This 362 pages long book with the title What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly gives a fresh perspective on the present and future role of technology in human life.Is technology good for us? Can we or should we minimise technology in our lives?Is the progress of technology evolutionary and inevitable?How technology is related to culture?Is life getting better and better through technology?What does technology want from us?
Kevin asks us to select technology for the empowerment of individuals.(Page 5). Technology creates choice and enhances our potential for self realisation.So,on the whole ,technology is good for us.
In chapter 8,"Listen to the Technology" ,Kelly gives an optimistic picture."Digital technologies will roughly double in performance every two years for the foreseeable future.That means our most culturally important devices and systems will get faster,cheaper and better by 50% every year.The optimism of our age rests on the reliable advance of Moore's promise:That stuff will get significantly ,seriously and desirably better and cheaper tomorrow"
Technology wants what life wants.In chapter 13,Kelly describes thirteen trajectories life and technology tend towards.
1.Efficiency
2.Opportunity
3.Emergence
4.Complexity
5.Diversity
6.Specialisation
7.Ubiquity
8.Freedom
9.Mutualism
10.Beauty
11.Sentience
12.Structure
13.Evolvability.
What technology wants is understanding.Its purpose is to create structures that organic life cannot. Life is trying to discover different possible ways to evolve. There are possibly minds in the universe that biology cannot evolve , but technology might be able to create them.We are making minds that biology can not make.The long term trend will be to make as many different kinds of mind as possible through technology.This trend needs to be understood and supported.This is what technology wants from us.
This book tells us exciting possibilities which technology is headed towards, especially in the area of artificial intelligence and making of minds.Despite its large size,I recommend you to read this fascinating book.
Kevin asks us to select technology for the empowerment of individuals.(Page 5). Technology creates choice and enhances our potential for self realisation.So,on the whole ,technology is good for us.
In chapter 8,"Listen to the Technology" ,Kelly gives an optimistic picture."Digital technologies will roughly double in performance every two years for the foreseeable future.That means our most culturally important devices and systems will get faster,cheaper and better by 50% every year.The optimism of our age rests on the reliable advance of Moore's promise:That stuff will get significantly ,seriously and desirably better and cheaper tomorrow"
In chapter 11:Lessons of Amish Hackers,Kelly describes how Amish people adopt technology after years of carefully observing its effects on their guinea pig neighbours.
Technology is evolving incredibly fast.We need to understand and deal with the changes.We need strategies to get the best out of technologies, and out of ourselves.That is what technology wants.Technology also wants mindfulness from us.Technology wants what life wants.In chapter 13,Kelly describes thirteen trajectories life and technology tend towards.
1.Efficiency
2.Opportunity
3.Emergence
4.Complexity
5.Diversity
6.Specialisation
7.Ubiquity
8.Freedom
9.Mutualism
10.Beauty
11.Sentience
12.Structure
13.Evolvability.
What technology wants is understanding.Its purpose is to create structures that organic life cannot. Life is trying to discover different possible ways to evolve. There are possibly minds in the universe that biology cannot evolve , but technology might be able to create them.We are making minds that biology can not make.The long term trend will be to make as many different kinds of mind as possible through technology.This trend needs to be understood and supported.This is what technology wants from us.
This book tells us exciting possibilities which technology is headed towards, especially in the area of artificial intelligence and making of minds.Despite its large size,I recommend you to read this fascinating book.
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