It struck me how much Kevin Kelly looks like an Amish elder. After reading his book What Technology Wants it all makes sense. Turns out that from an early age he kept technology at an arm's length. His family didn't have TV until he was 16 and seeing what it did to his friends he rejected it.
What is especially remarkable is, that he rejected TV, as he was afraid it would drown out his own voice. I wish I would have been that wise and strong that early in life.
He found kindred spririts in the Amish and has visited them many times a whole chapter of his latest book is about their approach to technology. What surprised me is, that the Amish have not problems with genetically modified corn, but that is for another post.
Check out his bio: Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor from its inception until 1999. He has just finished a book for Viking/Penguin called "What Technology Wants," published October 18, 2010. He is also editor and publisher of the Cool Tools website, which gets half a million unique visitors per month. 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. He authored the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy and the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control.
It is just amazing how he has been at the forefront of the technology revolution for many many years. He took the time to think deeper about where all this Accelerating Change is going and comes to some interesting conclusions. For me he is one of the most eminent technology elders of our generation.
This is why I am so excited about the upcoming Google+ Hangout with him. You can still join us, there are just a couple of spots lef for this Wednesday 30th of November 10am PST.
One simple rule, you have to have bought the What Technology Wants paperback version of Kevin's book to join. Fill out this form: http://bit.ly/kkhangout to be part of it.
He has done quite a few of these already and I can't wait to hear about his assessment of Google+ Hangouts too.
Can't wait to hang with some of you and the technology elder Kevin Kelly this Wednesday.
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