Kevin Kelly, futurist, best-selling author and co-founder of Wired magazine, will deliver a presentation on technology and its uses in the surveillance and security departments at this year’s World Game Protection Conference, being held March 12-15 at Bally’s Las Vegas.
Kelly, the author of The Inevitable: Understanding the Technological Forces that will Shape our Future, will talk about artificial intelligence, streaming media and a shared sense of community in a featured speech conference co-founder Willy Allison said are all relevant to the casino industry.
“He’s very positive,” Allison told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “(He’s) someone from outside the industry that tries to inspire people to think openly, in this case about technology. With all of the ugly things we talk about during the show, like active shooters and cyber threats, maybe the solution is what Kevin is saying—developing our own technology, within what’s out there, to run a better business.”
In an interview with the Review-Journal, the author said one of the major themes of his book that he will use at the WPG will be to explain the larger forces behind technological changes.
“It’s about why we should be optimistic… and not focus on the problems, which are very easy to see right now,” Kelly said. “I know this conference is trying to manage some of the problems and challenges that come up. I preach the gospel of embracing technology as a way of steering it and managing it, despite the many possible ways we can see it being abused. We gain control by learning how to use these tools, rather than prohibiting them.
“I’m not trying to predict what kind of bad stuff there will be in 20 years. You can develop systems that won’t eliminate (criminal activity such as malware) but work with them, so we can manage the bad stuff. The solution to bad things allowed by technology is better technology, (not) removing the technology or trying to diminish it.”
