What Technology Wants (Viking, 2010)

Kevin Kelly · c. 2010

Kevin Kelly did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
The technium is a tendency, not an entity

Their wordsThe technium is a tendency, not an entity.
Our reading
Technology can be thought of as evolution accelerated

Their wordsWe might think of the technium as "evolution accelerated."
Our reading
The Amish and minimites have traded contentment for revelation

Their wordsBut I believe the Amish and minimites have traded contentment for revelation.
Our reading
Faced with an inevitable technological future, we should prepare for it, not recoil

Their wordsWhen we spy our technological fate in the distance, we should not reel back in horror of its inevitability; rather, we should lurch forward in preparation.
Our reading
We are good at trying technologies first, not at relinquishing them

Their wordsWe are good at trying first, not good at relinquishing.
Our reading
Technology amplifies the good slightly more than the evil

Their wordsthe technium tends to amplify the good slightly more than the evil.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.