Kevin Kelly
This Introduction
Inevitable technological forces that will shape the next 30 years
- Dynamics of technology are inevitable, but their continuations were not (E.g. Telephony was
inevitable, but the iPhone was not II Something that could have been changed and/ or
replaced easily)
- Culture can advance or retard the expression, but the underlying forces are universal
- Embracing new technologies and the digital change instead of prohibiting, because that
usually only backfires – and is inevitable
- Managing emerging inventions to prevent actual harms
- Pivotal axis of the world: Every kind of thing is becoming something else while it churns from
“might” to “is” (All is flux)
- In the intangible digital realm, nothing is static or fixed – everything is becoming
Chapter 1: Becoming
Endless way of becoming
- Everything requires additional energy and order to maintain itself
Existence, it seems, is chiefly maintenance
- Us taking the evolution of upgrading as normal, but behind the scenes there is an ongoing
mechanism which is happening, gradually – they are “becoming”
- Every one of us will always be new to something, which is why we are always trying to keep
up
- “Endless newbies” – new default for everyone (No matter the age or experience)
Human need to new longings
- We keep inventing new things that make new longings, new holes that must be filled (E.g.
Smartphones that weren’t a need fifty years ago)
- The discontent of always creating new services/ products that we’ll feel a need for is the
trigger for endless ingenuity and growth
Protopia
- Technology is taking us to protopia: A state of becoming, rather than a destination (A
process)
A process that is constantly changing how other things change, and changing itself it is
mutating and growing
- Incremental improvement or mild progress, creating as many problems as new benefits
- “The problems of today were caused by yesterday’s technological successes, and the
technological solutions to today’s problems will cause the problems of tomorrow”
- Becoming is an action often only seen in a retrospect
, Kevin Kelly
- The start of the internet created a new kind of participation that has since developed into an
emerging culture based on sharing
Evolution of the Web
- New inventions won’t be better, they will be new
- The web will expand to the dimensions of the physical planet
- Humans conversing with the web (It’s plan to get ahead of my actions, habits etc.)
Chapter 2: Cognifying
General explanation
Cognification (uncountable): The process of making objects or systems smarter and smarter
by connecting, integrating sensors and building software/artificial intelligence into them
- The first AI will be in a superorganism of a billion computer chips
- People will not be able to know where it starts and ends, and they also won’t know what
exactly it is (Is it memory, is it an agreement...)
- Cognifying the X of a product creates a new smartness that enhances the product
Recent breakthroughs because of the arrival of AI
- 3 recent breakthroughs have unleashed the arrival of AI
1. Cheap Parallel Computation
Chips being invented that make it able to make thousands of connections in a second to
calculate the bigger picture (E.g. Netflix giving over 50 million subscribers reliable
recommendations II Facebooks ability to identify your friends in photos
2. Big Data
Data like web cookies, online footprints, terabytes of storage etc. make AI cognified because
it is learning from a huge pool of data
AI is using Data to learn from it
3. Better Algorithms
- Creating an endless circle of AI learning about its users so that it can provide a better service
which leads to more users, which leads to more information, to a better service and so on
- Conscious intelligence vs artificial smartness
- Human thinking is one species of thinking, but not the only one – AI is working different, for
example not having human emotions and distractions
- The rise of Ai is inevitable, but not it is character
- AI will help define humanity
This Introduction
Inevitable technological forces that will shape the next 30 years
- Dynamics of technology are inevitable, but their continuations were not (E.g. Telephony was
inevitable, but the iPhone was not II Something that could have been changed and/ or
replaced easily)
- Culture can advance or retard the expression, but the underlying forces are universal
- Embracing new technologies and the digital change instead of prohibiting, because that
usually only backfires – and is inevitable
- Managing emerging inventions to prevent actual harms
- Pivotal axis of the world: Every kind of thing is becoming something else while it churns from
“might” to “is” (All is flux)
- In the intangible digital realm, nothing is static or fixed – everything is becoming
Chapter 1: Becoming
Endless way of becoming
- Everything requires additional energy and order to maintain itself
Existence, it seems, is chiefly maintenance
- Us taking the evolution of upgrading as normal, but behind the scenes there is an ongoing
mechanism which is happening, gradually – they are “becoming”
- Every one of us will always be new to something, which is why we are always trying to keep
up
- “Endless newbies” – new default for everyone (No matter the age or experience)
Human need to new longings
- We keep inventing new things that make new longings, new holes that must be filled (E.g.
Smartphones that weren’t a need fifty years ago)
- The discontent of always creating new services/ products that we’ll feel a need for is the
trigger for endless ingenuity and growth
Protopia
- Technology is taking us to protopia: A state of becoming, rather than a destination (A
process)
A process that is constantly changing how other things change, and changing itself it is
mutating and growing
- Incremental improvement or mild progress, creating as many problems as new benefits
- “The problems of today were caused by yesterday’s technological successes, and the
technological solutions to today’s problems will cause the problems of tomorrow”
- Becoming is an action often only seen in a retrospect
, Kevin Kelly
- The start of the internet created a new kind of participation that has since developed into an
emerging culture based on sharing
Evolution of the Web
- New inventions won’t be better, they will be new
- The web will expand to the dimensions of the physical planet
- Humans conversing with the web (It’s plan to get ahead of my actions, habits etc.)
Chapter 2: Cognifying
General explanation
Cognification (uncountable): The process of making objects or systems smarter and smarter
by connecting, integrating sensors and building software/artificial intelligence into them
- The first AI will be in a superorganism of a billion computer chips
- People will not be able to know where it starts and ends, and they also won’t know what
exactly it is (Is it memory, is it an agreement...)
- Cognifying the X of a product creates a new smartness that enhances the product
Recent breakthroughs because of the arrival of AI
- 3 recent breakthroughs have unleashed the arrival of AI
1. Cheap Parallel Computation
Chips being invented that make it able to make thousands of connections in a second to
calculate the bigger picture (E.g. Netflix giving over 50 million subscribers reliable
recommendations II Facebooks ability to identify your friends in photos
2. Big Data
Data like web cookies, online footprints, terabytes of storage etc. make AI cognified because
it is learning from a huge pool of data
AI is using Data to learn from it
3. Better Algorithms
- Creating an endless circle of AI learning about its users so that it can provide a better service
which leads to more users, which leads to more information, to a better service and so on
- Conscious intelligence vs artificial smartness
- Human thinking is one species of thinking, but not the only one – AI is working different, for
example not having human emotions and distractions
- The rise of Ai is inevitable, but not it is character
- AI will help define humanity
