Review by Choice Review
Technology "out of control" is a common ideology and as such is self-reinforcing and obfuscates the social causes and consequences of, in this case, technological change. This popular book is another in a long line of technologically determinist works--in this case, positive and enthusiastic--about trends primarily in information, communication, and computing technologies. (The alternative is the jeremiad or doomsday model.) The "larger forces" shaping the "inevitable future" are often resisted by individuals, cultures, and regulations and displaced by competing technologies. Basic models of technological change, innovation, and diffusion inside organizations, in communities, and in relation to nation-states are absent. For example, the idea that decentralization is inevitable flies in the face of technological choices that centralize decision making in organizations and long-standing subtle scholarship on technology and power at various levels. The ideology of inevitability feels true to naïve consumers who have a "take it or leave it" choice over new technologies, but this leaves "black boxed" or "behind the curtain" the circuits of power that produce new technologies. Of popular interest but not of scholarly value. Summing Up: Recommended. Public libraries, general collections. --Jennifer L. Croissant, University of Arizona
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Looking decades into the future, Kelly (What Technology Wants, 2010) sees 12 technological trends that will (or already do) affect every aspect of our app-ified lives: becoming, cognifying, flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, interacting, tracking, questioning, and beginning. Artificial intelligence is a common theme throughout; Kelly predicts AI will be Google's main product by 2026, and will help humanity most by defining what jobs can and cannot be done by robots. Kelly argues the unlikely success of Wikipedia and its mixing of bottom-up collaboration with a small but high-minded hierarchy provides a model for social production in future platforms and services the most successful of which will focus on access over ownership (think Netflix versus DVDs) and flows over fixity (e.g., e-books versus print books). Though insisting his predictions are trajectories rather than destinies, Kelly's zealous futurism and occasional oversimplifications provide plenty of fodder for disagreement and even philosophical pondering. But he never gets too wonky, and rightly argues for a vigilant, eyes-wide-open approach to new technologies rather than prohibition, declaring: Before we say, Impossible!' I say: Let's see. --Comello, Chad Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kelly (What Technology Wants), a cofounder and former editor of Wired magazine, reflects on the revolutionary digital and technological changes currently underway and seeks to define 12 of the forces driving these changes. He writes that these forces are active trends that make certain outcomes inevitable: "There is a bias in the nature of technology that tilts it in certain directions and not others." Throughout the book, Kelly catalogs the many new developments of the last couple decades, from the Internet itself to the explosion of cloud computing and digital services such as Facebook and Uber. Each chapter addresses one of the 12 forces and ends with a vision of what our daily lives might look like if the given trend persists 30 years from now; for example, he predicts the personalization of nearly everything-including healthcare and advertisements-based on comprehensively collected, maintained, and shared data profiles. These imaginative speculations reflect an optimistic and arguably idealistic view, and the book as a whole exudes faith in the power of technology to better the world. Kelly notes that bad actors are just as inevitable as the technological changes themselves, but he chooses to elide discussions of the specific downsides that likely will accompany the changes he describes. Kelly's stated goal is "to uncover the roots of digital change so that we can embrace them." The book effectively identifies these roots, but in omitting critical discussion of them, it leaves the reader inadequately equipped to thoughtfully embrace or engage with them. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
That futurists have a terrible record hasn't discouraged them, and this delightful addition to the genre does not deny that predictions have been wildly off-base.The reason that futurists are often wrong is that people assume the future will resemble the present except for improvements or decay. Three decades ago, relevant observers assumed that the Internet would become "five thousand TV channels"paradise for the couch potato. Few saw that viewers would take over, sucking up (but rarely paying for) traditional journalism, art, and entertainment and producing their own. Unfathomable technological changes are in the works, writes Wired founding executive editor (and current "senior maverick") Kelly (What Technology Wants, 2010, etc.), who proceeds to tell us what they will be. While readers will encounter hints of robotic doctors and clothes that give the washing machine cleaning instructions, the author's 12 ingenious chapters eschew high-tech spectaculars in favor of their driving forces. All the chapter titles are verbs in the present participle form: flowing, cognifying, tracking, accessing, sharing, etc. "Sharing" and instant "Accessing" will make possession irrelevant. If a self-driving car appears as soon as you summon it, owning one is a hassle. "Access is so superior to ownership in many ways that it is driving the frontiers of the economy," writes Kelly. Eventually, we will live in the world's largest rental store. In the 19th century, inventors added electricity to tools (fans, washers, pumps, etc.); in the 21st, they will add intelligence: cognifying. "There is nothing as consequential as a dumb thing made smarter," writes the author. "Even a very tiny amount of useful intelligence embedded into an existing process boosts its effectiveness to a whole other level." Kelly's arguments ring true, and his enthusiasm is contagious. Readers will enjoy the ride provided they forget that he has disobeyed his warning against assuming that today's trends will continue. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
