Kevin Kelly Response

In Kevin Kelly's "On the Next 5,000 Days of the Web," Kelly provides an optimistic view of the way the web has progressed over the past 5,000 days and where it is headed for the future. Kelly begins by making the statement that it was only 5,000 days ago that the web got its footing. 5,000 days seems like such a small number for the internet, which has become such a huge part of our daily lives. 5,000 days ago at the beginning of the web one could not conceptualize the idea of Web 2.0 and where we're at today. If told there would be social networking sites, user generated videos, and any information could be accessed using the computer and the web, you would think this is crazy. But for us today, this has become the reality. Our generation has more access to information, greater opportunity for having our voices heard, and far more complex social networks than any before us. Kevin Kelly sees these as some of the biggest accomplishments the web has had to offer us. Many of us today take the internet for granted because it is so common and we have known it for such a long time. In the next 5,000 days Kelly sees us moving toward a world where every facet of our lives is connected to the web. Everything we own, everything we do, will be supported by and connected to the internet. For Kelly this is a fantastic achievement for man to create something so powerful and so useful. But many others fear the growing presence of the internet may also increase our dependence and addiction. They also fear a time where we no longer control the internet, but the internet controls us. This is where Kelly's concept of the McLuhan reversal comes into play. Instead of the media being an extension of our senses Kelly states that "humans are the extended senses of the machine." in other words we are entering an age where humans are at the hands of the machine and technology is controlling us. Despite this concerning idea, Kelly remains optimistic about the future of the internet and the unlimited benefits it can provide us with.d