The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

by Kevin Kelly

I used to upgrade my gear begrudgingly (why upgrade if it still works?) and at the last possible moment. You know how it goes: Upgrade this and suddenly you need to upgrade that, which triggers upgrades everywhere. I would put it off for years because I had the experiences of one “tiny” upgrade of a minor part disrupting my entire working life. But as our personal technology is becoming more complex, more codependent upon peripherals, more like a living ecosystem, delaying upgrading is even more disruptive. If you neglect ongoing minor upgrades, the change backs up so much that the eventual big upgrade reaches traumatic proportions. So I now see upgrading as a type of hygiene: You do it regularly to keep your tech healthy. Continual upgrades are so critical for technological systems that they are now automatic for the major personal computer operating systems and some software apps. Behind the scenes, the machines will upgrade themselves, slowly changing their features over time.

Ubiquity and free

Trust cannot be purchased in whole sale… That's why the sale of a brand is so Important

Paper favors fixity, electrons favor fluidity

Allowing unlimited access to every book leaves one important question: what remains as an incentive for authors? Many contribute to Wikipedia for power and control, but will that still remain as an incentive for authors writing books in the future?

"All beautiful, good and true things are part of an ecosystem" — socialization of truth,; also what does that mean regarding the biblical canon

Accessibility also promotes a strong emphasis on design.

Software eats everything

Converting products to services. Good example: Adobe Creatove Cloud

Interesting question: as the cloud erodes our sense of ownership, what does that mean for my perspective of government?for example, if Google docs promote the idea of things belonging to "us", does that make me think more socialistic-ly?

Still not addressing the issue of rights and ownership

Do you own your thoughts? Should you be help responsible for weird thoughts or daydreams.

Digital socialism

Designed to heighten individual autonomy and thwart centralization

Meritocracy

Another reference to "Here Comes Everybody"

Reminds me of the lessons learned from LMT

"No one is as smart as everyone."

How will creators be paid? Crowd funding.

"Commodity attention vs high quality attention

Edison's quotes on ideas vs property "an idea is like a lightbulb in that it shines light in you and me equally"

The recombination of ideas is the only rea source of wealth

The best bits are social

Small town covalence

Personalization requires transparency

Vanity trumps privacy.

Any system where anonymity becomes the norm, the system fails (twitter)

Leaning toward socialism

The improbable seems commonplace = dissatisfaction with ordinary... trouble is ordinary is the majority of our life.

The truth will become harder to find... every fact will have an anti fact

In this age of global connectivity, my certainty has decreased

Trying to achieve reliability from unreliable parts — seems perfect for the advancement of science, but also means my mind will be changed for the wrong reasons too

This causes "fluid states of thinking" aka relativism

Conflation of work and play is necessary for creativity to thrive