Dawn of the New Everything by Jaron Lanier review – virtual reality patter

The techno-sage and Silicon Valley insider sees VR as emancipatory and liberating but what does 'shared lucid dreaming' actually mean?

I experienced virtual reality for the first time the other day, at a training workshop for university lecturers. When I donned the Oculus Rift - a sleek plastic headset with handheld controls - I was presented with a desk on which sat some cartoonishly rendered objects: a ball, a toy car, a ray gun. I picked up the gun and fired off a few shots. I rolled the ball off the table. Then the lenses in the goggles misted up and I grew bored.

I couldn't see how virtual reality was supposed to help with the teaching of literature, but the techno-apparatchiks who were our guides for the day assured me that this was the future of pedagogy (a word they liked). "Just imagine," they said, "one day your students won't just be able to read books: they'll experience what it's like to be in them."