Lanier would like to make a living as a musician the old-fashioned way, by selling albums through the music industry.

Since the copyright-exploitation industry has been under threat he has cobbled together all kinds of far fetched "visionary" theories as to why we should go back to the way things were, or else there will be doom.

Never at any point has he come up with a solution, or even a direction in which to look for a solution. Or at least anything that can be taken seriously:

"But what if you were owed money for the use of information that exists because you exist? This is what accountants and lawyers are for."

That's the logic of an 8-year old. Basically his entire vision comes down to "we are doomed, and the only way to save us is to artificially re-create scarcity, but fuck if I know how".

The robotic surgery example (which has fuck all to do with free and open information) shows how sickeningly selfish that is. We may be able to live without musicians, but people are fucking dying because of shortage of surgeons. But Mr. Lanier prefers a world in which surgeons are, like himself of course, part of a well-paid and taken care of middle class, and fuck everyone else.