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Learn More About Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly has been a participant of, and reporter on, the information technology revolution for more than 30 years. Based in his studio in Pacifica, California, he immerses himself in the long-term trends of technology, tools and cultural behavior. He writes about the ripple effects and social consequences surrounding the culture of technology. His New York Times bestselling book titled “The Inevitable” (Viking, June 2016) chronicles how our lives in the near future will be shaped by a few long-term technological trends that are inevitable. Kelly’s previous book, “What Technology Wants” (Viking, 2010), presents a refreshing view of technology as a nearly living force in the world that affects society in an overall positive way. His other recent works include “Excellent Advice For Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier,” (Viking, May 2023), the graphic novel “The Silver Cord” (2015) and “Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities” (Cool Tools Lab, 2013), a large-format, highly curated guide to the best of technology, tools and resources for modern self-sufficient living, which has already been compared to “The Whole Earth Catalog” of a generation ago. His book, “Vanishing Asia: Three Volume Set: West, Central, and East” (Cool Tools Lab, May 2022), shares vivid imagery of the 35 countries in Asia he has traveled to, giving a thorough look at the most remote places and capturing the costumes, architecture, festivals, and lifestyles that are vanishing.
Kelly is currently Senior Maverick at WIRED magazine. He helped launch WIRED in 1993, and served as its executive editor until January 1999. During Kelly’s tenure as editor at WIRED, the magazine won two National Magazine Awards (the industry’s equivalent of two Oscars). He is also currently editor and publisher of the Cool Tools website, which gets 1 million visitors per month. From 1984-1990, Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. He authored the best-selling “New Rules for the New Economy” (Penguin Books, 1999) and the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, “Out of Control” (Basic Books, 1995), called “required reading for all executives” by Fortune. In addition, he writes for prominent publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Time, Harpers, Science, GQ, and Esquire. Earlier in life, Kelly was a photographer in remote parts of Asia (instead of going to college), publishing his photographs in national magazines and in the photo art book “Asia Grace” (Taschen, 2002).
Kevin Kelly is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.
Your New Universal Personal Intern Is Ready To Co-Create With You
It’s no exaggeration to call images and writing generated with the help of AI “co-creations,” says Kevin Kelly, who has been at the forefront of emerging technology for over 30 years. According to Kelly, who is the Senior Maverick and co-founder of WIRED, the secret of this new power is that the best applications of it are the result of very long conversations between humans and machines. “Generative AIs are what I would call UPIs – universal personal interns,” reveals Kelly, who is so electrified by AI tools like Midjourney, DALL-E and ChatGPT that he makes a piece of AI-generated art every day. “You now have a navigator helping you drive around, a librarian helping you search and now we all have interns.” Renowned for his optimistic outlook, Kelly encourages writers, programmers and others in creative fields with his very clear prediction that not a single human artist will lose their job because of this new technology. “You work with interns, and they do all kinds of amazing things, but it’s embarrassing to release the interns’ work without checking it,” he laughingly explains. Kelly, who is also the bestselling author of “The Inevitable” (2016), pushes for organizations to establish AI consensus and policies, calling this a sophisticated and enlightened solution to using this tech to enhance human work, instead of replacing it. Using accessible metaphors, Kelly brings audiences an overview of generative AI’s current and future applications, including practical suggestions for anyone who can use a little extra help in their daily workloads.
The Future Will Be Shaped By Optimists
In a world of overwhelming problems, being optimistic is a competitive advantage. In this enlightening presentation, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly lays out four big reasons to be as optimistic as possible. Complex good things cannot be created inadvertently. We can only make great things if we imagine them first. And part of that vital imagination is to believe that solutions can work. We are more likely to create solutions if we believe they are possible. In fact, people and institutions behave better if they believe that problems can be overcome. Kelly also emphasizes that optimism is a type of trust. We trust that future generations — and future us — will be better equipped and prepared than us today. Therefore we can embark on solutions that may not be immediate. Finally, optimism is the foundation of progress. If we look at scientific evidence rather than news, we are forced to acknowledge that progress is real, on average around the globe. It could suddenly stop, but all probability says progress will continue. Thus optimism is the most realistic view of the world. Looking back we can see that it is the optimists who shape our world, and that if we desire to shape the coming world we need to be as optimistic as we can. Kelly then describes the five larger economic, cultural, and technological forces at work in the world that will help us be optimistic.
Embrace the Inevitable & Steer the Future of Technology
Much of what will happen in the next 30 years is inevitable, driven by technological trends which are already in motion, says Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly. The coming technology will indeed transform our work and our lives – but not for the worse. Kelly examines 12 big technological forces that will shape our future. In an expansive talk that looks out over the next 30 years, he both describes these deep trends – flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking and questioning – and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another. These larger forces will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn and communicate with each other. Some of what is coming may seem scary, like cheap artificial intelligence, ubiquitous tracking or robots replacing humans. Other innovations seem more desirable, such as an on-demand economy and virtual reality in the home. Kelly shows how these diverse disruptions in our lives in the near future can be understood as inevitable results of a few long-term trends. By understanding the larger inevitable trends, it’s easier for us to arrange our day to day relationships with technology in a way that brings forth maximum benefits. Embracing the inevitable is the best way we can remain on top of the coming wave of changes.
Welcome to Mirrorworld: How AR Will Join the Physical and Virtual
Imagine being able to access any place on earth virtually – while remaining in your present physical space. According to Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly, that new reality is steadily approaching. Augmented reality (AR) headsets will soon replace handheld devices as our primary entry point to a digital dimension. Instead of looking at 2D pictures of places and things on the internet, we will walk into a virtual, 3D map of the world and interact with it. This is what Kelly calls “Mirrorworld,” and he says creating an accessible, digital version of our entire universe will be an achievement that will eclipse even the creation of the world wide web. Organizations ranging from the U.S. Army to General Electric are already capitalizing on this technology – and the bits and pieces of Mirrorworld which have already been created – to improve training and industrial production, respectively. Retailers such as Wayfair, Amazon and Walmart use phone apps to allow consumers to see digital furniture in their physical homes; soon these apps will be replaced by widely-available AR headsets. How will your company harness these inevitable trends to expand efficiency, productivity and customer experience? In this presentation, Kelly reveals the powers and transformative opportunities of Mirrorworld.
The Technium
What comes after the Internet? What is bigger than the web? What will produce more wealth than all the startups to date? The answer is a planetary super-organism comprised of 4 billion mobile phones, 80 quintillion transistor chips, a million miles of fiber optic cables, and 6 billion human minds all wired together. The whole thing acts like a single organism, with its own behavior and character – but at a scale we have little experience with. This is more than just a metaphor. In this presentation, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly takes the idea of a global super-organism seriously by describing what we know about it so far, how it is growing, where its boundaries are, and what it will mean for us as individuals and collectively. Both the smallest one-person enterprises today, and the largest mega-corporations on Earth, will have to learn to how this Technium operates, and how to exploit it.
Current Technologies of Disruption
Progress is uneven. We can count on most things getting better incrementally, but some inventions are disruptive, causing discontinuities in society and business. Think ink-jet printing, online auctions, digital cameras. During these disruptions, incumbents are overturned, and outsiders take center stage to become the main event. In many of the examples of past, the disruptive technologies were initially dismissed as marginal toys, too niche, unprofitable, or broken. And they were. But their revolutionary benefits made them worth investing in and improving. In this presentation, Wired co-founder Kevin Kevin outlines 10 current technologies of disruption, now in their infancy, on their way to overturn entire industries.
The Quantitative Self
Cheap and smart technologies today permit you to track any metric about yourself: blood pressure, activity level, sleep quality, mood, nutrition, performance, productivity, or genetic profile. Since you are in control of your self-tracking you can perform self-experiments to optimize your health or productivity. Or you can add value to any measurement by sharing it with others who are also tracking similar factors. Personalized tracking enables science to provide you with personalized medicines and treatments. This rapidly accelerating technology is revolutionizing medicine, public health, business workplaces, recreation and self-identity. As one of the co-founders of the movement, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly provides early insight into this disruptive technology.
The Sharing Culture
We are living in a new culture. Books, photos, music, film, games, news, gossip, art and communication are converging onto one unified platform. While this convergence appears to be the web right now, our digital destiny is actually something bigger, more complex, more alien, and more powerful then just a better web. It is a highly socialized culture, exploring new models of cooperation and engagement. Items, people and systems are highly connected; everything is shared. It is hugely urban. It is progressive. It is liquid, fast, pluralistic and plastic. It shifts the consensus of “truth.” It changes how we know things. It is redefining what humans are for. It is changing economics, shifting value from scarcity to abundance. It spans countries and languages. It reaches anywhere the mobile phone reaches. This culture is being shaped by new technologies; Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly presents a portrait of what this emerging access culture looks like.
Essential Techno-Literacies
The most important technologies that will shape your career tomorrow have not been invented yet. The key inventions that will shape our world in the next 50 years don’t exist today. To fully master these upcoming technologies you must unlearn the habits of today’s technologies. Therefore, the essential life skill you really need to master is not expertise of specific technologies (which will radically change or disappear), but a new kind of techno-literacy. Techno-literacy is a mastery of technology as a whole – how technology in general works, how the core remains unchanged over time, and how to be an eternal newbie, always re-learning. In this presentation, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly reveals that every business and institution must be aware of these 20 rules, or techno-literacies, in order to enable their employees, students, or customers to survive in this accelerating world.
The Insider’s Guide to Generative AI
June 6, 2023
Kevin Kelly, Your Wisdom Coach (Audio)
May 9, 2023
Forget Utopia. Ignore Dystopia. Embrace Protopia!
March 14, 2023
Picture Limitless Creativity at Your Fingertips
November 17, 2022
How We Build the Future (Video)
September 20, 2022
Why You Should Trust the Future (Audio)
November 16, 2021
The Case for Optimism
August 2, 2021
A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society?
January 5, 2021
Postcards From the Future
October 19, 2020
AR Will Spark the Next Big Tech Platform - Call It Mirrorworld
February 12, 2019
How the Internet Gave All of Us Superpowers
September 18, 2018
Interview With Kevin Kelly (Audio)
February 22, 2018
How to Fix Facebook? We Asked 9 Experts
October 31, 2017
The Future According to Kevin Kelly
March 29, 2017
The Internet is Still at the Beginning of Its Beginning
November 6, 2016
Digital Is Just Getting Started
July 26, 2016
Our Machine Masters
October 30, 2014
It's Been 25 Years Since World Wide Web Debuted
March 13, 2014
Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It
March 10, 2014
Q&A - Kevin Kelly, Founder of Wired, at FFWD2014
January 28, 2014
Interview With Kevin Kelly, Author of ‘Cool Tools’
December 10, 2013
Cool Tools: A Whole Earth Catalog for the Post-Internet Era
December 4, 2013
Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs
December 24, 2012
Excellent Advice For Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier
(Viking, May 2023)
Vanishing Asia: Three Volume Set: West, Central, and East
(Cool Tools Lab, May 2022)
The Silver Cord
(Cool Tools Lab, February 2015)
Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities
(Cool Tools Lab, December 2013)
What Technology Wants
(Viking Penguin, October 2010)
Asia Grace
(Taschen, September 2002)
New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World
(Penguin, October 1999)
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World
(Perseus Books, April 1995)
“Thank you for being such an important part of Supernova 2016, it was a great day and we’ve heard such positive feedback from the nearly 600 people who attended. Your participation and investment of time to prepare and lead such a thoughtful discussion was a critical component of the day’s success and I, and all of us at Quantcast, are immensely grateful for that.”
“Kevin’s on the road to Buddha-hood. He’s a deeply spiritual man. He has an intellectual curiosity that is infinite. His Socratic method of inquiry and development is wonderful. It used to annoy me. I used to think, This guy’s an editor. He’s a futurist – that’s fine – but I’ve got to do some business. Why is he bothering me with these questions? But the more time I spend with Kevin, the more I realize that the way his mind wanders across things keeps us all on the edge.”
“Kevin Kelly is the clearest-eyed visionary we have about the intersection of culture and technology.”
Praise for “The Inevitable”
“A quintessential work of technological futurism... what’s valuable about ‘The Inevitable,’ from a business perspective, is less what it says about how to innovate, and more what it says about where to innovate.”
“Anyone can claim to be a prophet, a fortune teller, or a futurist, and plenty of people do. What makes Kevin Kelly different is that he’s right. In this book, you’re swept along by his clear prose and unassailable arguments until it finally hits you: The technological, cultural, and societal changes he’s foreseeing really are inevitable. It’s like having a crystal ball, only without the risk of shattering.”
“This book offers profound insight into what happens (soon!) when intelligence flows as easily into objects as electricity.”
“How will the future be made? Kevin Kelly argues that the sequence of events ensuing from technical innovation has its own momentum . . . and that our best strategy is to understand and embrace it. Whether you find this prospect wonderful or terrifying, you will want to read this extremely thought-provoking book.”
“Kevin Kelly has been predicting our technological future with uncanny prescience for years. Now he’s given us a glimpse of how the next three decades will unfold with ‘The Inevitable,’ a book jam-packed with insight, ideas, and optimism.”
“As exhilarating as the most outlandish science fiction novel, but based on very real trends. Kevin Kelly is the perfect tour guide for this life-changing future.”
“Creating a fictional future is easy; Kevin Kelly makes a habit of doing the difficult by showing us where we’re actually going. The Inevitable is an eye-opening roadmap for what lies ahead. Science fiction is on its way to becoming science fact.”
“Automatic must-read.”
Praise for “Cool Tools”
“What a knockout! Book of the Year!”
“When this fabulous, amazing, unputdownable book arrived at my studio I immediately spent two and a half hours in it, and then the next morning passed another three-hour stint of ‘Wow – look at this! I could do that!’ This book is more exciting – in both what it actually offers and what kind of life it suggests – than anything I’ve read for a very long time. It’s an outstanding achievement in every sense – content, design, and quality.
“I love it. A worthy successor to the Whole Earth Catalog.”