Books by GameChanger thinkers are available for purchase at Barnes & Noble, 565 S 7th St, Bismarck
Jaron Lanier, The Father of Virtual Reality
Jaron Lanier has been on the cusp of technological innovation from its infancy to the present. A pioneer in virtual reality (a term he coined), Lanier founded VPL Research, the first company to sell VR products, and led teams creating VR applications for medicine, design, and numerous other fields. He is currently Interdisciplinary Scientist at Microsoft Research. He was a founder or principal of startups that were acquired by Google, Adobe, Oracle, and Pfizer. In 2010, Lanier was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. In recent years he has also been named one of top one hundred public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy magazine, one of the top 50 World Thinkers by Prospect magazine, and one of history’s 300 or so greatest inventors in the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 2009 Jaron Lanier received a Lifetime Career Award from the IEEE, the preeminent international engineering society.
A Renaissance Man for the 21st century, Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, artist, and author who writes on numerous topics, including high-technology business, the social impact of technology, the philosophy of consciousness and information, Internet politics, and the future of humanism. Lanier’s most recent book is Who Owns the Future? He offers a critical and insightful perspective in his talks on big data: who owns the data, what it all means for our society, and the quest for a sustainable digital economy. Lanier looks at the large patterns shaping digital world, such as the 2008 financial crisis, NSA surveillance, and the implementation of healthcare.gov. Who Owns the Future? remains an international bestseller, and was declared the most important book of 2013 by Joe Nocera in The New York Times and was on the Amazon 2013 Best Books of the Year list. It has also been awarded Harvard’s 2014 Goldsmith Book Prize. The impact of Who Owns the Future? was celebrated prominently in Europe when Lanier was awarded the 2014 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, one of the highest literary honors in the world.
Jaron Lanier’s first book, You Are Not a Gadget, A Manifesto, was a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe bestseller. The book was chosen as one of the best books of the year by Time Magazine and The New York Times, and won top honors at the San Francisco Book Festival. Michiko Kakutani, writing in The New York Times called Lanier’s book “Lucid, powerful and persuasive. . . . Necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace.” In the spring of 2015 Jaron Lanier will publish an ebook version of a collection of essays entitled When Dreams Grow Up, and he is also working on a new book, Dawn of the New Everything: First Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality, tentatively to be published in Fall 2015.
Lanier’s writing appears in Discover, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harpers Magazine, Atlantic, Wired Magazine (where he was a founding contributing editor), and Scientific American. He has appeared on TV shows such as PBS NewsHour, The Colbert Report, Nightline and Charlie Rose, and has been profiled on the front pages of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times multiple times.
A Renaissance Man for the 21st century, Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, artist, and author who writes on numerous topics, including high-technology business, the social impact of technology, the philosophy of consciousness and information, Internet politics, and the future of humanism. Lanier’s most recent book is Who Owns the Future? He offers a critical and insightful perspective in his talks on big data: who owns the data, what it all means for our society, and the quest for a sustainable digital economy. Lanier looks at the large patterns shaping digital world, such as the 2008 financial crisis, NSA surveillance, and the implementation of healthcare.gov. Who Owns the Future? remains an international bestseller, and was declared the most important book of 2013 by Joe Nocera in The New York Times and was on the Amazon 2013 Best Books of the Year list. It has also been awarded Harvard’s 2014 Goldsmith Book Prize. The impact of Who Owns the Future? was celebrated prominently in Europe when Lanier was awarded the 2014 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, one of the highest literary honors in the world.
Jaron Lanier’s first book, You Are Not a Gadget, A Manifesto, was a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe bestseller. The book was chosen as one of the best books of the year by Time Magazine and The New York Times, and won top honors at the San Francisco Book Festival. Michiko Kakutani, writing in The New York Times called Lanier’s book “Lucid, powerful and persuasive. . . . Necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace.” In the spring of 2015 Jaron Lanier will publish an ebook version of a collection of essays entitled When Dreams Grow Up, and he is also working on a new book, Dawn of the New Everything: First Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality, tentatively to be published in Fall 2015.
Lanier’s writing appears in Discover, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harpers Magazine, Atlantic, Wired Magazine (where he was a founding contributing editor), and Scientific American. He has appeared on TV shows such as PBS NewsHour, The Colbert Report, Nightline and Charlie Rose, and has been profiled on the front pages of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times multiple times.
Jon Ronson, Award-Winning Writer and Documentary Filmmaker
Jon Ronson is a gonzo journalist in the spirit of the great Hunter S. Thompson, but with the comic styling of the legendary Monty Python. An award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker, his unique brand of intellect and comic wit has been described by comedian Jon Stewart as "satirical investigation." He is a regular contributor to the BBC and NPR and he is the author of seven books including the bestsellers The Men Who Stare at Goats, Them: Adventures with Extremists, and The Psychopath Test.
Fascinated by madness, strange behavior and the human mind, Jon Ronson has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. In The Men Who Stare at Goats, he goes behind the scenes of the U.S. Army's secret paranormal warfare program to expose a strange and comic set of characters. The book was originally a BBC documentary series and later a major motion picture starring George Clooney. In it's review The New York Times called the book "a twisted treasure hunt…outstandingly artful and chilling."
Jon is also the author of the bestselling book The Psychopath Test, which The San Francisco Chronicle called "…no ordinary piece of investigative journalism." In the book he explores the concept of psychopathy and how we define sanity, insanity and eccentricity in our society and in ourselves. The book was adapted into a story for NPR's This American Life and has become one of the show's most popular episodes of all time. Published in 2012, Jon's latest book Lost at Sea is a collection of his essays that originally appeared in The Guardian (UK). Amongst the stories chronicled in those essays are Jon's adventures with America's real-life superheroes and an interview with a man who has tried to split the atom at his kitchen table.
For the past three years, Jon Ronson has been immersing himself in the world of modern-day public shaming—meeting famous shamees, shamers, and bystanders who have been impacted. He reveals his findings in his newest book So You've Been Publicly Shamed.
When not spending time with extremists, psychopaths, and the shamed, Jon likes to spend time with his wife and son. He lives with them in New York City and London.
Fascinated by madness, strange behavior and the human mind, Jon Ronson has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. In The Men Who Stare at Goats, he goes behind the scenes of the U.S. Army's secret paranormal warfare program to expose a strange and comic set of characters. The book was originally a BBC documentary series and later a major motion picture starring George Clooney. In it's review The New York Times called the book "a twisted treasure hunt…outstandingly artful and chilling."
Jon is also the author of the bestselling book The Psychopath Test, which The San Francisco Chronicle called "…no ordinary piece of investigative journalism." In the book he explores the concept of psychopathy and how we define sanity, insanity and eccentricity in our society and in ourselves. The book was adapted into a story for NPR's This American Life and has become one of the show's most popular episodes of all time. Published in 2012, Jon's latest book Lost at Sea is a collection of his essays that originally appeared in The Guardian (UK). Amongst the stories chronicled in those essays are Jon's adventures with America's real-life superheroes and an interview with a man who has tried to split the atom at his kitchen table.
For the past three years, Jon Ronson has been immersing himself in the world of modern-day public shaming—meeting famous shamees, shamers, and bystanders who have been impacted. He reveals his findings in his newest book So You've Been Publicly Shamed.
When not spending time with extremists, psychopaths, and the shamed, Jon likes to spend time with his wife and son. He lives with them in New York City and London.
Noreen Herzfeld, Religion Scholar and Computer Scientist
Noreen Herzfeld is Professor of Theology and Computer Science at St. John's University. She received a B.A. from St. Olaf College in Mathematics and Music, an M.A. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Computer Science from Penn State, an M.A. in Theology from St. John's University, and a Ph.D. in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Herzfeld teaches courses in both the department of computer science and the department of theology at St. John's University, on Artificial Intelligence, Computer Theory, Ethical and Religious Issues in Computing, Science and Religion, Islam, and Religion and Conflict. Her current research investigates the intersection between computer technology and Christian theology.
Her books include In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit, Technology and Religion, andThe Limits of Perfection.
Her books include In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit, Technology and Religion, andThe Limits of Perfection.
Lori Andrews, Legal Expert on Technology and Personal Privacy
Lori Andrews started her consumer activism when she was seven and her Ken doll went bald. Her letter to Mattel got action. She’s been fighting for people’s rights ever since. Now she works on the edge of new technology. She’s advised companies, politicians, and consumers around the world about the personal and social impacts of genetic technologies, reproductive technologies, and nanotechnologies. She's currently focusing on how social networks are changing our lives, for good or ill.
Her path-breaking litigation about technologies caused the National Law Journal to list her as one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America." The American Bar Association Journal calls Lori “a lawyer with a literary bent who has the scientific chops to rival any CSI investigator.” In her current project, she is writing a Constitution covering social networks.
Andrews is a distinguished professor of law at IIT Chicago-Kent and director of IIT's Institute for Science, Law and Technology. She has been a visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She received her B.A. summa cum laude from Yale College and her J.D. from Yale Law School.
Professor Andrews is the author of 11 nonfiction book including, I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did. She is the author of more than 150 articles on biotechnology, genetics and social networks. Professor Andrews is also the author of three mysteries involving a fictional geneticist : Sequence The Silent Assassin, and Immunity.
Her path-breaking litigation about technologies caused the National Law Journal to list her as one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America." The American Bar Association Journal calls Lori “a lawyer with a literary bent who has the scientific chops to rival any CSI investigator.” In her current project, she is writing a Constitution covering social networks.
Andrews is a distinguished professor of law at IIT Chicago-Kent and director of IIT's Institute for Science, Law and Technology. She has been a visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She received her B.A. summa cum laude from Yale College and her J.D. from Yale Law School.
Professor Andrews is the author of 11 nonfiction book including, I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did. She is the author of more than 150 articles on biotechnology, genetics and social networks. Professor Andrews is also the author of three mysteries involving a fictional geneticist : Sequence The Silent Assassin, and Immunity.
Richard Van Eck, Education Expert and Computer Game Designer
Richard N. Van Eck is Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning and the founding Dr. David and Lola Rognlie Monson Endowed Professor in Medical Education at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences in the United States of America. He also served for 11 years as a professor of Instructional Design and Technology at UND and for 5 years at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was also a member of the Institute for Intelligent Systems. He has been studying games and learning since 1995, having worked as an instructional designer or developer on several learning games during his doctoral studies at the University of South Alabama, including Adventures in Problem Solving (Texas Interactive Media Award 1999) and Ribbit’s Big Splash (Gulf Guardian Award 2002; Environment Education Association of Alabama’s 2002 Best Environmental Education Award). Since then he has been a researcher and designer on several other STEM games, including PlatinuMath (mathematics game for pre-service teacher education), Project NEO (science game for pre-service teachers), Project Blackfeather (programming game for middle school students), Contemporary Studies of the Zombie Apocalypse (mathematics game for middle school students) and Far Plane (leadership game for high school students and adults). Dr. Van Eck is a frequent keynote speaker nationally and internationally on the educational potential of videogames, and his scholarship on games, in this area includes dozens of books, chapters, and refereed publications, and more than 75 presentations on games and learning including talks at TEDx Manitoba and South By Southwest. In addition to his work on serious games, Richard has also published and presented on intelligent tutoring systems, pedagogical agents, authoring tools, and gender and technology.