Abundance Book Summary - Abundance Book explained in key points

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Name: Abundance
Rating: 4.3 (366 reviews)
Author: Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

The Future Is Better Than You Think

4.3 (366 ratings)

24 mins

What is Abundance about?

Abundance explains why our current predicament is not as gloomy as we believe it to be and presents a compelling case for ways in which we could have a future marked by abundance and not scarcity. It takes readers on a whistle-stop tour of transformative technologies, their key players and a glimpse of how these technologies could be employed to solve many of the resource problems we face today. Above all, this book reminds readers that it’s an interesting and exciting time to exist.

Table of Contents

Abundance
summarized in 12 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 12

What’s in it for me?

We may very well think that dark times are approaching. Many of us ask ourselves: How long will it be before our world collapses under the strain of climate change, overpopulation and dwindling resources? Surely it’s just a matter of time?

Abundance argues otherwise. Far from being near to the end, society is on the cusp of a bright and innovative future. Changes in the world of business, technology and economics will transform societies across the globe for the better. In reading this book in blinks, you’ll find exactly what these changes are, some of which are less obvious than others.

For example, did you know that the computing power of the average laptop is close to overtaking that of the human brain? Or how access to the internet is making it easier for children in the developing world to get an education? Or how genetically engineered algae can solve the world’s energy crisis?

Technological and social innovations such as these will make our society a better place. Together, they will help move us away from the dangers we currently face and towards a bright, optimistic and abundant future.

Our brain’s architecture and the media lead us to have an overly pessimistic view of the future.

It’s hard to think about the future and not consider the potential dangers of war, terrorism, climate change, economic crises, population explosion and food shortages. Many of these threats seem so imminent that anyone who didn’t consider them when evaluating their future might be thought of as crazy.

In fact, there are underlying influences that tend to push us towards a pessimistic view of the future.

The first is the architecture of our brains – principally, the section known as the amygdala. The amygdala is always on alert for threats in our environment and, when triggered, it initiates the fight-or-flight response. This reaction served us well in times when dangers around us were immediate and life-threatening, but is not so well suited to modern society, where threats tend to be more remote and probabilistic – e.g., the economy could nose-dive, there could be a terrorist attack, etc.

The second has to do with the kind of information we receive. News and media outlets are aware that positive news doesn’t elicit the same physiological reaction as threatening news, which is why they report true to the old adage “If it bleeds, it leads” in the battle for our attention.

And so, we’re constantly bombarded with fearful images and scenarios that feed the amygdala, keeping us in a state of alert and preventing us from viewing the future objectively.

But if we look at the statistics, we would see that the industrialized world has never been safer: we’re living longer, wealthier, healthier lives and have massively increased our access to goods, services and information that our ancestors could never have imagined.

Just as they were unable to fathom the impact of technological advances such as the internet, we also cannot see what affect future developments will have on our continued progress.

The future is brighter than our brains and the media would have us believe.

Traditional methods of education are outdated and in need of a re-think, but ICT may provide the answer.

Our current education system was formed during the industrial revolution, which not only influenced which subjects were taught, but how to teach. Industry required students to follow orders and fit in like cogs in a machine, so standardization through rote learning was the order of the day and conformity the desired goal. Society has since moved on, but education has not kept pace with these changes.

When we consider these problems, it seems education is in need of a serious re-think, but is it feasible with such stretched resources? Fortunately, there is evidence to suggest that increased use and access to ICT may offer a solution which can address both issues of quality and delivery.

A successful future depends on innovational freedom not being held back by fear of failure.

We are generally uncomfortable with the word failure. There’s a certain stigma attached to it and, because of this, many people go out of their way to avoid it – even if it means not attempting something new. However, failure should not be viewed as the endpoint, but more as part of a longer learning curve and a vital stepping stone towards innovation.

In this respect, Apple’s early attempt to introduce a personal digital assistant called the Newton is a revealing example. Commercially speaking, it was a disaster. Development costs were expensive and sales were disappointing, but the story doesn’t end there. Much of the development work on the Newton went into creating a handwriting recognition system, which became the foundation for the hugely successful iPhone.

Computer processors are set to surpass the human brain’s calculation capacity in the next fifteen years.

Back in 1965, before the advent of home computing, Gordon Moore, an employee of Fairchild Semiconductor, made a bold prediction about the future of the computer industry. He predicted that the number of transistors on a computer chip, and therefore the processing speed, would continue to double every two years for the next ten years. Moore went on to be a co-founder of Intel, and his prediction wasn’t just right for the next ten years, but remains relevant today, and has since become known as Moore’s law.

If computer processors continue to progress in line with Moore’s law, the average laptop will surpass the speed of the human brain in the next fifteen years. This exponential increase in processing speed will have tremendous implications, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics.

As technology advances and becomes more affordable, robots may soon take up their long-heralded role in society.

From Star Wars to 2001: A Space Odyssey, many a science fiction film has envisioned an age where robots live among us in society, helping or hindering us – depending on the plot, of course. Technology programs have seduced us with the idea of robots helping us around the house but still these promises hardly seem to have been realized today – self-operating vacuum cleaners aside.

However, now there are good reasons to believe that the wait for intelligent robots may be coming to an end.

Nanotechnology allows us to create new materials with qualities and functionality to create major advances in many areas.

After witnessing the horrific problems created by the lack of access to clean water in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, Michael Pritchard, an English engineer and expert in water treatment, was motivated to do something about it. He set about creating a simple and portable solution and, just a few years later, in 2009 he created the simple design of the Lifesaver water bottle.

Lifesaver certainly doesn’t look high-tech, with a hand-pump on one end and a filter on the other. However, Pritchard realized early on in the design stage that conventional filters were able to capture most bacteria but not viruses, which are far more microscopic, so he decided to look to nanotechnology.

3D printing: changing how we design and create, enabling mass-innovation and reducing waste.

Imagine you’ve just broken your last coffee cup. You could run to the store and buy a new one or order one online and wait for it to be delivered. But let’s imagine that, instead, you could browse designs online, download whatever cup design you like, hit “print” and a desktop device manufactures the item for you in minutes.

Far from science fiction, the above scenario is already possible. The device is a 3D printer, which can fabricate an object of any shape by laying down successive layers of material, one on top of the next.

Biotechnology provides solutions to global problems, particularly in agriculture, healthcare, energy and the environment.

Although biotechnological applications in food have created much controversy in recent years, the science itself is nothing new. The 12,000-year history of farming is characterized by farmers manipulating living systems, creating new strains of crops through cross-pollination and manipulating the plants’ DNA.

Technology may have moved on, but the principle of manipulating organisms remains the same. Today, advances in genetic engineering provide solutions that are proving to be a key weapon in the fight to feed an ever increasing population.

Global connectivity is accelerating the sharing of information – solving social problems and preventing oppression.

When Colombian computer engineer Oscar Morales created a Facebook group one morning in 2008, he could never have imagined the eventual consequences.

Morales created the group to make a stand against the terrorism and kidnapping by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC. By the end of the week, the group had one hundred thousand members and, as the numbers grew, this virtual protest turned into a real one.

Advances in solar energy technology are increasing usage, lowering production prices and furthering innovation.

If we want to talk about abundance in terms of energy sources, then we don’t really need to look much further than the sun. It’s estimated that the solar power in the deserts of North Africa is enough to supply forty times the world’s current usage.

With so much energy available from one source, why are we not capturing more of it?

Using affordable sensors will help reduce waste by greatly improving the efficiency of delivery systems.

Optimizing production and capturing techniques is only one side of the coin in the battle towards efficient management of the world’s resources. We also need to ensure that delivery systems of resources and products are efficient in order to minimize waste.

Take water, for example: an estimated 20% of fresh water is lost through contamination or leaks in the network of pipes that delivers the water to taps. Such a high percentage of waste is alarming with such a vital resource, but this doesn’t have to be the case.

Final Summary

Abundance provides a breathtaking tour of key technologies and the implications of their projected exponential growth, giving us a glimpse of how they may develop and discussing the ways in which this will impact society. From the potential role of robots and artificial intelligence in improving healthcare to the uses of nanotechnology and digital manufacturing in reducing waste and conserving natural resources, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that the future is not just bright, but may well be one of abundance.

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About the Author

Peter H. Diamandis is an American engineer and physician and founder of the XPRIZE, an incentive prize awarded to foster innovation and creative solutions to humanity’s greatest problems. He’s also the co-founder of the Singularity University, which aims to educate people on the potential impact of cutting-edge technology from its key location in Silicon Valley.

Steven Kotler is an American author and journalist who has written articles for a wide range of magazines from The New Yorker to Wired. His work is often characterized by the clash between culture and science, and he frequently draws on his knowledge of academic work from neuroscience, psychology and evolutionary theory.

Who should read Abundance?

Anyone interested in the potential impact of new technologies on society
Anyone looking for a more optimistic view of the future
Anyone interested in how we manage the world’s resources

Categories with Abundance

Technology & the Future Society & Culture

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