Kevin Kelly: How to Maintain Humanity in Humanity's "Technological Long March"

Almost every week, a new AI tool emerges – faster, smarter, and seemingly more “human-like”. Managers experiment with it in strategic meetings, entrepreneurs talk about it in pitch presentations, and creators wonder if they can still compete with the creativity of algorithms. In this race for speed and efficiency, a deeper question quietly arises: Do we really understand the direction of technology and what kind of people it is shaping us into?

With this question in mind, I had a conversation with Kevin Kelly – the founding editor of Wired magazine and the author of 2049: Possibilities in the Next 10,000 Days, one of the most visionary technology thinkers of our time. For over four decades, he has been studying technology not as a machine but as an evolving life system – it grows, self-regulates, and reflects humanity's common desires and imaginations.

Most readers of HBR China are business leaders and innovators at the forefront of change. They need to find a balance between the impulse for innovation and the pursuit of meaning. So, in this conversation, I wanted to explore with Kelly what he calls the “technological long march”: Where exactly are we on this long journey? Facing an increasingly intelligent world, how should we create with ambition and humility? And how can we still maintain the warmth and wisdom of being human in the wave of technology?

AI Is Still in Its Infancy

The Technological Long March Is Still at the Starting Point

Q: Kevin, you've dedicated your life to helping people understand the direction of technology and how we can maintain our humanity within it. In the era of artificial intelligence, how do you view this “technological long march”? Are we still at the starting point or have we entered a new stage?

Kevin Kelly: The best way to understand the current stage of technological development, including artificial intelligence, is to think of it as “Day One”. We're just getting started. You can even imagine that in 20 or 30 years, say in 2049, when people look back at today, they'll say: There was no real AI back then. Compared to what they'll have, today's AI is almost non-existent. So, this is truly just a beginning. We're standing at the starting point of the huge wave triggered by AI, and the “first day” of this transformation has just begun.

The speed of technological invention is fast, but the speed of cultural absorption is slow. It may take about a decade for society to truly digest what has been invented today. To enable society to truly absorb these technologies at the cultural level, it requires education and time to use them, observe what works and what doesn't, adapt, experiment, change ideas, test technologies, and decide whether to adjust the direction in the process. In other words, we have time, and people don't need to be afraid that everything will happen rapidly in a short period.

The Evolutionary Logic of Technology

Q: You once said that technology is like a living system that “evolves” on its own, constantly exploring new possibilities. When the definition of “intelligence” is reshaped, where will this curiosity lead us?

Kevin Kelly: Curiosity is a unique human trait and the foundation of innovation, creativity, art, and science. Currently, artificial intelligence can answer questions and complete tasks, but it will take many years before it might develop curiosity. Therefore, curiosity will be a uniquely human trait for some time. We need to cultivate this trait, not only at the individual level but also within companies. Having curiosity is very important because that's where innovation and wealth originate.

The Symbiotic Future of Humans and AI

Q: You often say that humans and machines are co-evolving. In your opinion, what does a “healthy relationship” between humans and AI look like?

Kevin Kelly: The concept of symbiosis is that two different organisms depend on each other and almost form a new whole. I believe that artificial intelligence can also achieve such a relationship. Even though there is already a lot of artificial intelligence today, in the next ten or twenty-five years, there will be hundreds or thousands of different types, but most of them we'll never notice. 99% of artificial intelligence will be invisible to us, just like the electricity in the pipes. Only a few hundredths of them will we interact with directly.

For these few special artificial intelligences, we can establish very close connections and deep dependencies. Over time, we'll develop real relationships with certain artificial intelligences that know us very well and rely on them. Just like the relationship between humans and dogs. Although dogs don't have consciousness, this relationship is still very real.

Even if these things don't have consciousness, they can still have a powerful emotional impact. Imagine a talking dog; you'd develop deep emotions for it. Artificial intelligence doesn't need to have consciousness to establish a close relationship with us.

Currently, we're not really prepared for this emotional power. People tend to view artificial intelligence as a smart tool rather than an emotional being. But they'll also develop emotions. This relationship will expand from the financial field to healthcare and even extend to interpersonal relationships. Soon, we'll establish real connections with an imaginary artificial intelligence “brain”, and this won't just happen to people with needs. Even those with good mental health and fulfilling lives will form close relationships with these artificial intelligences.

Cultivate Organizational Wisdom with Long-Term Thinking

Think Long-Term in a Short-Term World

Q: You encourage people to think in terms of decades and centuries, but we live in a world of instant feedback and quarterly evaluations. How can business leaders train themselves to have long-term thinking?

Kevin Kelly: What's the best way to have long-term thinking?

From a financial data perspective, there's a clear conclusion: Companies with a long-term perspective tend to perform better over time. Research by institutions like McKinsey also shows that companies that look beyond the next quarter or the next year usually have better financial performance.

But it's not just about higher returns. First, having a long-term perspective makes competition easier. The longer your vision, the fewer competitors there are, and it's easier for you to stand out rather than being just one of many companies.

Second, a long-term perspective brings optimism. Whether for individuals or companies, only optimism can drive us to achieve those complex and long-term goals. To achieve them, you have to be able to imagine and believe that they're possible, and that in itself is a kind of practical optimism.

The world we live in today was actually created by past optimists. Some people believed that buildings would exist, some believed that electricity could light up the night, and some believed that seemingly impossible things would eventually come true. It was they who “saw” the future first and then made it a reality.

If you want to shape the future, you need to stay optimistic. And the best way to stay optimistic is to have long-term thinking. A long-term perspective brings optimism, and optimism gives us the power to create the future.

In the Age of Information, Wisdom Is Scarcer

Q: You once said that in the future, the scarcest thing won't be data but wisdom. What does it mean for today's organizations to cultivate wisdom?

Kevin Kelly: In my view, wisdom is knowledge with a long-term perspective, capable of looking back at the past and forward to the future. It's a macroscopic and expansive view. When you pull your view back a thousand years and extend it a thousand years into the future, covering the entire planet, this broad perspective is wisdom. It allows us to view things from a larger perspective. I believe that artificial intelligence can help us achieve this kind of wisdom in corporate management and social governance. This wisdom applies not only to companies and countries but also helps individuals gain deeper insights.

When you talk to AI, it can provide advice based on a longer time frame and a broader context, such as in financial decision-making. There's a word in English, “context”. Information is just data, and it only gains meaning when it's associated with context. A single data point isn't important, but when it's related to other things, it forms a broader perspective. Having information about the context is wisdom. It's knowledge endowed with context.

This is where the value of AI lies. It can process massive amounts of information and extract key insights. We're not short of data; we're short of the framework to understand them. AI can provide us with this larger framework and help us extract context from information.

Running a Business in the Flood of Technology

Q: Many business leaders are overwhelmed by the speed of technological change. What things would you advise them to focus on so that they can not only survive but also continue to grow?

Kevin Kelly: For businesses, the key is to conduct continuous AI experiments with low expectations and low costs. The most important thing for businesses isn't to bet everything on AI but to conduct a variety of experiments and accept that most of them will fail. We understand the potential of AI, but it will still take time to truly figure out how to maximize its use.

Businesses should let as many departments and as many employees as possible try AI, ask them to use it in some way in their daily work, and understand its effects through conservative evaluation methods. They should conduct experiments systematically, measure the results, and then experiment again. Most initial attempts will fail, but the key is to keep experimenting like scientists and learn from failures.

Meet 2049 with Trust and Optimism

Gradual Optimism

Q: You call yourself a “gradual optimist”, believing that the world is getting better bit by bit rather than pursuing perfection. In your latest work 2049: Possibilities in the Next 10,000 Days, you also constantly emphasize the word “optimism”. When the technological narrative is often overshadowed by “dystopia”, how should we maintain this mindset?

Kevin Kelly: Gradual optimism means that the world is getting a little better every year. This isn't a utopia, and neither is artificial intelligence. It won't solve all problems, nor can it be installed directly through an app.

The bigger challenge is that people have to change the way they work and learn to absorb and use AI. We can't think that just by introducing AI, like bringing in a very smart person, everything will be done. In fact, businesses have to redesign their work processes and readjust employees' perceptions of their own work.

Introducing AI means a very high proportion of education and re-education. This isn't as simple as changing a light bulb; it's a multi-step, iterative process that will take many years. Technology is changing, and employees are also changing. This will be a gradual evolution spanning decades.

The Moral Compass of the New Era

Q: In your opinion, what will determine the moral success or failure of this technological era?

Kevin Kelly: Many AI companies are investing a lot of time, effort, and money to endow AI with morality and make it capable of thinking. They hope to set limits so that AI is responsible, doesn't lie, doesn't cheat, doesn't make hate speech, and doesn't deliberately provoke users.

I think this is a good business decision because it's the optimal business choice. Humans want to have AI that they can trust. Today, we've entered a world where different AI assistants collaborate to complete tasks. But the question is, can I trust these AI assistants? Therefore, we need to develop trust technologies to determine, remind, and verify whether AI assistants are reliable. In the future, there may even be trust ratings for AI assistants, which is a very big business opportunity.

When Technology Meets the Diversity of Civilizations

Q: You've had a lot of exchanges and cooperation in China. What are the differences between China's and the West's attitudes towards technology? What have you learned from it?

Kevin Kelly: To be honest, I'm not sure what differences will emerge between Western and Chinese technologies. They may be different, but so far, I haven't seen much difference in the results.

China does have some ingenious innovations, but the West also has many. Innovation alone isn't enough to create a fundamental difference. At present, the real difference may lie in the organizational methods behind the technology. Chinese employees are very hardworking and work almost around the clock. Their way of collaboration may be more consensus-based. But in terms of the products themselves, even those designed in China aren't very different.

This situation may change in the future, and I'm open to such changes.

A Message to 2049

Q: You've had a lot of exchanges and cooperation in China. What are the differences between China's and the West's attitudes towards technology? What have you learned from it?

Kevin Kelly: Looking back at 2025, I think it will be regarded as the starting point of globalization. Many people think that globalization seems to be over. On the contrary, what's happening now shows that globalization is just beginning. We can't separate China and the United States. We can't go back to protected and independent areas. In fact, we're already globalized, and we'll become even more so.

Conclusion

Conversing with Kevin Kelly was like standing on the edge of a new continent – there was no fear, only curiosity. His “gradual optimism” isn't a neglect of risks but a trust in humanity's learning ability. In this era of accelerating technology, Kelly reminds us: What really matters isn't how smart the machines are but whether humans can continuously maintain their wisdom.

*This article is an excerpt and adaptation of the transcript of a conversation in October 2025.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Harvard Business Review” (ID: hbrchinese). Author: HBR-China. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.