'Wired' founder on Chinese creativity

The war between humans and their creations is a theme in a 1999-2003 film trilogy, "The Matrix". It is partly under the influence of biblical views. Interestingly, the directors of the film asked Keanu Reeves and other actors to read Kelly’s Out of Control and two other books about creation and psychology before opening the original script.

Prior to the making of "Minority Report" in 1999, film director Steven Speilberg invited Kelly and some other futurists to contribute ideas about what the year 2054 would be like. This film, which was released in 2002, had a theme of free will and determinism.

All this seems too far removed from what is happening in daily life today. In much of the world, people from all walks of life appear to have been preoccupied with things of immediate concern.  This is indeed a part of the story. And yet, what is called "daily life" has already also involved those things that are seemingly far away.  What is far from some people is perhaps very near to others. What is far from some people right now may be very near to them at some other moment.

Kelly’s ideas were accumulated in his daily life. They may have had an impact on the daily life of a couple of film directors. Their films, in turn, may have played a role in the daily life of millions of souls. Even without these films, the Wired magazine Kelly co-founded, his books and his website have in fact been connected with the daily life of many people. The Internet, magazines and films are also things created and promoted in the daily life quietly.

Of course, both what Kelly has seen and where he lives may still look far from China. In some sense, it is also true. But his experience and his ideas have started to earn a hearing in China. When he visited China in December 2010, some people went to his talk and asked him questions. Some have kept in touch with him. And the Chinese translation of Out of Control was done by a group of Chinese who volunteered to collaborate with one another via the Internet.

And yet, all this might still count for nothing. Out of Control, was not done overnight. Kelly has had a long walk. It is after spending huge amounts of time on a lonely road that took him beyond his expectation that Kelly was finally “reborn into ordinariness”. Now, another 30 years have passed.

Kelly has spent the intervening decades of numerous ordinary days sharing the miracles he saw with his fellow inhabitants of the world. In China, there are people who could be inspired by his story, or who could even also experience an unexpected rebirth.

In 2007, Kelly sent a Christmas card to family and friends expressing his gratitude to the living being who created humans and the wider universe. It was entitled “The Universe Is Conspiring to Help Us”.  I suspect that  is one discovery that is not unique to Kelly.