Archive of posts with tag 'Kevin Kelly'
Expected and Unexpected →
March 6, 2025 • #Some technologies are unpredicted, but evolve. Others are predicted don’t seem to materialize (or not yet). Then there are those that are expected AND appear. The unexpected tend to be the most disruptive — no one’s had the chance to prepare.
But the expected, if they do finally arrive, have been ruminated on for a long time. When we eventually realize the expected, we’re more prepared socially for their impacts. Though often we’re wrong about their societal impacts until they show up.
Kevin Kelly writes about this in the context of AI, a technology long-predicted, but always with a bent toward the negative. Toward the destructive social consequences of creating artificial beings.
Artificial beings – robots, AI – are in the Expected category. They have been so long anticipated that there has been no other technology or invention as widely or thoroughly anticipated before it arrived as AI. What invention might even be second to AI in terms of anticipation? Flying machines may have been longer desired, but there was relatively little thought put into imagining what their consequences might be. Whereas from the start of the machine age, humans have not only expected intelligent machines, but have expected significant social ramifications from them as well. We’ve spent a full century contemplating what robots and AI would do when it arrived. And, sorry to say, most of our predictions are worrisome.
Here’s the example list from Arthur C. Clarke’s 1963 book, Profiles of the Future:
101 Additional Advices →
A regular tradition, 101 more pieces of advice from the inimitable Kevin Kelly.
Scenius, or Communal Genius →
Kevin Kelly:
Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes. Brian Eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that groups, places or “scenes” can occasionally generate. His actual definition is: “Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius.”
The Shirky Principle →
“Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” — Clay Shirky
103 Bits of Advice from Kevin Kelly →
May 4, 2022 • #A list of observations and life tips from Wired’s Kevin Kelly. This entire list is self-highlighting. Fantastic stuff. Worth bookmarking and reading back through monthly.
A few favorites:
- No one is as impressed with your possessions as you are.
- Anything you say before the word “but” does not count.
- When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal. Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.
- Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.
- Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible, rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.
- There is no such thing as being “on time.” You are either late or you are early. Your choice.
- Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore.
- You can be whatever you want, so be the person who ends meetings early.