There’s a great interview with one of Wired Magazine‘s cofounders Kevin Kelly. The following is an excerpt from this great discussion between Andrew Lawler and Mr. Kelly.
LAWLER: Man the Toolmaker—it’s an old concept. Surely we are more than toolmakers.
KELLY: But I don’t think the Technium is only about humans. It’s a type of learning. It’s a type of expression. It’s a type of possibility.
The Technium works as an ecology. Just as evolution has a longterm direction as we look 4 billion years into the past, so technology increases complexity and diversity, with increasing power.
LAWLER: So technology is part of evolution or God—that which drives the universe?
KELLY: Exactly. Some people call this the Great Story. Roving preacher Michael Dowd talks at churches about this alternative creation story. It is about evolution through God, that which started from nothing, grew into particles that gained mass and complexity, and then clumped into molecules and then became dust and planets and so forth. And technology is the latest variety.
LAWLER: So the Technium is one of the ways in which the universe is getting to know itself? And by increasing complexity, the universe becomes more self-aware?
KELLY: Exactly. I think of God as the intelligence of mind that is increasing the complexity of the universe.
Read the full interview. If you have any interest in long term thinking then this is the guy to read. His writings (in support of his forthcoming book) at The Technium are long but absorbing. He considers our use of technology to be nothing more than a continuation of the events following the big bang. You don’t get more long term than that.
What’s funny is that the principle thing that he’s known for is co-founding Wired, but I have been made aware of him thanks to The Long Now. In fact, my readings about the social progression of generations was originally due to an offhand comment by Stuart Brand who mentioned Kevin’s interest in the works of Strauss & Howe.
Much of my current interest in ideas stems in one way or another from this interesting guy. He’s probably my favorite alpha geek.
