and my guest jaron lanier has a new book called "who owns the future?" i know one thing-- it's not people who write books. singapore is now the world's most expensive place to live. for the world's cheapest place, check your clothing label. this is the "colbert report. captioning sponsored by comedy central ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: welcome to the report. thank you for joining us. >> stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! ( cheers and applause ) ( cheers and applause ) folks, welcome to the show. thank you for joining us. if you watch this show, i got some news for you. president barack obama is a failed leader. don't worry-- this isn't a rerun or a future episode. it's tonight. last week obama announced the planned withdrawal of american forces from afghanistan by 2015. with a stroke of his pen, there goes america's strategic reserve of rubble. now i feel like i've wasted 12 years memorizing all those tricky muslim names-- karzai. haqqani. beyonce. i mean, i was almost ready for that jelly. there is a

jaron lanier are is here. he wrote a book called "who owns the future?" i am pleased to have jaron lanier back at this table. >> it is up for grabs. if things keep going the way they are, it will be whoever is the closest to owning the biggest computers. that is what it is like now. 20 years ago, if you said, who are the most influential people, -- is whoever has the digital networks. all of the influential people are closer to the big networks. it might be for finance or social networking. it might be for insurance. >> are we talking about companies or individuals? >> the decision is blurry. ownership is becoming more and more narrow. depending on how you count. you have a few dozen kids. good for them. i bear them no ill will. we are turning society into an all or nothing game. you get to be close to the big computer that is calculating advantages. it is a long tail. it is a long tail. >> the thesis here is what? >> is that we made a mistake. it is an honest mistake about how we manage our digital networks. i was certain that there was no ill intent. it

first up is computer scientist and former microsoft researcher jaron lanier. his new book is who owns the future. >> we made a mistake, an honest mistake about how to organize our digital network and i was part of making the mistakes. so i'm absolutely certain there was no ill intent, there was no evil conspiracy, it was an honest mistake made with tremendous purity of heart. >> rose: the mistake was. >> the mistake was if we made information open, if everybody shared their information, if we created an informal economy for the information world, that that would make the world efficient enough that it would benefit everybody in the end and it would great a more egalitarian society. but the mistake we made is that all people might be created equal but not all computers. there are computers calculated at creating an advantage. >> and nancy strickler the +:shs bring creative projects to life. >> it's hard to do creative things and make art and especially because the only ideas that seem to get money are ones that might make someone else money. but a lot of great

and my guest jaron lanier has a new book called "who owns the future?" not people who write books. singapore is now the world's most expensive place to live. for the world's cheapest place, check your clothing label. this is the "colbert report.