Kelly on Technology and What Technology Wants

Kevin Kelly, author of What Technology Wants, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about technology and the ideas in the book. Kelly argues that technology is best understood as an emergent system subject to the natural forces underpinning all emergent systems. He argues that any technology creates benefits and costs but that the benefits typically outweigh the costs (perhaps by a small amount) leading to human progress. This is a wide-ranging conversation that includes discussion of the Unabomber, the Amish, the survival of human knowledge, and the seeming inevitability of the advancement of knowledge. The conversation closes with a discussion of the potential for technology to make an enormous leap in self-organization.

You can listen to Kelly on Technology and What Technology Wants online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Kelly on Technology and What Technology Wants is an episode from EconTalk Archives, 2010 by Library of Economics and Liberty.

This episode is 1:18:01 long.

This episode was published on Nov 29, 2010.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from EconTalk Archives, 2010 when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.