What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly

What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly




Kevin Kelly views technology as a natural organic living process. He calls it the technium. He views it as being part of human evolution. I found the ideas to be fascinating but overly anthropomorphic. He gave living qualities to stone, steel, spoons, bricks, and computers. There is both a humanizing and a dehumanizing aspect to this writing.



The humanizing aspect is a view of increased possibilities, more opportunities to create greater freedoms and greater choice. The author shows how machines improve our lives and expand our possibilities. He also includes systems of thought like science, art, and law as part of technology. He describes how technology evolved as we evolved from the stone age to modern cities.



Where it fails and seems a bit dehumanizing is his taking a picture of nature that seems very utilitarian. He describes that eventually there will be no waste with biophilic technology. I think this lessens nature and makes it machine like. He even claims the Amish are part of the technium because of how they use technology. This was a bit far fetched to me. I don't like to think of myself as evolving in a similar way to a machine.



The unabomber, Ted Kaczynski's anti-technology views are gone into. This was quite daring to do. Kevin Kelly does not shy from tackling some opposing view points. He even talks about primitivism. This makes the book different.


There is a deeply philosophical bent to the writing. I can recognize some of the philosophy. Some of it is very much at the edge of high technology. He seems to be trodding a slightly different path than transhumanism where the idea is that we will become more than human when we integrate with machines. Kevin Kelly also does not argue for the singularity where machines become smarter than humans. Machines are a different kind of intelligence than human intelligence. His ultimate goal is to open infinite games for people, more choice, more freedom, more opportunities through technology.



Read this book it will open your mind to new ideas. It makes you think. Kevin Kelly helped launched Wired Magazine. His website is http://www.kk.org/



The book is fairly dense reading. It includes notes, an annotated reading list, black and white photographs, charts, and an index. It is very much a popular science title.

Daily Thoughts 1/22/2011 (what technology wants)

Illustration drawing shows the interior of the reading room of the Boston Public Library, Bates Hall. 1 drawing : wash, opaque white and graphite. Published in: "The New Building of the Boston Public Library" by T.R. Sullivan, Scribner's magazine, 19:88 (January 1896).

Daily Thoughts 1/22/2011

I finished reading What Technology Wants. It has been quite busy today for me. It has been an extremely busy day.  I really did not get to read much today.

Daily Thoughts 1/21/2011 (What Technology Wants, Audiobooks)

A favourite author, Poul Friis Nybo (1869–1929), 1929

Daily Thoughts 1/21/2011

Today has been a good day.  We talked about grants in the morning.  I am going to be working on a grant for devices like the Kindle and the Ipad.  I am hoping I can get some book apps for the Ipad as part of the grant.

We also got a large donation of audiobooks that are fairly current.  Titles like K is for Killer by Sue Grafton, Testimony by Anita Shreve, The Master Sniper by Stephen Hunter, and The Overton Widow by Glenn Beck which are popular.  I used the new form for donations for the first time.

I also spent some time selecting orders from my Ingram Alerts, Earlyword, Shelf Awareness and other sources.  I really like http://www.earlyword.com/ it has a nice selection for new material.

I read some more of What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly.  He is talking about the interdependence of life, how life forms need each other to survive.  He compares this to how we increasingly need technology to live.

Web Bits

I think I am going to do this next week on Thursday, January 27, 2011
Libraries Are Essential: Providing Core Services To Readers
http://www.beyondthejob.org/?p=2839

Daily Thoughts 1/19/2011 (What Technology Wants, Metadata)

Daily Thoughts 1/19/2011

I read some more of What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly.  There is a bit of intellectual daring.  Kevin Kelly addresses the thoughts of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.  This was quite different.  He also discusses how the Amish choose to use different technologies. I found this to be a different approach.  I like the idea of being selective on how you will use technology.  It gives a better sense of direction in daily life. 

We had our first order meeting for the year today.  It went fairly smoothly.  I also had a meeting for the Graphic Novels Club.  Today is the day they are giving the Regents exams for the high schools so not a whole lot of people came.  There were a few people.  As always people also took out some material.

The book, Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley came in for me to read.  It is an alternate history novel.

Two more books came in that deal with information, Online Community Information by John C. Durrance, and Karen E. Pettigrew, and Metadata Fundamentals for All Librarians by Priscilla Caplan.  It is going to be a chance to learn a few new things.

Daily Thoughts 1/18/2011 (What Technology Wants, Job Search)

Paper cut, Therese Huber, Louise Duttenhofer 1776-1829

Daily Thoughts 1/18/2011

I read some more of What Technology Wants.  Kevin Kelly is comparing convergent evolution and convergent invention.  The idea of convergent invention is that often more than one person invents a new technology at the same time.  There are many examples of this from the telephone to the electric light bulb.  Kevin Kelly also describes how many technologies are predicted like the video phone which are predicted but when they become available, people are not interested in them.  I've found the book useful for its different take on technology.

Today, I tried a new program on Job Search sites, but it did not have much attendance.  People were more interested in the handouts on the different websites that are available to search for jobs in Westchester and the books on job searching than the computer lab session.  I'll probably have to make more of them.

We are planning a senior visit from the Armory next month.  It will be a way to offer older people access to the library now that the bookmobile is gone because of lack of funding.

I also spent some time on orders today.  It was interesting looking through the patron recommendations for books and other items from both our website and the collection management form we keep at the desk.  I will be ordering music for the first time.  I spent some time looking at music from the Billboard list.

Web Bits

An article on Weightless Books from Publishers Weekly. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/45783-weightless-books-an-e-bookstore-for-indie-presses.html
I saw Weightless Books at the Brooklyn Book Festival.  They were part of Small Beer Press.  I like their approach which is very independent.

A national survey on budgets and staffing in libraries in the United States.  http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/newslettersnewsletterbucketljxpress/888434-441/ljs_2010_budget_survey_bottoming.html.csp

This quote from the article says it all.  "Nonetheless, the overall trend in FY10 was a brutal grasping by money-starved government officials for the low-hanging fruit of library budgets: 72 percent of survey respondents said their budget had been cut, and 43 percent had staff cuts."

Daily Thoughts 1/17/2011 (Content Strategy, What technology Wants)

 Portrait of writer Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin. by Ilya Repin, 1884 Oil on canvas. 88.9 × 69.2 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Daily Thoughts 1/17/2011

This evening, I read some more of What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly.  There is a real sense of anthropomorphism in this book.  Kevin Kelly attributes many characteristics of living systems to machines.  I don't agree with it in some ways.  The argument is interesting.  It reminds me of the idea that the fundamental building blocks of the universe at the quantum level is pure information.  There is a feeling that he is attributing the universe is a binary system.  It is the same kind of thinking that led Newtonian thinkers to think of the creator as the great watchmaker.  The book is very philosophical.

I put the book, The network is your customer : five strategies to thrive in a digital age by  David L. Rogers on hold.  I am also going to reread Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson.

I have been thinking a little bit on the concept of content strategy a little more lately.  I think I am going to explore it a little more.

Our library system has integrated its catalog with the White Plains Public Library which is excellent.  They have some books which may be very useful to us.  This includes quite a bit on metadata and other web information.  I put several more books on hold, some of them from White Plains.  Metadata Principals for All Librarians by Priscilla Caplan,  Exploring Web 2.0 : second generation internet tools - blogs, podcasts, wikis, networking, virtual worlds, and more by Ann Bell and Online community information : creating a nexus at your library by Joan C. Durrance as well as The manual to online public records : the researchers tool to online resources of public records and public information by Michael L. Sankey.

Web Bits

The concept of Content Curation is starting to appear on the web again.  http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2011/01/curation_is_the.html 

The idea is that so many people are creating new content, that it is very hard to keep track of it all.  Therefore, there should be curators for web content.  It seems a bit like a marketing ploy right now.

Daily Thoughts 1/16/2011 (What Technology Wants, The Other Side of Innovation, Budget)

"Music and Literature," oil on canvas, by the American artist William Michael Harnett. Courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1878

Daily Thoughts 1/16/2011

I have been reading more of The Other Side of Innovation.  I learned that Fisher Price releases over 700 new products every single year.  Like the fashion industry, the toy industry has to constantly innovate.  This creates an atmosphere of continuous learning and continuing education.  I am finding the ideas about innovation refreshing in this book.

I read a little bit more of What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. This is a quote from P.83, "That's how it works.  This is how all technology works.  A gadget becomes a junky prototype and then progresses to something that barely works."  This sentences reflects on the deep understanding of the author of technology.

Web Bits

An article about the fight to save Britain's libraries. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/overdue-the-fight-to-save-our-libraries-begins-2185826.html

The same argument seems to be playing out in Britain as in the United States.  Even though more people want to use libraries and there is an increase in usage, libraries are not an essential service.   This is a reminder that an argument on pure statistics will not work that well.  As in the United States it is an attack on the cultural foundations of society.  Much of what is preserved in libraries and archives is part of cultural memory.  There seems to be an attempt to rewrite our past by wiping it clean.  We do need to remember history and not allow this to happen.

On a more local level the budget is still being negotiated.  http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011101160341  Mount Vernon City Council Overrides Mayor's Budget Veto.  This is a little more from an article that covers both the City Council President and the mayor. http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2011/01/14/mount-vernon-city-council-overrides-mayoral-budget-veto/

Daily Thoughts 1/15/2011 (Captain Blood, The Other Side of Innovation)

Raffaelo Sanzio,Detail of The School of Athens showing Heraclitus and Michelangelo Buonarroti as one person, 1509

Daily Thoughts 1/15/2011

I have been reading The Other Side of Innovation. The authors are describing when and how to create internail and external teams for innovation.  They call the internal parts of an organization, the "performance engine".  It describes how it is necessary to bring some outside people in to help with innovation.  Not all major changes in a corporation can occur from inside an organization. It was interesting learning about how implementing innovative ideas is often more about learning to do things right than pushing execution.

I am also reading What Technology Wants. Kevin Kelly is describing how human evolution is increasingly tied to technology.  He seems to be pushing for a view that we are inseparable from modern technology right now.

I got a request to write short articles for The View From Here which is an online literary magazine.  I'll probably confirm tomorrow on Sunday.  http://www.viewfromheremagazine.com/

I also watched Captain Blood today starring Errol Flynn and Olivia De Haviland.  It is Errol Flynn's first movie which is surprising. The movie is based on the book Captain Blood  by Rafael Sabatini.  The book was written in 1922 so it is well out of copyright.  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1965

Daily Thoughts 1/12/2011 (What Technology Wants, Books)

Albert J. Franke (1860–1924): Die Schriftgelehrten. Signiert. Öl auf Holz.. 31 x 42 cm

 Daily Thoughts 1/12/2011


I am reading What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. Kevin Kelly helped launch Wired magazine.  There is a new term which the author creates called the technium which is the globally interconnected web of technology around us.  It reminds me a bit of the gaia hypothesis which compares the earth to a living organism.  They are different ways to view the world.

It was snowing heavily last night.  I cleaned up the displays a little bit and worked on some minor projects; getting a button on the website so people can join our email list, converting a few flyers into jpgs for the website, and picking out some more graphic novels and dvds for the Graphic Novels club next week.  I also set the date for our first order meeting of the year.  Things are going steadily and smoothly.

I checked out The Other Side of Innovation Solving The Executtion Challenge by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble.  It is published by Harvard Business Review Press.

I updated my selected links page with a few new links.

Web Bits

 Permanence Matters is an argument for printing hardcover books on better quality paper.  I think the hardcover titles that should survive should have better design, quality, and permanence.  http://www.permanencematters.com/

Sisters In Crime, The Mystery Book Consumer In The Digital Age http://bit.ly/hQlHsG