NYTimes piece comparing cities to living organisms is a nice primer to Kelly's introduction.

I thoroughly enjoyed Kelly's unique perspective on technology as an extension of our bodies. It's not a barbeque, it's an externalization of our stomach. In this same way, humans have invented the internet as a way to externalize our brain and evolve ideas even faster than before. It's nothing new, it's a natural extension of the arc that was put in place when people first started transmitting ideas from one generation to the next through telling stories and writing them down.

In this way, Kevin Kelly humanizes technology as a natural extension of ourselves.

The chapter on an Amish community's measured analysis of new technology was fascinating and I love the tidbit that traces the reasons why the Space Shuttle solid rockets are limited a width of 4' 8.5" (that is the width of two large Roman warhorses which led to roads, which led to railroads, which determined the width of tunnels.)

There were a couple new words or phrases tucked in there as well including:

Technium - the "grand total of machines, methods, and engineering processes" which leads to a self-reinforcing system of creation.

Skeuonym - an expression left over from an older technology, no longer used. Examples include, "rewinding the tape," "dialing the phone, "filming a movie," or "cranking the engine."

Anticivilization Collapsitarian - folks like the unabomber who view technology with suspicion and fear that mass adoption is the beginning of the end.

I will read this book again.