Our Inevitable Future: A Conversation With Kevin Kelly About VR, Digital Socialism, And His New Book

If you're a virtual reality enthusiast, you probably read Kevin Kelly's April Wired cover story on Magic Leap, "The World's Most Secretive Startup." Kelly is one of the few people who've seen the much-hyped mixed reality technology being produced by the Fort Lauderdale company and was suitably impressed by it. "While Magic Leap has yet to achieve the immersion of The Void," he wrote (referring to the Utah-based immersive experience company), "it is still, by far, the most impressive on the visual front -- the best at creating the illusion that virtual objects truly exist." As the co-founder of Wired, publisher of the Cool Tools website, and former publisher and editor of The Whole Earth Review, Kelly has always been prescient about these things. In his new book, The Inevitable: Understanding 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future, he compellingly outlines a set of behaviors and trends that will change the way we live. We recently spoke with Kelly about the themes of the book, and of course, the latest developments in VR. There Is Only R: The first question I have to ask: what do you think of the Pokemon Go phenomenon? Given what you've written about the VR and AR, what's your take on it? Kevin Kelly: I think it's just wonderfully thrilling to see -- I think perhaps the only unexpected thing about it is its apparent suddenness.