If Jaron Lanier were remembered for nothing else, history would note him as man who coined the phrase "virtual reality." But Lanier's place in the bigger picture of science and computer history is assured. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the software designer and inventor, virtually singlehandedly, brought high-tech thinking into the reach of the ordinary citizen. Revered by fans of the technical age--if sometimes reviled by other computer-industry leaders for his futuristic promises--Lanier remains an enigma to mainstream society.

A self-taught computer genius to whom the designation eccentric might be politely applied, Lanier grew up in a geodesic dome home in New Mexico surrounded by his twin loves, mathematics and music. The son of a science-writer father and a concert pianist mother (who died when Lanier was nine), the youth, who had dropped out of high school, was nevertheless allowed to attend college courses at age 14. "By the...