What Technology Wants

当阿米什人拒绝手机却用压缩空气驱动整间工厂时，Kevin Kelly 抛出了一个刺耳的命题：技术不是工具，而是拥有自身意志与需求的生命体——他称之为「技术元素」。本书最激进的判断在于，科技物种几乎从不灭绝，它借由共享与「共同改进」自我累积、自我进化，而人类只是它漫长演化中的一个环节。这让读者很难再把自己安放在「主宰者」的位置上：我们究竟是技术的主人，还是它孕育出的器官？书中对「金钱带来选择而非物质」「语言是第一个拐点」等论断的铺陈，也常引发「缺乏逻辑」的激烈争议。它适合那些不愿把技术当作中性工具、渴望重新理解自身与技术关系的人——读完未必给出答案，但会彻底改变你提问的方式。

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor from its inception until 1999. He has just completed a book for Viking/Penguin publishers called "What Technology Wants," due out in the Fall 2010. He is also editor and publisher of the Cool Tools website, which gets half a million unique visitors per month. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers' Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. He authored the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy and the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control.