, usually right here, I say something like, this is your weekly dispatch from deep inside the Silicon Valley Future Machine.

And it is. But this week, we're doing it a bit different. We're going to be looking at the dark side of technology, the CD underbelly.

And we'll be doing it with Jaron Lanier, who is, well, a lot of things. He's a pioneer of virtual

reality. He's co-founded or started several companies, the last of which he sold to Google.

And for the last dozen years, he's run a research lab at Microsoft.

But he's also an author and a very good one.

In fact, he's one of the most eloquent writers on technology around,

both on the immense possibilities of technology, but also its pitfalls.

And the latter is the subject of his latest book, which is called 10 arguments for deleting

your social media accounts right now.

So no prizes for guessing what it's about.

And now, before you roll your eyes at yet another critic coming out to bash social media,

I know it's the fashion these days. I'd ask

you to pause. Because Lanier's arguments aren't emotional knee-jerk reactions. He actually writes

as an insider, as someone who understands the algorithms that get us checking our phones 150 times

a day. In other words, he understands the machine. And us checking our phones 150 times a day.

In other words, he understands the machine.

And he's one of the few willing to point out in very clear,

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