A refreshing view of technology as a living force in the world
This provocative book introduces a brand-new view of technology. It suggests that technology as a whole is not a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. Kevin Kelly looks out through the eyes of this global technological system to discover “what it wants.” He uses vivid examples from the past to trace technology's long course and then follows a dozen trajectories of technology into the near future to project where technology is headed. This new theory of technology offers three practical lessons: By listening to what technology wants we can better prepare ourselves and our children for the inevitable technologies to come. By adopting the principles of pro-action and engagement, we can steer technologies into their best roles. And by aligning ourselves with the long-term imperatives of this near-living system, we can capture its full gifts. Written in intelligent and accessible language, this is a fascinating, innovative, and optimistic look at how humanity and technology join to produce increasing opportunities in the world and how technology can give our lives greater meaning.
KEVIN KELLY helped launch Wired magazine and was its executive editor for nearly seven years. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. His previous books include Out of Control and the bestselling New Rules for a New Economy. He lives in Pacifica, California.
“ Kevin Kelly is one of the world’s best philosophers of technology, and he’s again ahead of the wave with this astonishingly brilliant book. He shows how technology is an outgrowth of human life, and thus it evolves based on its own inherent desires and instincts. It expands the mind’s urge toward connections and unity and, yes, toward goodness and beauty. What a cool insight, at once both useful and optimistic!” —Walter Isaacson
“ Kevin Kelly’s original and unusual mind has produced an enthralling account of the living, changing ‘technium’ in which all our lives are immersed. His conclusion is that technology’s evolution is incremental, inevitable and inexorable. This is a book swarming with fresh insights.” —Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist
“ This is why it is still worth our time to read books. Kevin Kelly, our national treasure, the clearest-eyed visionary we have about the intersection of culture and technology, has created a tour de force, a book for the ages. It will be several months before I stop bringing this book up with everyone I meet.” —Seth Godin, author of Linchpin
“ Years ago I read a book review that used the term ‘magisterial’ on several occasions. I’ve since wanted to use that uniquely potent word in a blurb, but have never found a book that was worthy thereof. Until now. In What Technology Wants, the incomparable, and he is, Kevin Kelly has indeed given us a magisterial tome that should be ingested slowly and savored to the last paragraph.” —Tom Peters
“ It isn’t often that a book is so important and well crafted that I feel compelled to urge everyone to buy it and read it even though I profoundly disagree with aspects of it. What Technology Wants is the best, purest statement of one way of thinking about our era and the future. You can’t understand the most important conversation of our times without reading this book.” —Jaron Lanier
“ Kevin Kelly’s new book is unputdownable. It’s brilliant. It’s necessary.” —Doug Coupland
“ This is the first book that has made me accept the inevitability of our technologized future, while simultaneously making me feel hopeful about it. Kelly is a patient yet insistent guide to the emerging landscape, helping us understand our co-evolution with technology as a tradition rather than an aberration. This is technology writing—and Kevin Kelly—at their very best.” —Douglas Rushkoff, author, Program or Be Programmed
“ Kevin Kelly is the biggest thinker I know, and What Technology Wants is a breathtakingly big look at what technology is, what it is becoming, and what humans can do about it. It’s a uniquely appealing invitation to rethink the role of technology in the world and our lives. I read it like a connoisseur must savor a rare wine because books this important and this compellingly written don’t come along often.” —Howard Rheingold
“ Here you have the first theory of human history that is reliably predictive, because it extends to before and after humans. The writing is a model of lucidity.” —Stewart Brand
“ A terrific book. Kelly’s guarded optimism about our technology-empowered future is infectious and persuasive. Anyone who catches a glimpse of the tomorrow presented here will want it, and move mountains to make it happen.” —David Brin
“ What Technology Wants is an inspiring, provocative and sweeping account of how our world works and where it’s going. Kelly wants you to make choices about technology, but he also wants you to understand that technology is making choices about you. It is an extraordinary book.” —Cory Doctorow
“ Brave Kevin Kelly says what others are too timid to admit: he sees technology as a life force, a desiring partner. In the embrace of the web that he loves, he wants to give technology what it wants and this book is his theory of its wishes. By making the strong case Kelly opens up the conversation we need to have about technology, determinism, and human choice.” —Sherry Turkle
“ This is no mere book about stuff. To Kevin Kelly, life is an extension of matter and energy, the fundamentals of the universe ever since the Big Bang, and technology is an extension of life. From this perspective, humans are not the ultimate but rather intermediate between the born and the made. If you want to expand your mind and way of thinking about life and the cosmos, I can think of no better book than What Technology Wants. Kelly is a master of the Big View.” —Stan Davis
“ One of the foremost connoisseurs of technology, Kevin Kelly takes us on a wild ride into the living, pumping, networked heart of the world that has grown up around us. Through his eyes we come to see the technium as an evolving ecosystem whose genes are ideas and whose lush varieties form a seventh kingdom of life. This book will immediately become a classic guidepost for anyone wanting to navigate the strange and miraculous ecology in which we now find ourselves.” —Donald Eagleman
Description:
A refreshing view of technology as a living force in the world
This provocative book introduces a brand-new view of technology. It suggests that technology as a whole is not a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. Kevin Kelly looks out through the eyes of this global technological system to discover “what it wants.” He uses vivid examples from the past to trace technology's long course and then follows a dozen trajectories of technology into the near future to project where technology is headed.
This new theory of technology offers three practical lessons: By listening to what technology wants we can better prepare ourselves and our children for the inevitable technologies to come. By adopting the principles of pro-action and engagement, we can steer technologies into their best roles. And by aligning ourselves with the long-term imperatives of this near-living system, we can capture its full gifts.
Written in intelligent and accessible language, this is a fascinating, innovative, and optimistic look at how humanity and technology join to produce increasing opportunities in the world and how technology can give our lives greater meaning.
KEVIN KELLY helped launch Wired magazine and was its executive editor for nearly seven years. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. His previous books include Out of Control and the bestselling New Rules for a New Economy. He lives in Pacifica, California.
“ Kevin Kelly is one of the world’s best philosophers of technology, and he’s again ahead of the wave with this astonishingly brilliant book. He shows how technology is an outgrowth of human life, and thus it evolves based on its own inherent desires and instincts. It expands the mind’s urge toward connections and unity and, yes, toward goodness and beauty. What a cool insight, at once both useful and optimistic!” —Walter Isaacson
“ Kevin Kelly’s original and unusual mind has produced an enthralling account of the living, changing ‘technium’ in which all our lives are immersed. His conclusion is that technology’s evolution is incremental, inevitable and inexorable. This is a book swarming with fresh insights.” —Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist
“ This is why it is still worth our time to read books. Kevin Kelly, our national treasure, the clearest-eyed visionary we have about the intersection of culture and technology, has created a tour de force, a book for the ages. It will be several months before I stop bringing this book up with everyone I meet.” —Seth Godin, author of Linchpin
“ Years ago I read a book review that used the term ‘magisterial’ on several occasions. I’ve since wanted to use that uniquely potent word in a blurb, but have never found a book that was worthy thereof. Until now. In What Technology Wants, the incomparable, and he is, Kevin Kelly has indeed given us a magisterial tome that should be ingested slowly and savored to the last paragraph.” —Tom Peters
“ It isn’t often that a book is so important and well crafted that I feel compelled to urge everyone to buy it and read it even though I profoundly disagree with aspects of it. What Technology Wants is the best, purest statement of one way of thinking about our era and the future. You can’t understand the most important conversation of our times without reading this book.” —Jaron Lanier
“ Kevin Kelly’s new book is unputdownable. It’s brilliant. It’s necessary.” —Doug Coupland
“ This is the first book that has made me accept the inevitability of our technologized future, while simultaneously making me feel hopeful about it. Kelly is a patient yet insistent guide to the emerging landscape, helping us understand our co-evolution with technology as a tradition rather than an aberration. This is technology writing—and Kevin Kelly—at their very best.” —Douglas Rushkoff, author, Program or Be Programmed
“ Kevin Kelly is the biggest thinker I know, and What Technology Wants is a breathtakingly big look at what technology is, what it is becoming, and what humans can do about it. It’s a uniquely appealing invitation to rethink the role of technology in the world and our lives. I read it like a connoisseur must savor a rare wine because books this important and this compellingly written don’t come along often.” —Howard Rheingold
“ Here you have the first theory of human history that is reliably predictive, because it extends to before and after humans. The writing is a model of lucidity.” —Stewart Brand
“ A terrific book. Kelly’s guarded optimism about our technology-empowered future is infectious and persuasive. Anyone who catches a glimpse of the tomorrow presented here will want it, and move mountains to make it happen.” —David Brin
“ What Technology Wants is an inspiring, provocative and sweeping account of how our world works and where it’s going. Kelly wants you to make choices about technology, but he also wants you to understand that technology is making choices about you. It is an extraordinary book.” —Cory Doctorow
“ Brave Kevin Kelly says what others are too timid to admit: he sees technology as a life force, a desiring partner. In the embrace of the web that he loves, he wants to give technology what it wants and this book is his theory of its wishes. By making the strong case Kelly opens up the conversation we need to have about technology, determinism, and human choice.” —Sherry Turkle
“ This is no mere book about stuff. To Kevin Kelly, life is an extension of matter and energy, the fundamentals of the universe ever since the Big Bang, and technology is an extension of life. From this perspective, humans are not the ultimate but rather intermediate between the born and the made. If you want to expand your mind and way of thinking about life and the cosmos, I can think of no better book than What Technology Wants. Kelly is a master of the Big View.” —Stan Davis
“ One of the foremost connoisseurs of technology, Kevin Kelly takes us on a wild ride into the living, pumping, networked heart of the world that has grown up around us. Through his eyes we come to see the technium as an evolving ecosystem whose genes are ideas and whose lush varieties form a seventh kingdom of life. This book will immediately become a classic guidepost for anyone wanting to navigate the strange and miraculous ecology in which we now find ourselves.” —Donald Eagleman