12 Technological Forces, Optimists Shape the Future, & More
FUTURE OF THE WORLD - Edition 9
Hey everyone,
We’re continuing to tweak the Friday edition of the newsletter. You will notice the name change to Future 5.
We’re also going to dedicate each Future 5 edition to one concept, topic, or person.
This edition focuses on Kevin Kelly. Kelly is one of the world’s leading visionary thinkers. He’s spent the last few decades writing about the impact of technology and the internet on humanity.
I’ve been deep in his content these past weeks, and it’s so powerful—opens up your brain and gives you a deeper understanding of how the future plays out.
Hope you enjoy today’s edition. Please give me feedback in the comments, so we can iterate and improve.
Have the best weekend!
Misha
Here’s what you’re getting today:
Quote: The internet is still becoming.
Book: The 12 technological forces that will shape our future.
TED Talk: Every great and difficult thing has required a strong sense of optimism.
Podcast: Efficiency is highly overrated. Goofing off is highly underrated.
Tweet: Don’t confuse a long distance with impossibility.
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Quote:
“The internet is still at the beginning of its beginning. It is only becoming. If we could climb into a time machine, journey 30 years into the future, and from that vantage look back to today, we’d realize that most of the greatest products running the lives of citizens in 2050 were not invented till after 2016. People in the future will look at their holodecks and wearable virtual reality contact lenses and downloadable avatars and AI interfaces and say, “Oh, you didn’t really have the internet”—or whatever they’ll call it—”back then.”
Technology is not complete. It’s constantly iterating—morphing into something we cannot even comprehend.
The internet we use today, even the cutting-edge blockchain and web3 components, are becoming something else.
That’s the power and beauty of it, but also the reason we cannot just sit around. We must keep up with the inexorable drive into the future.
Book:
The Inevitable
UNDERSTANDING THE 12 TECHNOLOGICAL FORCES THAT WILL SHAPE OUR FUTURE
BECOMING
COGNIFYING
FLOWING
SCREENING
ACCESSING
SHARING
FILTERING
REMIXING
INTERACTING
TRACKING
QUESTIONING
BEGINNING
Much of what will happen in the next thirty years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion.
In this fascinating, provocative book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives—from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture—can be understood as the result of a few long-term, accelerating forces.
Kelly 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. By understanding and embracing them, says Kelly, it will be easier for us to remain on top of the coming wave of changes and to arrange our day-to-day relationships with technology in ways that bring forth maximum benefits.
Kelly’s bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading—what to invent, where to work, what to invest in, how to better reach customers, and what to begin to put into place—as this new world emerges.
The Inevitable was published in 2016 but it is still indispensable reading to be well-positioned for a very different future.
It’s the perfect end-of-year read.
You can get it here. Click on the image.
TED Talk:
The Future Will Be Shaped by Optimists
"Every great and difficult thing has required a strong sense of optimism," says editor and author Kevin Kelly, who believes that we have a moral obligation to be optimistic.
Tracing humanity's progress throughout history, he observes that a positive outlook helps us solve problems and empowers us to forge a path forward.
In this illuminating talk, he shares three reasons for optimism during challenging times, explaining how it can help us become better ancestors and create the world we want to see for ourselves and future generations.
Click on the image to listen in.
Podcast:
Kevin Kelly's Life Lessons
This is a fun episode, unpacking life advice from Kelly, like this one:
“Efficiency is highly overrated. Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks, and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best kind of work ethic requires a good rest ethic.”
In the second half of the pod, Kelly discusses his 1,000 True Fans essay that became the basis of the passion economy, and how it holds up today.
Click on the image to listen in.
Tweet:
We cannot always predict the timing or the specific product, but we know that technological advancement is inevitable.
This is a perspective we especially need after a year of turbulence in crypto and web3.
For more on Kevin Kelly:
Website: https://kk.org/
Twitter: @kevin2kelly
What do you think about this new way of theming the editions?
If you enjoyed this edition, please share it with friends and colleagues.
I like that at the end of reading this I knew who Kevin Kelly was, and had a set of links his books, talks and content.
really like the one person topic. had no idea who this guy was.