What Kevin Kelly Taught Me About Positivity

photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

Kevin Kelly recently inspired me to think more realistically about our collective future. Not because he has a solid understanding of technology’s evolution (he knows more than most of us do), but rather because he remains positive about its influence on the future of humanity.

And that’s something not everyone in the field tends to agree with.

When we see great minds like the late Stephen Hawking warning us about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, it’s difficult to remain optimistic. Especially after 8000+ of the top minds in tech sign an open letter to establish and maintain ethical priorities as AI continues to develop.

But somehow, Kevin Kelly does that. He keeps it positive. And that inspires me.

That mindset impacts so many people, to perceive things that way. It goes beyond yourself. Beyond the exponential growth of tech.

I’ve tried to incorporate it into my own reality very much over the last 6, 7 years of my life. But in reading more and more of Kevin’s media, my metaphorical “positivity” spark has rekindled itself in regards to humanity’s growing dependence on technology.

A lot of times this influence bleeds over into my fiction. My poetry. Even the way I teach.

I think there’s a lesson to be learned there.

So often we subconsciously pump our brains full of dystopian futures, negative possibilities, and fatal concern. Our highly-evolved human brains are still fascinated by the fear.

But in recognizing this, and being able to self-program positivity into our daily routine, we can change the way we create our future.

I’m not saying we should abandon preparing for the worst.

What I am saying is that too much failure-planning distracts us from the potential opportunity we have to build something truly magnificent.

Have a plan for both outcomes. But act on the positive first. Kevin Kelly’s attitude reflects that. And hopefully, we can too. We can collectively establish ethics into the expansive programming for tomorrow’s definitions of sentience.

No one wants a SkyNet. I think we can all agree on that.

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