Tag: kevin kelly

Truly valuable technology trends toward free and ubiquitous (another Kevin Kelly read)

This one’s also going in the personal bible archives…

Original source: https://kk.org/thetechnium/technology-want/

Some excerpts:

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“there has been a downward trend in real commodity prices of about 1 percent per year over the last 140 years.” For a century and half prices have been headed toward zero.

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GPS was a novelty luxury only a few years ago. It was expensive. As its technical standards spread into mapping services and hand helds, it becomes essential, and the basic service (where am I?) will become a commodity and free. But as it drops toward the free, hundreds of additional advance GPS functions will be added to the fixed function so that more people will pay ever more for location services than anyone pays now. Where-am-I information will be free and ubiquitous, but new services will be expensive at first.

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As crackpot as it sounds, in the distant future nearly everything we make will (at least for a short while) be given away free—refrigerators, skis, laser projectors, clothes, you name it. This will only make sense when these items are pumped full of chips and network nodes, and thus capable of delivering network value.

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Automobiles, like air travel, are headed in direction where all software and digital devices are headed: toward the free. Imagine, I said, if you could give away a very basic no-frills car for free

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A car will move you from A to B, but it also offers privacy, immediacy of travel, a portable office, an entertainment center, status, and design joy

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Google has the same opportunities with them that all producers have. They offer free commodities and charge for premium services. Search is free; yet they charge enterprises for custom Google search. Or they shift their customer from reader to advertiser; in Google’s eyes the chief audience for search is advertising companies, whom they charge

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Technology wants to be free, as in free beer, because as it become free it also increases freedom. The inherent talents, capabilities and benefits of a technology cannot be released until it is almost free. The drive toward the free unleashes the constraints on each species in the technium, allowing it to interact with as many other species of technology as is possible, engendering new hybrids and deeper ecologies of tools, and permitting human users more choices and freedoms of use

Kevin Kelly saw the future in 1997: “in the Network Economy, follow the free”

New Rules for the New Economy, written in 1997 (almost 30 years ago!)

He describes 12 principles for the changing world, I’ll briefly describe them here:

1. Law of Connection – every object will have a chip, and they’ll all be connected

2. Law of Plenitude – predicts network effects to all these connections, and falling prices for goods

3. Law of Exponential Value – predicts exponential growth in the value of these connected networks

4. Law of Tipping Points – changes will happen earlier and earlier, and recognizing them will become harder

5. Law of Increasing Returns – the network will accrue greater value, greater everything

6. Law of Inverse Pricing – the prices for everything will fall, and we will invent new pricey things

7. Law of Generosity – “in the Network Economy, follow the free”

8. Law of the Allegiance – join the network, feed the network, become the network

9. Law of Devolution – old markets and industries will be destroyed as more valuable new markets and industries are created; let go

10. Law of Displacement – the economy will slowly be absorbed into the web

11. Law of Churn – disruption becomes the new norm

12. Law of Inefficiencies – think bigger, imagine more, and the network will reward it

23 quotes for 2023: How can he be happy that cannot abide in happiness? – Boethius

You will never outperform your self-image. Whoever you think you are deep down, you will never climb higher than that.

“In January 2012, I beat Nadal in the finals of the Australian Open. The match lasted five hours and fifty-three minutes. Many commentators have called that match the single greatest tennis match of all time. After I won, I sat in the locker room in Melbourne. I wanted one thing: to taste chocolate. I hadn’t tasted it since the summer of 2010. Miljan brought me a candy bar. I broke off one square—one tiny square—and popped it into my mouth, let it melt on my tongue. That was all I would allow myself. That is what it has taken to get to number one.” – Djokovic

In any bond of depth and significance, forgive, forgive, forgive. And then forgive again – Maria Popova

Inwardly, psychologically, be a nobody. – Bruce Lee

Biggest regrets I have are almost exclusively things I did *not* do. — Sam, 47

I was always destined to be that one warrior. Content to be the motherfucker who sharpens his sword alone. — David Goggins

We’re bold people, aren’t we? That’s the beauty – Peaky Blinders

You can make magic by going farther than most other people think is reasonable. When Warren (Buffett) was asked, “How’d you do it?” He said, “I read a couple thousand financial statements a year.”

All I want to do is make better sushi. I do the same thing over and over, improving bit by bit. There is always a yearning to achieve more. I’ll continue to climb, trying to reach the top, but no one knows where the top is. – Jiro

I do not like the idea of happiness — it is too momentary. I would say that I was always busy and interested in something — interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happiness. – Georgia O’Keefe

Always remember that at 42 years old, Lee Kuan Yew was sobbing live on television as his life’s work collapsed into ruin: Singapore had been expelled from Malaysia. It is never over.

Cut it out with the introspection. The mind is a den of scorpions better left running from, not towards. – Vigilante

Every time I work I know I’m going to experience an ungodly amount of humiliation. It’s just how it’s gonna go. There’s no way I can get through it without being humiliated. That’s part of like…letting go in some ways. – Joaquin Phoenix

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. – Jordan

When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine – Picasso

In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable. – Rob Arnott

Rather than steering your life to avoid surprises, aim directly for them – Kevin Kelly

One sign that determination matters more than talent: there are lots of talented people who never achieve anything, but not that many determined people who don’t. – Paul Graham

I would say being able to stay present in the work…is probably the most important part of it. – Rick Rubin

A vibe is an emotion pretending to be an explanation – Venkatesh Rao

I think I could potentially train harder, because you wanna be as close as possible to being injured, without actually being injured. And I haven’t pushed it as far as being injured yet, so, maybe I haven’t pushed it enough. – Magnus Mitdbo

How can he be happy that cannot abide in happiness? – Boethius

One lesson I’ve learned is that if the job I do were easy, I wouldn’t derive so much satisfaction from it. The thrill of winning is in direct proportion to the effort I put in before. I also know, from long experience, that if you make an effort in training when you don’t especially feel like making it, the payoff is that you will win games when you are not feeling your best. That is how you win championships, that is what separates the great player from the merely good player. The difference lies in how well you’ve prepared. – Nadal

From the seed-bed
The Dharma raises flowers.
Yet there is no seed
Nor are there flowers.

When things become free

From Kevin Kelly:

A universal law of economics says the moment something becomes free and ubiquitous, its position in the economic equation suddenly inverts. When nighttime electrical lighting was new and scarce, it was the poor who burned common candles. Later, when electricity became easily accessible and practically free, our preference flipped and candles at dinner became a sign of luxury.

🤔

I started thinking about what might happen to important areas of our lives if suddenly the currently “luxurious” thing were to become ubiquitous and free:

What if smartphones were free and everyone had one? Luxury would the person who didn’t need a phone, perhaps because they have assistants, or perhaps they have a job that doesn’t require smartphone access.

What if calories were free? Then eating less – or not eating at all – would become the new luxury. Fasting. Caloric restriction.

What if computers were free? Similar to smartphones above, perhaps luxury then is not needing a computer at all. Or having an army of assistants (AI or human) that use computers for you. Or living off the grid.

What if car travel were free? Imagine an era of free energy + self driving cars. Imagine summoning a private car to drive you anywhere you want, within a reasonable distance, and all for the cost of a bus fare or less. Then luxury might look like someone who doesn’t travel at all – who has built himself an all-inclusive resort with every comfort they could need: a home gym, a home garden, a home theater, and so on. Sorta like what the elites did during covid lockdowns.

What if quality healthcare were free? Imagine a machine or system that could examine, diagnose, and cure you of 98% of common ailments, all for a very low fee or completely subsidized by the government. What would an inversion look like? Would people purposefully get sick so they’d better appreciate health? Or would they invest so much in preventive healthcare and personal fitness in order to eliminate the need for common medical treatment?

What if high quality university education were free and universally accessible? Perhaps luxury would be those who skipped university entirely (not unlike today’s fetish around college-dropout-billionaires), either to pursue a career early, or to follow their hobbies and passions (like art or music). Or luxury could be homeschooling, people who opt-out of the institutional education system.

What if life extension were free? What if you could add as many years to your life as you wanted? Then perhaps luxury would be choosing to die.

And this is what “free university education for everyone” looks like to Stable Diffusion:

Some of Kevin Kelly’s life advice

Source

When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal. Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.

Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated.

Your growth as a conscious being is measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have.

Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally

What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.

Getting cheated occasionally is the small price for trusting the best of everyone, because when you trust the best in others, they generally treat you best.

Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don’t focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout.

Our descendants will achieve things that will amaze us, yet a portion of what they will create could have been made with today’s materials and tools if we had had the imagination. Think bigger.

Rather than steering your life to avoid surprises, aim directly for them.