Updated October 2026: Kevin Kelly’s 2016 book looks rather different in the age of generative AI. I’ve revisited my original review to see which of his ideas have stood the test of time, and what they mean for those of us building businesses online.
I’ve just revisited The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly, former executive editor of Wired magazine.
I first reviewed this book back in May 2018. At the time, I was struck by Kelly’s ability to look beyond individual gadgets and identify the underlying trends that would shape our lives over the following decades.
Nearly nine years later, I think it’s worth taking another look.
Artificial intelligence has moved from being a specialist technology to something that ordinary people can use in their daily lives. Subscription services, digital platforms, online communities and algorithmically curated content are now part of everyday life. Many of the developments Kelly discussed are no longer predictions. They’re things we take for granted.
But how well did he see the future? And what can we learn from his ideas today?
The Power of Being Lost…
I first discovered Kevin Kelly by listening to him in conversation with Tom Bilyeu on Tom’s Impact Theory YouTube channel.
Kelly wasn’t someone I knew much about. I wasn’t even sure that the subject of the interview, “The Power of Being Lost”, would interest me. But I trusted Tom Bilyeu’s judgement and decided to listen anyway.
Boy, am I glad I did! It turned out to be one of the most interesting conversations I’d heard in a while.
So Who Is Kevin Kelly?
Kevin Kelly is a writer and technology thinker who helped launch Wired magazine and served as its executive editor during its early years. His work explores the relationship between technology, society and human creativity.
His previous books include:
- Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (1994).
- New Rules for the New Economy (1999).
- What Technology Wants (2010).
He has spent decades thinking about how technology develops and how it changes the way we live. That background helps explain why The Inevitable is more than a collection of predictions about the next generation of gadgets.
Book Review: The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
Published in 2016, The Inevitable examines twelve technological forces that Kelly believes will shape our future.
Rather than trying to predict which particular companies, products or devices will dominate, he looks at broader processes that are already under way. These processes reinforce one another, gradually changing how we work, communicate, learn, buy things and spend our time.
Think about how smartphones have changed our behaviour. They have combined communication, photography, entertainment, navigation, shopping and access to information in a single device.
Now think about what happens when artificial intelligence becomes part of all those activities.
Kelly’s argument is that technological change doesn’t happen in isolation. Developments build on one another, and their combined effects can be much greater than the impact of any single invention.
That idea seems particularly relevant today.
Of course, a book published in 2016 cannot account for every development that followed. The point isn’t that Kelly predicted every detail correctly. It’s that he identified forces that help us make sense of what has happened since.
The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
Kelly presents the twelve forces as verbs ending in “-ing”. This is deliberate. They describe ongoing processes rather than fixed destinations.
The twelve chapters are:
- Becoming – technology is continually changing and improving.
- Cognifying – adding intelligence to products, services and systems.
- Flowing – information and digital content move continuously through networks.
- Screening – screens become an increasingly important way of accessing information and culture.
- Accessing – using services and resources when we need them rather than necessarily owning them.
- Sharing – exchanging information, resources and experiences across networks.
- Filtering – sorting the overwhelming amount of information available to us.
- Remixing – combining existing ideas and materials to create something new.
- Interacting – developing richer ways for people and machines to interact.
- Tracking – measuring and collecting data about people, products and activities.
- Questioning – using technology to explore questions and obtain answers.
- Beginning – recognising that many important technological developments are still in their early stages.
What I find interesting about this list is that these forces don’t operate independently. Better AI makes filtering and questioning more powerful. Greater connectivity enables sharing and flowing. Tracking generates data that can be used to improve intelligent systems.
And as these developments build on one another, new possibilities emerge.
Let’s look at a few of the ideas that have stayed with me.
From Fixed to Fluid
One of Kelly’s central arguments is that we’re moving away from a world of fixed products towards a world of ongoing processes and services.
Think about software. Years ago, you might have bought a programme, installed it on your computer and used the same version for years. Today, many applications are cloud-based services that are continually updated.
The same shift has taken place in entertainment, music, storage and communications. Instead of owning a physical collection of everything we use, we increasingly access services that provide it when we need it.
This doesn’t mean that ownership has disappeared. There are still good reasons to own books, tools, equipment and other physical things. But access has become an alternative to ownership in many areas of life.
For an online business owner, this distinction is important. We can use hosting, email marketing, payment processing and other services without having to build all the underlying technology ourselves.
The challenge is to understand which services genuinely make our lives easier and which create unnecessary dependence on somebody else’s platform.
From Bounded to Interconnected
Another important idea in the book is that intelligence will increasingly be distributed across interconnected systems rather than confined to individual machines.
When Kelly wrote The Inevitable, AI was already a significant area of research, but the tools available to ordinary internet users were very different from those we have today.
Generative AI has made it possible for people to work with language models to research topics, develop ideas, analyse information, write code and produce content. The technology is still developing, and its output needs to be checked, but access to these capabilities has expanded dramatically.
This is an excellent example of what Kelly called “cognifying”: adding intelligence to things that previously had little or none.
It’s also a reminder that technological change doesn’t always arrive in the form we expect. The underlying trend may be visible long before a particular application becomes practical or widely adopted.
Chapter 4: Screening
Kelly’s chapter on screening explores the changing role of screens in our lives.
For centuries, printed books helped shape how people communicated ideas and preserved knowledge. Digital screens have introduced a different way of interacting with information. Text, images, video, conversation and interactive experiences can all exist on the same device.
Today, we move between websites, social networks, streaming services, video calls and AI chat interfaces. We don’t simply consume information; we can respond to it, share it, modify it and create our own.
For someone who runs websites and publishes videos, this is particularly relevant. A blog post is no longer the only way to communicate an idea. The same idea might be developed into a YouTube video, discussed in an online community or used as the starting point for a conversation with an AI assistant.
But there’s a downside.
The sheer quantity of content available to us can make it difficult to concentrate. Algorithms decide what many people see, and the most visible information isn’t necessarily the most accurate or useful.
Access to information is valuable. Learning how to judge that information is just as important.
What Does All This Mean for Internet Entrepreneurs?
When I first reviewed The Inevitable, I identified three takeaways that seemed particularly relevant to online entrepreneurs and people who wanted the freedom to work from anywhere.
I still think those three ideas are worth considering. However, the developments of recent years have given them a slightly different emphasis.
Takeaway #1: Access Can Be More Valuable Than Possession
I spent much of my adult life collecting things, especially books. I had hundreds of them stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling.
Many had never been read. Others had been read once and were unlikely to be opened again.
Until recently, I kept them as reminders of my interests and aspirations, as well as sources of information I might need one day.
Then came the internet, followed by cloud services and digital libraries. Suddenly, I could access enormous amounts of information without having to keep everything I might ever want to read.
That prompted me to rethink my relationship with possessions.
I began sorting through books I hadn’t touched for years and passing on those I no longer needed. I wanted to free up space and enjoy a little more of that lightness of being associated with owning less.
The same principle applies to an online business.
You don’t need to own a server farm to run a website. You don’t need to develop your own email delivery system or build every piece of software you use. You can access services that already do those jobs.
Of course, there’s a trade-off. Relying on third-party services means accepting their terms, prices and limitations. You need to consider what would happen if a service closed, changed its rules or restricted your account.
For me, the sensible approach is to use services where they provide a genuine advantage while retaining control over the things that matter most, such as my own domain names, website content and email list.
Access gives us flexibility. Keeping control of our own business assets gives us some protection against changes we can’t control.
If you’re thinking about building an online business of your own, I’ve explained the basic approach in How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business in 2026. It covers the importance of building your own assets and putting the different parts of your business together into a system.
Takeaway #2: Add AI to Existing Ideas and New Possibilities Emerge
When I first read Kelly’s discussion of cognifying, I could see the potential for adding intelligence to products and services.
At the time, I was thinking about things such as conversational tools on websites and the possibility of making online services more interactive.
Today, the possibilities are much easier to see.
AI can help us analyse information, generate ideas, create prototypes, write code and develop new ways of serving customers. It can also help a small business owner tackle tasks that might previously have required specialist skills or a larger team.
For affiliate marketers, this opens up some interesting opportunities.
AI can help with researching a topic, understanding an audience, planning a content strategy or exploring different ways to explain a product. It can help us work through technical problems and make better use of the information we already have.
I’ve written more about what this technological shift means for affiliate marketers in How AI Is Changing Affiliate Marketing, And What You Should Do About It. The important thing is to understand where AI can help you build a better business, rather than simply using it to produce more content.
But there’s a distinction between using AI to improve your work and assuming that AI will do everything for you.
A website full of generic AI-generated articles isn’t automatically a successful business. The same is true of an email list filled with messages that sound like everybody else’s.
You still need to understand your audience, choose worthwhile products or services to promote, build trust and give people a reason to pay attention to what you publish.
AI is a tool. The value comes from how you use it.
Kelly’s broader insight remains useful here: adding intelligence to an existing process can create possibilities that weren’t practical before. The challenge is to identify the applications that genuinely help people.
Takeaway #3: We’re All Newbies Now, So Never Stop Learning
One thing every smartphone user and WordPress blogger knows is that technology never stands still.
Software changes. Interfaces change. New services appear, established services disappear and yesterday’s useful technique can become today’s outdated advice.
That was true in 2018, and it’s even more obvious now.
AI has accelerated the process. Tools that were unfamiliar a short time ago are becoming part of ordinary business workflows. At the same time, the tools themselves continue to evolve, so what works today may need revisiting tomorrow.
The result is that nobody can afford to stop learning.
But I don’t see that as a bad thing.
If you’re running an online business, you don’t have to master every new platform or experiment with every new tool. In fact, trying to keep up with everything is a good way to get distracted from the work that actually produces results.
What you need is a willingness to learn the things that are relevant to your business and to adapt when there’s a good reason to do so.
There’s also an opportunity in helping other people learn. If you understand a tool or process that your audience is struggling with, you can share your experience through a blog post, a video or a useful resource.
You don’t have to know everything. You need to know enough to help somebody who is a little further behind you.
And that knowledge needs to be kept up to date.
How Well Did Kevin Kelly’s Predictions Age?
Looking back at The Inevitable, I’m struck by how many of its central themes have become part of everyday life.
The shift towards digital services and access has continued. Information flows constantly between connected devices and platforms. AI has become much more accessible. We have more ways to interact with technology, and more data is collected about our activities.
Kelly was also right to emphasise that these developments are interconnected. The significance of AI, for example, isn’t limited to chatbots or image generation. Intelligence can be incorporated into search, software, customer service, research and countless other activities.
However, recognising a long-term trend isn’t the same as predicting all its consequences.
The growth of digital services has created convenience, but also dependence on platforms we don’t control. More personalised information can be useful, but filtering can also trap us in narrow perspectives. Tracking can improve services, but it raises questions about privacy and surveillance.
AI creates new opportunities, but it also makes it easier to produce misleading information and large amounts of low-quality content.
These are important considerations when reading a book with such an optimistic view of technological progress.
The question isn’t simply whether technology will advance. It’s how we choose to use it, who benefits from it and what we might lose along the way.
Is The Inevitable Still Worth Reading?
Yes, I think it is.
You shouldn’t read The Inevitable expecting a complete guide to today’s technology. It was published in 2016, and some of its examples inevitably reflect the period in which it was written.
Instead, read it as a framework for thinking about technological change.
Kelly encourages us to look beyond individual products and consider the deeper forces shaping the world. That approach is useful because particular tools come and go, while the underlying processes can continue for years.
If you’re building an online business, the book offers plenty to think about: the movement from products to services, the growing importance of access, the role of artificial intelligence and the need to keep learning.
You won’t necessarily agree with every argument, and you may question some of the more optimistic assumptions. That’s part of the value of reading a book like this.
It gives you ideas to examine rather than a list of instructions to follow.
You can find more information about the book on Kevin Kelly’s official website or the publisher’s book page.
Final Thoughts
When I first read The Inevitable, I was thinking about how technology might change the way I lived and worked in the years ahead.
Revisiting it has reinforced one of my original conclusions: the ability to adapt is more valuable than trying to predict every new development.
You can spend all your time chasing the latest technology, or you can build a business around a few sound principles, learn the tools that help you put those principles into practice and adjust as circumstances change.
That’s the approach I prefer.
The internet has created opportunities for people to build businesses without the traditional costs and constraints of running a physical operation. New technology continues to expand those possibilities, but it doesn’t remove the need for judgement, persistence and a clear idea of what you’re trying to achieve.
Kevin Kelly’s book is a useful reminder that the future is already taking shape around us. We don’t need to know exactly what it will look like to begin preparing for it.
And if there’s one thing we can be reasonably certain of, it’s that there will always be something new to learn.
Bring it on!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
