Today on The Perception Podcast, we’re joined by a true pioneer in the world of technology, storytelling, and future-forward thinking — Kevin Kelly.
Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. His newest book is Excellent Advice for Living, a book of 450 modern proverbs for good living. He is co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, a membership organization that champions long-term thinking and acting as a good ancestor to future generations. And he is founder of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily for 20 years.
From 1984 to 1990, Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a subscriber-supported journal of unorthodox conceptual news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985.
Other books by Kelly include:
1 The Inevitable, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller,
2 Out of Control, his 1994 classic book on decentralized emergent systems,
3 The Silver Cord, a graphic novel about robots and angels,
4 What Technology Wants, a robust theory of technology, and
5 Vanishing Asia, his 50-year project to photograph the disappearing cultures of Asia.
He is best known for his radical optimism about the future.
In this conversation, we dive into how stories influence innovation, how science fiction inspires real-world technology, and how our perception — of time, agency, and even reality — is evolving right alongside the tools we build.
So let’s go deep with Kevin Kelly!