Kevin Kelly has been publisher of the Whole Earth Review, exec editor at WIRED, founder of visionary nonprofits, and writer on biology and business and "cool tools." He's admired for his new perspectives on technology and its relevance to history, biology and religion.
Why you should listen to him:
Perhaps there is no one better to contemplate the meaning of cultural change -- bad? good? too slow? too bold? -- than Kevin Kelly, whose life story reads like a treatise on the value of technology. Whether by renouncing all material things save his bicycle (which he then rode 3,000 miles), founding an organization (the All-Species Foundation) to catalog all life on earth, or by touting new gadgets in WIRED, Kelly hasn't stopped exploring the phenomena of technical and biological creation.
In articles for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, among others, he has celebrated scientific breakthroughs, and at the Long Now Foundation, where he serves on the board, he champions projects that look 10,000 years into the future. Today Kelly is at work on a book that asks what appears to be his life's core question: "How should I think about new technology when it comes along?"
Kelly discusses the 7th Kingdom at length in the July 18, 2007, edition of Edge.org.
"Thinker, environmentalist and philosopher extraordinaire ... A one-man force of nature."fashiontribes.com
Blog Posts on TED
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Kevin Kelly: Technology as a teenager – July 21, 2007
Developing the ideas he laid out in his 2005 talk at TED -- where he asked, "What does technology want?" -- Kevin Kelly posts a fascinating essay in the latest edition of Edge.org. He suggests that we can think of technology as another kingdom of life -- call it the technium. And that, like all other life, it grows. He says,
I tend to think of the technium like a child of humanity. Our job will be to train the technium, to imbue it with certain principles because, at a certain level and at a certain age, it will basically become much more autonomous than it is now. It will leave us like a teenager who goes on to live alone: although he or she will continue to interact with us and will always be part of us, we have to let it go.
To succeed in this, though, he warns:
We need to have a deep sense of our values, what we stand for. In a deep irony, the more technology advances, the less sure we are of who we are and what we stand for as a species and as individuals.
Watch Kevin Kelly's TEDTalk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, and join a wide-ranging discussion.
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Celebrating "Spectacle" – March 15, 2007
Architect David Rockwell joined forces with Chee Perlman and Kevin Kelly (TEDizens, all) in San Francisco last night, to celebrate Spectacle, the gorgeous book he created with Bruce Mau, exploring the phenomenon of public performance. Photos by Robert Leslie.
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The first 5,000 days of the web, and the next 5,000: Kevin Kelly on TED.com – July 29, 2008
At the 2007 EG conference, Kevin Kelly shares a fun stat: The World Wide Web, as we know it, is only 5,000 days old. Now, he asks, how can we predict what's coming in the next 5,000 days? (Recorded December 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Duration: 19:33.)
Watch Kevin Kelly's 2007 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.
Read more about Kevin Kelly on TED.com.
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Edge question 2008: What have you changed your mind about? Why? – January 2, 2008
Many TEDTalks speakers have answered the 2008 Edge Foundation question: What have you changed your mind about? Why?
Among the more than 160 essays from leading thinkers -- scientists, philosophers, artists -- look for Wired's Chris Anderson, Nick Bostrom, Stewart Brand, Richard Dawkins, Aubrey de Grey, Juan Enriquez, Helen Fisher, Neil Gershenfeld, Daniel Gilbert, Daniel Goleman, Kevin Kelly, Steven Pinker, Carolyn Porco, Martin Rees, Michael Shermer and Craig Venter. Block out some time to sample these -- it's an addictive read.
