Why this book
Kevin Kelly, a founding editor of Wired who spent the 1980s chronicling early digital culture at the Whole Earth Review, argues that certain large-scale technological trends aren't really up for debate — they're already in motion and will keep accelerating over the coming decades, the way water in a valley inevitably flows downhill even though no single raindrop's exact path is predictable. He names twelve such forces, each a verb rather than a noun to emphasize that these are ongoing processes rather than finished states: becoming (products turning into constantly upgrading services), cognifying (cheap AI infused into everything via the cloud), flowing (real-time streams replacing static media), screening, accessing (ownership giving way to on-demand use), sharing, filtering, remixing, interacting, tracking, questioning, and beginning (a planetary network linking humans and machines).
Kelly's crucial distinction, which he stresses repeatedly, is between the general direction of these forces, which he treats as effectively inevitable, and their specific manifestation, which remains genuinely open to human choice — the telephone was inevitable, he says, but the iPhone was not; the internet was inevitable, but Twitter was not. This is meant as an invitation to shape the specifics rather than an argument for passive acceptance. Reviewers have consistently praised the book's clarity and Kelly's evident enthusiasm while also noting its most significant limitation: Kelly largely declines to dwell on the serious downsides — surveillance, job displacement, concentrated corporate power — that plausibly accompany several of his twelve forces, choosing instead to focus on describing the roots of change rather than weighing its costs against its benefits.
Who should read it
Entrepreneurs, technologists, and generally optimistic readers looking for a framework to anticipate where consumer technology and digital life are heading will find this an engaging, well-organized guide, better at description than most futurism manages. It will frustrate readers wanting a balanced accounting of technology's costs alongside its promises — Kelly's own publisher has acknowledged the book deliberately sets aside sustained discussion of the downsides its own trends make plausible.
About the author
Kevin Kelly co-founded Wired magazine in 1993 and served as its executive editor for its first seven years; he is now the magazine's Senior Maverick. Earlier in his career he edited the Whole Earth Review and helped launch the WELL, one of the first online communities, and he is also the author of Out of Control and What Technology Wants.