A vision for the future of the internet by one of the leading thinkers on the subject

Towards a Digital Renaissance traces the excitement and optimism of the early internet, the outsider cyberpunk ethic and open access. But it also monitors the more complex but ultimately more commercialised online world of today, a world dominated by corporate business in which many feel that surveillance has become overwhelming. Jeremy Silver's involvement in various start-ups, both as CEO and investor, led to his leadership of Digital Catapult. Towards a Digital Renaissance examines the interplay between state and private financing in the digital sector. It also argues for the internet's potential to transition from a 'medieval' world of the GAFA big four (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), closed and walled up like medieval city states, to a 'digital renaissance' based on the free exchange of ideas and an enabling metaverse made up of virtual reality and artificial intelligence that deepens our experience of reality rather than restricting or monitoring it.

"For the past decade, the hype surrounding VR and AR technology has waxed and waned, but Jeremy Silver has been constant, a force of nature in this space. Some people just talk about technology, but Jeremy is in the trenches, and deeply understands everything ranging from how to fund a start-up to how to troubleshoot hardware. This book brilliantly tells a story about the metaverse growing up, and how Jeremy helped along the way." - Jeremy Bailenson, founding director at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab