Skip to content

Kevin Kelly: The 12 inevitable technological forces shaping YOUR future

Joined in studio today by Kevin Kelly, futurist, Senior Maverick at Wired magazine, and best-selling author of many books including the latest, The Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future.

Discussion guide from my conversation with Kevin Kelly:

Kevin Kelly– Lead us off by explaining the purpose, the big idea, behind this book. Why did you have to put it out there?

– The trends you talk about in this book are not theories, these are inevitable, in fact, already in motion. How does this inevitability change how we should think upon and act upon these trends?

– Why do we need to think so deeply about the future of technology and where it is taking us?

– Why are we so bad at thinking this way? We are not all futurists, in the Kevin Kelly sense of the practice, but most of us are bad at looking ahead. Or, doing it too short-term…

– I think a lot of people will study your 12 trends and automatically begin to think about how they apply to their business efforts. But these apply to home and lifestyle too, yeah?

– You talk about how these trends will impact how we work, live, and how we behave as consumers. But you also talk about how these will impact how we learn. Go deeper there…

– Artificial intelligence (AI) has some people worried that technology will become too powerful. What do you say to people worried that machines will soon take over?

– It’s one thing to understand and acknowledge these trends. More important that people to actually do something with them, about them. How best should one begin to tackle these and take meaningful action?

About Kevin Kelly:

Kevin helped launch Wired magazine and was its executive editor for its first seven years. He has written for The New York Times, The Economist, Science, Time, and The Wall Street Journal, among many other publications. His previous books include Out of Control, New Rules for the New Economy, Cool Tools, and What Technology Wants. Currently senior maverick at Wired, Kelly lives in Pacifica, California.

You can find Kevin’s book here:

###

Todd Schnick