Kevin Kelly

About

Journalist, editor, and futurist known for being the founding executive editor of WIRED, for his writing on technology and culture, and for founding and supporting projects like Cool Tools, Recomendo, and The Technium. He is especially known for his long running blog The Technium where he explores how technology evolves as a system. He is also known for authoring influential books such as Out of Control, The Inevitable, What Technology Wants, and Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier.

Before fame

He grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from Westfield High School in 1970. He briefly attended the University of Rhode Island and studied geology before leaving college. He worked as a photographer in the early 1970s and traveled throughout Asia during that decade. He began publishing freelance writing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He became involved in the Whole Earth Catalog network in the early 1980s. He helped launch the influential online community The WELL in 1985 which was one of the earliest internet forums. He co-organized the first Hackers Conference in 1984. He became the founding executive editor of WIRED in 1992 and served in a senior editorial role at WIRED until 1999. He launched Cool Tools as an email list in 2000 and expanded it into a website in 2003.

Trivia

He released his book The Inevitable in 2016 which became a New York Times bestseller. He appeared on The Tim Ferriss Show in 2023. His work has been featured in major publications such as The New York Times, The Economist, Time, Harper's Magazine, Science, GQ, and Esquire. His photography has appeared in Life magazine.

Family life

He was born in Pennsylvania and eventually settled in Northern California. He is married biochemist Gia-Miìn Fuh. He is the father of three children.

Associated with

He served as a science fiction consultant for Steven Spielberg's Minority Report in 2002.