Book Review: "The Next 5000 Days" by Kevin Kelly

 · 2 min read
 · Zijian Jiang

I heard about Kevin Kelly a few years ago and read his famous book "Inevitable" published in 2016. "The Next 5000 Days" was published this year when he was 71 years old. The book tells about the vision of the future after 5000 days and how technology will change the world.

The book is divided into seven topics:

  1. A future where millions of people work together
  2. The current state of the evolving digital economy
  3. All industries will be reshaped by technology
  4. The Age of Asia and the Geopolitics of Technology
  5. Listen to technology and see the future
  6. The Dilemma of Innovation and Success
  7. The final chapter: The world after 5000 days, Technology widens options

In the first chapter he talked about the mirror world, or I can say the metaworld. Augmented reality, virtual reality, etc. The final purpose of building this metaworld he thinks is to make millions of people work together becomes possible. As we all know, the biggest advantage of the Internet is that it allows information to spread around the world almost for free. Furthermore, when the mirror world becomes a reality, people will be able to have almost the same understanding of the same thing. Information is like lubricant, reducing friction when people work together. I'm sure it will become more efficient, but I also very much doubt how efficient it will be, since the human being will be that limit. This book gives a partial answer to my question in Chapter 2, AI will augment humans. And talk about the side effect of AI. He belives the advantages of new technolgy will outweigh the disadvantages day by days. In Chapter 4, he belives Asia will be the backbone of technological development, and multiculturalism will eventually converge. In Chapters 5 and 6, he talks about how people should continue to learn and stay positive in the future. And use the example of how big companies lose to small companies in the market as an analogy of how people will succeed in the future world. Overall, this is a good book worth reading.

Great statements:

  1. AI and other tools will be used to modify our bodies and other biological phenomena in "New Biology Era".
  2. Leave the boring work to AI and do the creative work.
  3. Almighty God did not create the world, but the creatures that could create the world.
  4. Due to secondary effects, it is difficult to predict the impact of new creations. We didn't see traffic jams coming when we invented the car.
  5. If a technology makes life easier and allows people to spend more time with their families, it's good technology.
  6. Only when we see the lower limit of the application range of technology can we fully grasp it. Technology is far from what inventors expected. This is the essential law of development of science and technology. People use internet to watch porns.
  7. If you are successful now, it will be very difficult for you to get out of your current state. You may do everything you can to improve even a little bit. But change can involve life or death, and you could be left with nothing. The more successful you are, the more you want to pursue perfection. This pursuit of perfection cannot stop at all.
  8. Today is a good day, and it has to be a good day. Be grateful and embrace each day.