From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the 12 technological imperatives that will shape the next 30 years and transform our lives.

Much of what will happen in the next 30 years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives - from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture - can be understood as the result of a few long-term, accelerating forces. Kelly both describes these deep trends - interacting, cognifying, flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking, and questioning - and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another.

These larger forces will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other. By understanding and embracing them, says Kelly, it will be easier for us to remain on top of the coming wave of changes and to arrange our day-to-day relationships with technology in ways that bring forth maximum benefits. Kelly’s bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading - what to invent, where to work, in what to invest, how to better reach customers, and what to begin to put into place - as this new world emerges.

Listening Length

11 hours and 30 minutes
Author

Kevin Kelly
Narrator

George Newbern
Audible release date

June 7 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B072F7CMQJ
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	11 hours and 30 minutes
Author	Kevin Kelly
Narrator	George Newbern
Audible.ca Release Date	June 07 2016
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B072F7CMQJ
Best Sellers Rank	#20,780 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #44 in Business Research & Development #62 in Sociology of Culture #75 in Computer History & Culture (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

2,946 global ratings

5 star		56%
4 star		28%
3 star		11%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Luc Morin

20 star recommendation .

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 25, 2016

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This is factual , futuristic , extremely well written and again , extremely thought-out . It's not a book for those that suffer from attention deficient disorder , your brain will short circuit , but Kevin goes through the many steps that will need to be assimilated in one's life , all our live's , and in all our futures . Its daunting, paralyzing, ever so changing , magnificent , awe inspiring, and totally logical and making sense.

It seems I was in Einstein's class being thought physic's for the humanities , this book is a bible , like the Book of Ely movie , much serviceable for MY future, your future. One may not like what is coming , but if you know what is and will likely, you will be in a better spot. If I could give this a 20 start I would, this is a futuristic book that is good as we speak and a book that will remain relevant for years to come .

My highest recommendation ever !

Luc

5 people found this helpful

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Simon Smith

A fresh take on familiar futurism topics

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 5, 2016

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As someone who follows technology closely (and works in the industry), I found few facts in this book novel. What is novel, however, is Kelly's expansion of the technologies' trajectories and implications in ways only someone with his level of knowledge, experience and understanding of technology could contribute. So even if you think you know the key technologies shaping the future, it's worth a read. There are some genuinely novel insights and observations here that should inspire new ideas and an appreciation for just how much more technology will transform society; as Kelly notes, this is just the beginning.

6 people found this helpful

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Rob Ross

Industrial to Techno to Info: The world has and is changing.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 29, 2019

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This book is an eye opener. The author gives a sampling of technological changes that are often taken for granted. These changes effect multiple levels in our society in a variety of ways. Worth reading for a better understanding of what is happening all around us.

One person found this helpful

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carl mccrosky

I found many outrageous statements in this book, especially ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 15, 2017

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I found many outrageous statements in this book, especially in the earlier chapters. They irritated me quite a bit, and seemed to indicate a serious lack of objective balance in the book. But by the end of the book more balance had appeared, and I was able to agree that Kelly has his finger on the pulse of technological/social developments. I finally concluded the book was sound and important. So I have to say "The Inevitable" is an important book for anyone interested in the future of our increasingly technology society.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Biased and too optimistic

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 9, 2017

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The tone of this book was not as neutral and impartial as I would have liked or expected. While there were several interesting insights, I didn't entirely agree with Kevin Kelly's optimistic outlook. I appreciate that he explained why he focused on the good, but this book had the potential to be a lot more balanced.

In terms of the actual book - received it in time and service was great.

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Tommy Gunn

Great book, this and Rise of the Robots and ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 24, 2017

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Great book, this and Rise of the Robots and The Second Machine Age are all great reads. Very informative. They all remind me of Alvin Tofflers groundbreaking book Future Shock. Very insightful in terms of the future of human labour.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Kevin Kelly has a wonderfully perspective mind and can clearly see the confluences of ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 28, 2016

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Kevin Kelly has a wonderfully perspective mind and can clearly see the confluences of technology trends. A great mentally stimulating read. Anyone who has responsibility for planning and direction of their business needs to read this book

One person found this helpful

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Michael McMaster

New looks at disruptive technologies and their impact on us

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 23, 2016

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This book has some good insights on the effects of the disruptive technologies of our times. It is a new field and this creates a beginning. It creates a new grammar that is operational in some areas, points at possibility in others and obscures what it is trying to get across in others. A bit of a mixed bag but worth the time.

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Top reviews from other countries

nevillek

Great book, good stories, a few missed opportunities.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 23, 2016

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Kevin Kelly has form - he's been writing about digital technology and its likely impact for around 30 years, and he's often seen new things emerge long before anyone else.
"The inevitable" is set around 12 themes, and for each theme, Kelly writes about both the past and the present with lucidity, and then extrapolates to the future. He includes little pastiches of what life will be like in 20 years when a particular technology trend has progressed to be almost unrecognizable from today's perspective.
The book is clear, well-organized and an entertaining read. It rattles along at a decent pace, and the overall tone is positive.
I have some minor quibbles about the editing - there are a few more typos than I'd like.
I felt two things were missing, though.
Firstly, while digital advances have brought undoubted benefits, Kelly doesn't spend enough time on the challenges. Sure, being able to collect lots of information on ourselves, others and our environments is great - but this also creates privacy challenges, and creates new opportunities for those who would harm us. Kelly doesn't look at these aspects in any detail.
The other missed opportunity is that Kelly's outlook is very "middle-class American" - nearly all the anecdotes, pastiches and comparators are from the perspective of a relatively affluent, relatively comfortable person living in a stable, safe environment. Digital technology arguably will affect people in developing countries much more - and I didn't see much from Kelly on this.

48 people found this helpful

Mr. Cliff P. Harris

Interesting, but the author lives in a tech elite bubble.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 30, 2016

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Its an interesting read, but nothing ground-breaking. The real problem is that its written entirely in the bubble of a silicon valley member of the tech elite. So its INEVITABLE that we will have cheaper technology, more sensors, fastyer communications, more data. There is apparently no downside or no limit. This takes zero consideration of environmental and economic factors. Increasing inequality, resource constraints and climate change mean that the tech-paradise the author suggests is inevitable may be inevitable for a tiny tiny percentage of the worlds population.

An interesting book if you want to know the future of palo alto, but I'd recommend al gores 'the future' if you want a more global and less rose-tinted view of real future developments.

34 people found this helpful

Chase Richards

Disappointing in scope and delivery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 9, 2017

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I found that this book fell short of expectations, and didn't really deliver anything besides some idle musings.

Maybe I expected too much, but I was hoping for some hard-edged looks at current technologies that were emerging, and threatening to disrupt how we live, work, and consume.

Instead, the ideas are a bit wishy-washy. He struggles to force his vague "technological forces" into a bizarre "doing, sharing, becoming, etc" framework that suits some things but not others. The author also seems to put a vaguely futuristic spin on current technologies and behaviours within the current paradigm, without offering anything truly novel.

While I was hoping for a glimpse into the future, really what I found was a very opinion-based look at what's happening today. This is coloured by pseudo-anthropological language that masks a very superficial understanding and treatment of the technologies discussed.

The book struggled to hold my attention until the end but I persevered. Unfortunately, the effort wasn't very rewarding.

16 people found this helpful

Jillian Florence

Inevitable - really? The future is spam.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

The author starts by talking about how wrong all future predictions were from the early internet, as well as how difficult it is to predict. So how can he predict life in 2046?

Who want to just accept that every building to be covered in personalised Ads? This certainly isn't a desire future of any sane person. This is not inevitable because anyone who sees ad screens everywhere will implode into madness or rage.

Already cities are become chavified with 100s of screens in buildings and pubs. This need stopping now.

Ads will pay you to watch them? Er no. I'll rather crowdfund an ad repellent. See an Ad - broadcast their competitors instead before hacking the ad billboards to display beautiful screens of nature or amazing architecture.

Help shape your future. Help those who work in video advertising to get a life. Get a hobby! Afterall, you're just an Adobe subscriber.

3 people found this helpful

Czechboy

1 for future results of tech, 5 for present analysis

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

While I see the future as Charlton Heston running through a starving, overpopulated city waving a big gun around shouting 'Soylent Green is people,' Kelly thinks of it as some coming together of everything and everyone.
His notion that we will all be online informing ourselves all of the time seems awful to me.
I think there will be a unabomber type rejection of tech as people desire a return to privacy and less intrusion into there lives.
AI for him means we will all be baking artisan bread for each other, for me it means unemployment and destruction.
Of course for him tech will mean he remains part of the elite, for me it means a free fall into modern slavery.
Just my ten bob's worth.
Good book really let down by his gushing enthusiasm for, well, for everything that he thinks tech will bring.

6 people found this helpful

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The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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