Cover of The Inevitable

The Inevitable

Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

by Kevin Kelly · first published 2016

16mentions
4recommended by
15HN commenters
2016–2025first – last mentioned

27% recommend60% neutral13% critical

An expert tech writer discusses the forces and trends that will revolutionize daily life through the upcoming technological advances of the next thirty years.

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Mentions per year

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What Hacker News says

  • bob_theslob646 · Dec 10, 2017 · Recommends

    …> Bellevue David Oshinsky > The Woman Who Smashed Codes Jason Fagone > Stealing Fire Steven Kotler > Hit Refresh Satya Nadella > Thank You for Being Late Thomas Friedman > Supernormal Meg Jay > The Inevitable Kevin Kelly > Economics for the Common Good Jean Tirole > It’s What I Do Lynsey Addario > Gotham: 1898-1919 Mike Wallace > The Good Daughter Karin Slaughter

    on “Annual survey of book recommendations” ↗
  • joddystreet · Jul 29, 2018 · Recommends

    …be building products and managing teams (I have found 4 companies to date, as a tech-cofounder) - my list - -- The One - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari -- Top Picks - - The Inevitable, Kevin Kelly - What Technology Wants, Kevin Kelly - Bhagavad Gita - Hooked, Nir Eyal - Inspired, Marty Cagan - The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz - Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson -…

    on “Ask HN: What is your area of expertise and what books still blew your mind?” ↗
  • m463 · Aug 7, 2025 · Recommends

    This all reminds me of this really interesting book "The Inevitable" by kevin kelly. It had a fascinating look into the future, and in this case one insight in particular. It basically said that in the future, answers would be cheap and plentiful, and questions would…

    on “Sweatshop Data Is Over” ↗
  • podlp · Dec 16, 2025 · Recommends

    As a counterpoint, consider reading Kevin Kelly’s “The Inevitable.” I also avoid most social media and have an aversion to all things “smart,” but these may actually be “inevitable.” In a capitalist society, these forces feel inevitable because there’s no Anubis balancing…

    on “This is not the future” ↗
  • xiaoma · Mar 14, 2017 · Mentions

    >" It's not an inevitability" It's ironic you use this word given that Kevin Kelly's new bestseller which focuses on this and two other trends is called, The Inevitable. https://www.amazon.com/Inevitable-Understanding-Technologica...

    on “Vibrator Maker to Pay Millions Over Claims It Secretly Tracked Use” ↗
  • mjklin · Jul 11, 2016 · Mentions

    Where I'm Reading From, by Tim Parks The Inevitable, by Kevin Kelly Ideas that Changed the World, by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto A Reader's Manifesto, by B.R. Myers Framed!, by Hari Singh Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman Why Education is Useless, by…

    on “Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?” ↗
  • avindroth · Jul 28, 2016 · Mentions

    To implement what you read, employ the method of Directives[1]. These days my notes look like the following (from "The Inevitable" by Kevin Kelly): ---------- You hate updates? Get used to them. Because in the future, living — for most surrounded by technology — will be a constant stream of updates. 1. Embrace being an Endless…

    on “YC’s Summer Reading” ↗
  • vo1d · Dec 19, 2017 · Mentions

    …the Future by Alec Ross - Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss - Start with No by Jim Camp - How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg - The Everything Store by Brad Stone - The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

    on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?” ↗
  • rmason · Jun 29, 2016 · Mentions

    …best books that I've read in my life give you a framework to make sense of individual events going forward. Third Wave was one of the best books of its kind. I'm currently reading Kevin Kelly's, the Inevitable, and he's another author with similar power. Kelly in the early nineties was the first to make the connection between software and biology.

    on “Alvin Toffler, Author of ‘Future Shock,’ Dies at 87” ↗
  • gabrielgoh · Mar 22, 2017 · Mentions

    so did Kevin Kelly, in "The Inevitable". He stretches the electrical metaphor for about a chapter. "The AI on the horizon looks more like Amazon Web Services — ... This common utility will serve you as much IQ as you want but no more than…

    on “Opening a new chapter of my work in AI” ↗
  • darkr · Dec 27, 2017 · Critical

    I enjoyed this article, particularly as someone who tried and failed to complete Kevin Kelly’s “The Inevitable” this year. If the book had been written in 1996, it would have been cute. Unfortunately it was written/released in 2016; the level of naivety displayed was shocking. Page after page of techno-utopian…

    on “My Internet Mea Culpa” ↗
  • ofou · Aug 29, 2020 · Mentions

    …going backwards is just not an option, we must be more conspicuous of the dangers of new high tech deployments. I think everyone here share the same feeling: thrill but chilling at the same time. It's Inevitable by the way, on the Kevin Kelly's sense of the word: this is our technium taking shape and we better learn how to deal with it fast, like it or not.

    on “Neuralink Progress Update [video]” ↗
  • criddell · Mar 21, 2023 · Mentions

    …something many companies have been working on for a big part of the last decade. Kevin Kelly in particular has been talking about it for at least the past 7 years. In 2016 he released a book titled "The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future" and the addition of AI to everything is covered in that book.

    on “Adobe Firefly: AI Art Generator” ↗
  • karaterobot · Sep 27, 2024 · Mentions

    …found better ways of using it. Mr. Altman hoped to do the same with data centers and eventually make A.I. technologies flow like electricity. Reminds me of a quote I saved from Kevin Kelly's book The Inevitable, which was published in 2016. I saved it because it sounded so absurd at the time. To be clear, it sort of still does sound absurd to me, who remain moderately skeptical about AI (though admittedly less…

    on “Behind OpenAI's plan to make A.I. flow like electricity” ↗
  • podlp · Jul 15, 2025 · Mentions

    The book I’m currently reading-Kevin Kelly’s The Inevitable-feels pretty ironic given this post

    on “LLM Inevitabilism” ↗

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