What Technology Wants

I recommend this book for anyone interested in the future of humanity. That should include most of us. Kelly makes up a new term --- the technium --- to include technology and all of human culture --- everything humans make, do, think, write, all human institutions and organizations, law, science, politics, art, --- everything. He draws examples from many areas of human activity and these examples illustrate his general arguments very well. They give substance to the book and are well worth knowing even if you don't accept all his theory. He talks about the Amish's considered evaluations of new technology and he mistakenly accepts Ted Kaczinsky's (the Unabomber) anti-technology arguments. "The Unabomber was Right" is the title of his chapter 10. It would have been easy to refute Kaczynski's arguments with other material Kelly provides, but he doesn't do it. In any case this book goes way beyond the Amish and the Unabomber.Although most of his examples are about what we usually think of as technology, I wish he would have put more emphasis on the non-technology aspects of human culture such as law and current politico-economic systems since these "technologies" right now seem to need much improvement. But maybe that would require another book.A few high points for me were his recognition that evolution is continuous from the big bang onward through the indefinite future, that evolution is a force and has a direction, that evolution wants progress. Humanity will progress in the short run and in the long run, although there can be temporary setbacks in any area. Evolution is not totally random. It has recurring patterns and biases. For example biological evolution has generated eyes independently on earth multiple times. Cultural evolution, what Kelly calls the technium evolution, is a natural seamless overlapping continuation of biological evolution since all particular evolutions are parts of the universal evolution.Here are a few quotes everyone should understand, but most people don't or won't."Human nature is malleable." Yes, it evolves along with everything else, but most people act like it's fixed."... shared knowledge is often superior to even a million individuals.""From one cosmic perspective information is the dominant force in our world.""Both life and technology seem to be based on immaterial flows of information." Yes. Evolution can be seen to be the evolution of information. This is a more coherent view."Over time our laws, mores, and ethics have slowly expanded the sphere of human empathy.""Life and mind emerge not as the result of freakish accidents, but as natural manifestations of matter, written into the fabric of the universe.""Nothing is complete, all is in flux, and the only thing that counts is the direction of movement." I wish those who believe that we now know the one and only true economic system, the one that is the best of all possible, now and forever, could understand that nothing is complete, all is in flux."The conflict that the technium triggers in our hearts is due to our refusal to accept our nature---the truth is that we are continuous with the machines we create. We are self-made humans, our own best invention. When we reject technology as a whole, it is a brand of self hatred.""An awful lot of the shape of your life is given to you and is beyond your control, but your freedom to choose within those givens is huge and significant.""Anyone who is inventing, discovering, and expanding possibilities will indirectly expand possibilities for others.""The drift toward mutualism in the technium is moving us toward the old dream: to maximize both individual human autonomy and the power of people working together." The old apparent dilemma of individual versus community can now be seen to be an illusion. Individual and community are not separable in theory or practice. Neither can exist without the other. Neither can be understood without the other. Both can only have arisen together through genetic and cultural (memetic) coevolution."In the future we'll find it easier to love technology.""... the technium is rapidly discovering new ways to know.""... it is evolving more ability to evolve, or greater evolvability.""If we fail to enlarge the possibilities for other people, we diminish them, and that is unforgivable."I have a few disagreements or instances where I would put a different emphasis."The technium is a global force beyond human control." Kelly should be more careful with statements like this. Such statements feed the fear bugaboo many people have of technology. We always have some control but never total control. This is the nature of existence in general. This is nothing particular to technology."We are at a tipping point where the technium's ability to alter us exceeds our ability to alter the technium." This is an apparent "us vs them" dilemma where the us and the them are actually inseparable both in principle and in practice. The technium is part of humanity and humanity is part of the technium. Neither can be understood without understanding the other. They really are not two separate things at all. Neither would or could or can exist without the other. They can only have come into existence together through their coevolution. The quoted sentence is meaningless. It's a bogyman. It's a misunderstanding of evolution. There is a unity here, and unity means unsplittable. Humanity is more than warm bodies. Humans use things and make things. You can't be human without moving around and changing the world. The mistake is assuming humans can be separated from the rest of the world and the things we create (the technium)."Ted Kaczynski ... was right about one thing: Technology has its own agenda. It is selfish." Wrong, wrong, wrong! See the preceding paragraph. Another way to see that technology cannot have its "own" agenda is that it is coevolving inseparably with us and thus any agenda it may have is also ours. This coevolution can also be seen as expanding us as individual humans by expanding our minds. OK, we have a warm body and a warm wet mushy brain. What else? We have a mind. Our immaterial mind is all the information our brain and body have or use to run our life. The mind, being information, is not localized only to the brain or body. The mind extends beyond the body. It is now clear, as Kelly notes, that much of our memory resides on the web. Much of our thought occurs outside our bodies. Even doing simple things such as making and using written notes, doing long division with pencil and paper or a calculator prove that our minds extend beyond our bodies and brains. Our minds are living and evolving, always changing. (How many times did you change your mind today?) So as the technium expands and evolves, our minds are expanding and evolving with it. So the technium can't get "ahead" of us. It can't leave us "behind". Evolving, expanding human culture can't leave humans behind. Humans are inseparable from human culture.Kelly quotes Kaczynski: "The system does not and cannot exist to satisfy human needs. Instead it is human behavior that has to be modified to fit the needs of the system." The system was created to satisfy human needs. In so far as the system does not satisfy human needs humans can modify it so it does satisfy them. Since the system and humans are evolving inseparably together as humans modify the system we can expect that the system will modify humans and their needs. This is coevolution. In coevolution, both "parts" change. So it is a gross misunderstanding of evolution to just say, as Kaczynski does, that "it is human behavior that needs to be modified to fit the needs of the system." In coevolution all parts change. Besides, human behavior is always being modified --- by wind, rain, earthquakes, food, money, disease, other people, snakes and spiders. You can continue the list. The idea of technology completely controlling us is a bogyman. It's like saying birds' nests completely control birds. Or that the beavers' technology completely controls beavers. The obvious answer to the specter of control is simple and direct: Partly yes; completely, no. Kelly clarifies this elsewhere in the book. All evolution occurs within the constraints of physics, geometry, and its previous history. Within those constraints evolution has a kind of free will.I could comment on Kaczynski further but his mistakes all seem to arise from either his lack of understanding of evolution or his assumption that human nature is fixed or should be. Many people make similar mistakes. And most people have no conception of how evolution works. Human nature is not fixed. And all evolution is coevolution. Kelly shouldn't have mentioned Kaczynski and affirmed his negative views towards technology, not because he was the Unabomber but because his ideas about technology were so totally wrong. It's a real shame Kelly couldn't see through Kaczynski's flawed arguments although he provides enough material to refute them elsewhere in the book.But "What Technology Wants" goes way beyond Kaczynski and the Amish.Buy, read, and understand this book. It will speed up the progress of humanity.Joe Rebholz4 NOV 10I discuss memetic evolution (cultural evolution) and the unity of individual and community in my book  No More War Memes.

What Technology Wants is a slightly puzzling title which poked my interest. Can technology actually "want" something? What does that phrase mean? Does it attempt to imply that technology has a will of its own, is it is a "force of nature", or just something inevitable built in the rules of the universe?These questions might sound a bit like "hippy-talk" (for lack of a better term) and while reading the first chapters of the book, which try to grasp this rather evasive concept, it felt rather hard to follow out where the author tries to lead. Solid lines of reasoning do emerge eventually, so if the narrative feels a bit vague in the beginning, one should not give up. Getting the grips on the driving force behind all the technology that most of us humans has ready access to, and what this actually means, is to say the least a rather daunting task. Also, I suppose the book tries to cater for many readers, not just the tech-savvy, so it attempts to gather everyone and provide a foundation on which the ideas and theories of subsequent chapters can build on.The amount of background research made for the book is phenomenal. He devotes a large part of the book on the Amish, being that they are a successful group that chooses to live outside the "normal" western civilization, actively choosing to abstain from much of today's technology. However, he notes, crucially in my (and his ) opinion, that the Amish would not be able to function without the rest of the society, and that they continually lag about 50 years behind.This choosing of technology is not specific to Amish though. Everyone is doing it, one way or the other. Often, we are not very consistent in our choices. I.e. we may be on the cutting edge on one part, but several generations back on another, just because we want to.Kelly relates this to the fact that Amish seem to live a pretty happy and unstressful life, at least in comparison to many of the rest of us. They perform their honest work and labor with the tools they have, being fairly content with the situation. They choose their tools by waiting for the rest of society (and select individuals of their own) to try out technologies before choosing that which is good and not disruptive to their way of living. This of course relies on the fact to the rest of us continues to provide spare parts for old tech, as well as continuously producing new technology.An interesting side-fact (related to the issue of spare parts above) that is stated is that, apparently, no technology ever dies. You can find somewhere to buy a piece of flint and steel, an axe, an abacus, vacuum tubes (for your "this-goes-to-eleven" guitar amp), a vinyl player, etc. It don't doubt it at all, and it does help to choose between various technologies.The book also contains a treatise on the unabomber. Being Swedish (and rather young at the time of the event), I knew very little about him before reading this book. There are some excerpts of the unabombers manifesto included (and discussed) in the book, which make the case that technology is inevitable and people cannot escape it. From this, IIRC, the unabomber draws the conclusion that since it's forced upon people by the system, so the system (and/or civilization) such as it is must be destroyed completely for the people to be free. Most of us agree with the first part, but our rejection of the latter conclusion probably separates civilization from apocalypse. (Also, even the unabomber tried to reject civilization and technology for several years, but could not do so completely, since he needed bullets for his rifle, rope for his traps and gasoline for the car to be able to travel to trade these things.)Kelly proffers the same statement here, which is that technology in something inevitable, in the same sense that the universe has given us DNA, multi-cellular organisms, mammals, humans and civilization (for better or worse). One simply cannot prevent technology from appearing, given how far everything have gone already, and from where it actually started (i.e. the primordial soup). Complexity, and the perpetual increase thereof, is inherent in the foundations of the universe. We've had natural evolution for almost four billion years, and for the last ten to twenty thousand years (give or take a few), mankind (a product of the above) has been selecting, domesticating, refining and reworking different parts of nature to its liking. Now, we're selecting technology instead, and technology is undergoing evolution under the same criteria that (probably) made us domesticate the wolf rather than the hyena. (It's more beautiful, more intelligent, more adaptable, etc etc.)This strive towards beauty, complexity, adaptability, etc etc is going on with technology today. Personally, I see this in the world of computer components, libraries, frameworks, utilities, etc. The open-source ecosystem a good example of this evolutionary process, as libraries come, evolve and leave. Some evolve quickly then stagnate when there is no opposition, then either gets wiped out when a new, better toolkit appear, or they attract sufficient interest (from it's users and developers) to catch up. The book's final chapters summarizes a number of criteria that are selected for in the evolutionary process, that will continue to be the driving force of change as technology evolves into more diverse, specialized, complex, interlinked, adaptable and beautiful manifestations..Kelly, rather early, names the entire technological sphere the Technium. In the end, he concludes that what it wants is just to live and prosper, just like any other self-evolvable entity. The difference is that the Technium can evolve a thousand or a million times faster, and that it this speed is because it does not evolve by chance (i.e. mutation), but rather the fact that it is actively driven (you could say developed) towards improvement with every generation. Also, since it's so interlinked, and has perfect memory (i.e. the Internet, more or less), it will build upon itself much faster than evolution (wherein for instance the eye evolved independently eight times) and even faster than human civilization (which could not communicate ideas and inventions especially fast until we had the Internet).I think this book is awesome in several ways. The question it attempts to both define, investigate and answer is immense. It is also a most relevant question, as I (and I suspect a few more) wonder where we are heading with all this technology, how it will shape us and what we can do, if anything, to guide it during its evolution. And since it actually manages to pull it off, I cannot by heartily recommend it to anyone that has some kind of interest in the field.Having left me me with a sense that there is really no difference between the big bang and the forming solar systems, life and evolution, humans and civilization and finally technology (and thus the Technium, as Kelly names it), I feel that I'm standing slightly more on firmer ground, while the world around us spins ever faster.

Avant Darwin, explique Kevin Kelly, l''étude de l'histoire naturelle se résumait à une collection infinie de spécimens disposés dans des boites en verre. Il n'y avait aucun schéma organisateur pour y mettre de la vie. Darwin, avec la théorie de l'évolution, a apporté une logique à ce défilé d'organismes. Kevin Kelly nous dit qu'aujourd'hui nous sommes dans une situation semblable avec la technologie...Nous avons tendance à considérer notre monde technologique comme une suite infinie de nouveautés, sans y voir aucun ordre. La technologie inclut des inventions anciennes, comme les montres, les leviers, le béton, les briques, etc. À ces choses matérielles, il faut ajouter ce qui est intangible : le calendrier, les principes de la comptabilité, les lois, les logiciels. Mais aussi l'organisation sociale, les villes, etc. La grande majorité des technologies ont été inventées bien avant notre naissance ! La somme de ces technologies forme un tout qui interagit un peu à la manière d'un écosystème. Ce super système d'inventions interdépendantes, Kevin Kelly l'appelle « technium ». Comme la vie elle-même, ce système dans son ensemble n'a pas le même comportement que chacune de ses parties. De la même manière qu'il n'y a rien de la ruche dans une seule abeille, le comportement du technium n'est pas visible dans un iPhone, un couteau ou un réfrigérateur. C'est dans le système dans son ensemble que l'on peut ressentir la vraie influence de la technologie.Un livre très intéressant qui permet d'exercer son esprit à voir beaucoup plus loin que la technologie, à dépasser le syndrome de la technologie pour la technologie.

Intéressant mais ne prend en compte que la mécanique irréversible ds la connaissance de plus en plus fine de la complexité du monde. Il manque une analyse des besoins technologiques de l'homme et en quoi la technologie peut nous faire grandir dans toutes nos dimensions et pas seulement amplifier notre pouvoir sur le monde. Il manque dans les références les livres de Jacques Ellul qui a beaucoup réfléchi sur le sujet.

Le livre est arrivé en très bonne condition, il était neuf, très content de l'achat. Peut-être un petit peu cher à mon goût.

I always finish every book I start but this one is giving me a run for my money! I'm nearly at the end and still don't see where the author is going to answer his title question. There are WAY too many words and contexts that take you back millions of years-if I wanted a lesson in evolution I would have looked elsewhere! Save your money there are much better books and authors writing on technology that deserve your hard earned money, but this guy isn't it!

Das Buch hat schon ein paar Tage auf dem Buckel und ist doch zeitlos. Es gibt einem als Leser zwar nicht die universelle Antwort auf die Frage wie sich Technik entwickelt und wie wir Menschen uns durch Technologie verändern. – Aber die Lektüre von Kevin Kellys Ansätzen und Erläuterungen führt zu einem besseren Verständnis und hilft dem Leser beim Aufbau neuer Strukturwelten, die zumindest mir vorher so nicht klar waren.Mit vielen tollen Beispielen vertritt Kelly die Grundthese, dass sich Technologie wie Evolution entwickelt: durch (zufällige) Mutationen entstehen neue Möglichkeiten und werden dann von uns Menschen selektiert. In seinen Argumentationsketten beleuchtet er auch die Haltung der Amish-People und des Unabombers gegenüber Technologie und sorgt für tolle Einblicke in unser menschliches Handeln.Leider haben wir Menschen uns bei der Auswahl neuer Technologien für das Grundmuster entschieden, vor allem das Streben nach mehr Effizienz zu unterstützen. Und vielleicht ist auch ab und zu noch ein wenig menschliche Bequemlichkeit dabei.Kelly arbeitet gut nachvollziehbar heraus, dass es uns mit diesen Selektionsmechanismen im Evolutionsbild gelingt, uns selber abzuschaffen oder zumindest uns als Menschen massiv zu entmündigen.Mit einem unerschütterlichen Optimismus möchte Kelly uns die Erkenntnis nahe bringen, dass Technologie immer nur ein Werkzeug bleiben darf und wir Menschen die Kontrolle behalten müssen. Denn nur so können wir die menschliche Einsicht fördern und uns selber vor dem technologischen Supergau bewahren. Anstelle der angesichts eines solchen Szenarios gern gepflegten Schwarzmalerei traut Kevin Kelly der Menschheit diesen Schritt aber zu, und seine Haltung “Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists” wirkt ansteckend.Auch in diesem Buch von Kelly geht es aber nicht nur um Technologie, sondern um die Frage, wie unsere Welt funktioniert: was die Welt, uns Menschen und den Fortschritt antreibt und wie das alles genau zusammenhängt. Seine Ausführungen und die neuen Erkenntnisse für den Leser sind auf jeden Fall fesselnd, auch wenn es schon ein paar Seiten zu Lesen sind. Von meiner Seite eine absolute Leseempfehlung!