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The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future Hardcover – June 7, 2016

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“A quintessential work of technological futurism.” – James Surowiecki, strategy + business, “Best Business Books 2017 – Innovation”

From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the twelve technological imperatives that will shape the next thirty years and transform our lives


Much of what will happen in the next thirty years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives—from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture—can be understood as the result of a few long-term, accelerating forces. Kelly both describes these deep trends—interacting, cognifying, flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking, and questioning—and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another. These larger forces will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other. By understanding and embracing them, says Kelly, it will be easier for us to remain on top of the coming wave of changes and to arrange our day-to-day relationships with technology in ways that bring forth maximum benefits. Kelly’s bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading—what to invent, where to work, in what to invest, how to better reach customers, and what to begin to put into place—as this new world emerges.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A quintessential work of technological futurism . . . what’s valuable about The Inevitable, from a business perspective, is less what it says about how to innovate, and more what it says about where to innovate.”  – James Surowiecki, strategy + business, “Best Business Books 2017 – Innovation”

"Anyone can claim to be a prophet, a fortune teller, or a futurist, and plenty of people do. What makes Kevin Kelly different is that he's 
right. In this book, you're swept along by his clear prose and unassailable arguments until it finally hits you: The technological, cultural, and societal changes he’s foreseeing really are inevitable. It’s like having a crystal ball, only without the risk of shattering."
David Pogue, Yahoo Tech

"This book offers profound insight into what happens (soon!) when intelligence flows as easily into objects as electricity."
Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail

“How will the future be made? Kevin Kelly argues that the sequence of events ensuing from technical innovation has its own momentum . . . and that our best strategy is to understand and embrace it. Whether you find this prospect wonderful or terrifying, you will want to read this extremely thought-provoking book.”
Brian Eno, musician and composer

"Kevin Kelly has been predicting our technological future with uncanny prescience for years. Now he's given us a glimpse of how the next three decades will unfold with The Inevitable, a book jam-packed with insight, ideas, and optimism."
Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One

 
"As exhilarating as the most outlandish science fiction novel, but based on very real trends. Kevin Kelly is the perfect tour guide for this life-changing future."
Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing

"Creating a fictional future is easy; Kevin Kelly makes a habit of doing the difficult by showing us where we're actually going.
The Inevitable is an eye-opening roadmap for what lies ahead. Science fiction is on its way to becoming science fact."  
Hugh Howey, author of Wool

“Automatic must-read.”                             
—Marc Andreessen, co-founder Andreessen Horowitz

About the Author

Kevin Kellyhelped 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.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0525428089
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking; First Edition (June 7, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780525428084
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525428084
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.16 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 3,068 ratings

About the author

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Kevin Kelly
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Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. He is also founding editor and co-publisher of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily since 2003. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. His books include the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy, the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control, a graphic novel about robots and angels, The Silver Cord, an oversize catalog of the best of Cool Tools, and his summary theory of technology in What Technology Wants (2010). His new book for Viking/Penguin is The Inevitable, which is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Photo credit: Jamie Tanaka

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
3,068 global ratings
"Technological life in the future will be a series of endless upgrades.
2 Stars
"Technological life in the future will be a series of endless upgrades.
Writing about the future is better than writing about the past. We rarely hold predictions accountable for accuracy. In fact, this book begins with a discussion of how wrong everyone was in making predictions of how the Internet would develop. And yet, author Kevin Kelly is trying to predict how life will be in 2046 and beyond. “The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future” is loosely based on looking at past technological developments and projecting them into the future. Some of them are pretty bland, “This is not a race against the machines. If we race against them, we lose. This is a race with the machines. You’ll be paid in the future based on how well you work with robots.”One of Kelly’s main themes is that technology evolves on its own and the book ends with a somewhat bizarre prediction of how knowledge will be amassed.I was expecting more from this book. I was hoping that his 10 forces would be better grounded in past developments rather than predictions from the author’s imagination.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2017
Five Star Review of Kevin Kelly's book "The Inevitable."
Submitted by Frank T. Hayes, fth11050@gmail.com, 10/30/17
I thank Kevin Kelly for this most exciting account of digital technology, the genesis of the internet streaming data, provided free by users, and sold at huge profits by Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, all growing exponentially. "The Inevitable" is classic, articulate, empowering, premiering the analytical projection of life in transformation to the futuristic world of AI.
You'll find Kevin a gifted curator in the art of conveying insight on the phenomenal growth of digital technology bringing the world together on a screen. Kevin tells about the Mac II, how it came to life when plugged into a phone line via a modem. The next 30-years saw chips halved in size and doubled in speed every 2-years, 15 times, that's 3 football fields crunched into a square-inch. Eight-years of the iPhone decimated camera sales, the iPhone 8 camera has 12 megapixels.
From the colossal list of inter-related factors Kevin has codified twelve strategic forces that will shape our future; Becoming, Cognifying, Flowing, Screening, Accessing, Sharing, Filtering, Remixing, Interacting, Tracking, Questioning and Beginning. So where is all of this taking us?
Regarding the transformational impact on humanity, the growth of AI is on a trajectory ranking with epic moments of the ramped up R&D for The Manhattan Project and the Apollo program, new industries spun off, new career fields, reshaping every aspect of life. Aided by AI we'll have marvels not yet dreamed of, new products competitive on world markets, a better informed government, superpower leadership, and another 240 years of American Democracy.
This is more than a crash-course on robotics, it's an exclusive tour showcasing a futuristic world orchestrated by AI, less ownership, more services, cost sharing. Humans prevail as controlling authority, teaching the machine, with over-ride options favoring man-kind. We must account for dangers as well, misapplication, spying, what protocol might apply to a computer with potential for cracking encrypted security codes? It's challenging, all that potential, no room for error. For system integrity, do we rely on industry's over-sight, do we need a steering committee, a Geneva Convention? We do need public policy, a well informed public, and the best source of facts is Kevin's fast moving story of Silicon Valley. And I love his style, right to the point, without the small stuff. If you wish to be conversant on AI and Robots buy a copy of "The Inevitable."
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2016
A major theme of this book is that we can't stop the future: The author says, “We can't stop artificial intelligence (AI) and robots from improving, creating new businesses, and taking our current jobs.” For the most part, the author projects his vision of what the new gadgets will be and how everyone will be dependent upon them in most aspects of their lives. Our lives are changing and shifting from centralized to decentralized services and control because the internet permits massive collaboration efforts by the people. Our unexpected willingness to share our thoughts, habits and personal affairs (Facebook, other social media, and Amazon- style marketing techniques) with the world means that “Massive tracking and total surveillance is here to stay," Kevin Kelly opines. Similarly, he says that “virtual reality is becoming real.” AI will be the focus for most of the larger companies, including Google, now and in the future.

The rapid changes in digital technology (every cool device we are using in 2050, will have been invented after 2016) will keep us all in “newbie” status.

“The highest-earning professions in the year 2050 will depend on automatons and machines that have not been invented yet.” Our moods, travel destinations, love interests, health, fun agendas and other emotions will be detected by our “screens” and shape our lives, Kelly thinks. The author's futuristic predictions aside, the book reads smoothly (his excellent writing style accomplishes this), is entertaining and educational. I highly recommend this book.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2016
I was seeking a book on technology and its effect on our culture... past, present and future. I ended up purchasing 3 books. I found the other two 'wanting'. This is an incredible, important and insightful work! It's taking me so long to get through this book due to the amount of markup, highlighting and contemplation I find myself doing. I easily can see myself giving this book a second read before the end of the year.

Even though I am an Information Technology professional, I find Mr. Kelly's writing style very accessible to the "uninitiated' and would highly recommend this important read to anyone even remotely interested in the subject material.

I will say this... it's amazing (perhaps even a bit sad) the few negative comments I've read here regarding the Kindle price of this book. "Spot on" writing and insight of this magnitude that refuses to let your mind go long after you've laid the book down for the night SHOULD come at a premium... be it ebook or hardcover. This book seriously earns the numerous 4 and 5 star ratings it's receiving from verified purchasers such as myself.
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Odar07
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book !
Reviewed in France on January 25, 2023
Very clear and easy to read book even though it treats of complex topics. I recommend it. It was written in 2016 and 7 years afterwards We can already see some forecasts come true (ie. AI ).
MIGUEL ANGEL TORRES AVILA
5.0 out of 5 stars Una mirada al futuro
Reviewed in Mexico on August 31, 2020
Este libro da una visión muy acertada de lo que podemos esperar de la tecnología en las siguientes décadas. En mi caso me ha ayudado a comprender las megatendencias para anticipar mi visión de negocios.

Lo recomiendo ampliamente.
Prabhakar Mishra
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
Reviewed in India on October 16, 2019
Really a very good and insightful book, I highly recommend it to those who are looking into the future, the book is not destinies but the trajectories this book of a no predictions of where we end up but else simply that in the near future we are headed inevitably in certain directions
4 people found this helpful
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Bruno B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening
Reviewed in Italy on August 3, 2017
This book is amazing! It is so full of information that it is necessary to read it more than once to get them all. It is inspiring and absolutely helpful to figure out what we will be expecting in the near future. It is a guide for orienteering in the current world too.
Maria
5.0 out of 5 stars Clever book fun to read
Reviewed in Spain on July 28, 2017
Thoughtful positive book fun to read with lots of examples and clever comments. Different from others who write on the same topic.