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Abundance
The Future Is Better Than You Think
Abundance (2012) 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.
- 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
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.
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Abundance
The Future Is Better Than You Think
- Read in 24 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 15 key ideas
Synopsis
Abundance (2012) 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.
Key idea 1 of 15
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 those 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.
Key ideas in this title
- Our brain’s architecture and the media lead us to have an overly pessimistic view of the future.
- The complex web of relationships among many of the world’s problems means they can be solved together.
- Far from being a source of global poverty, big business can raise standards of living among the world's poorest people.
- Traditional methods of education are outdated and in need of a re-think, but ICT may provide the answer.
- A successful future depends on innovational freedom unhindered by fear of failure.
- Computer processors are set to surpass the human brain’s calculation capacity within the next fifteen years.
- As technology advances and becomes more affordable, robots may soon take up their long-heralded role in society.
- Nanotechnology allows us to create new materials with qualities and functionality leading to major advances in many areas.
- 3D printing: changing how we design and create, enabling mass-innovation and reducing waste.
- Biotechnology provides solutions to global problems, particularly in agriculture, healthcare, energy and the environment.
- Global connectivity is accelerating the sharing of information – solving social problems and preventing oppression.
- Advances in solar energy technology are increasing usage, lowering production prices and furthering innovation.
- More efficient methods of growing food, like urban farming, will greatly reduce the need for natural resources and land.
- Using affordable sensors will help reduce waste by greatly improving the efficiency of delivery systems.
- Final Summary
