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Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
Unavailable
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
Unavailable
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
Audiobook10 hours

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this audiobook

We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions of people. This book is an antidote to pessimism by tech-entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler.

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing-fast. The authors document how four forces-exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the Technophilanthropist, and the Rising Billion-are conspiring to solve our biggest problems. Abundance establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic road map for governments, industry, and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism.

Examining human need by category-water, food, energy, health care, education, and freedom-Diamandis and Kotler introduce dozens of innovators making great strides in each area: Larry Page, Steven Hawking, Dean Kamen, Daniel Kahneman, Elon Musk, Bill Joy, Stewart Brand, Jeff Skoll, Ray Kurzweil, Ratan Tata, Craig Venter, and many, many others.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherTantor Audio
Release dateMar 26, 2012
ISBN9781452677187
Author

Peter H. Diamandis

Peter H. Diamandis, MD, is a New York Times bestselling author and the cofounder of Singularity University, Human Longevity, Inc., Celularity, Inc., and founder of Bold Capital Partners. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of XPRIZE. Diamandis has degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT and an MD from Harvard Medical School.

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Reviews for Abundance

Rating: 3.9964285214285717 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read the new book Bold before reading this one but thought based on how much I enjoyed that one that this one would be just as enjoyable. Unfortunately I was as enthusiastic about this one. It is not a bad book, but it wasn't quit what I was expecting which was just something a little bit more informative and with a little more depth. They do a great job of describing just how great the world and future could be, including emerging technologies, but don't present any compelling arguments on how to get there.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Humanity is facing challenges, but then it always has. And it has always overcome them. More than that, we (collectively over time) have improved the quality of human existence. We now live longer, eat better, and have more free time than ever before. This book presents a brief look at some emerging technologies that may help us past foreseeable potholes on our road to the future...robotics, computer intelligence, information networks, biotechnology, and others. All are advancing at exponential rates. They show great promise to allow us to feed, clothe, and provide energy for our growing worldwide population, and to create a higher quality of life for everyone. It's a hopeful picture.

    Maybe too hopeful.

    The technological advancements are presented as being almost certain, largely through the efforts of visionary philanthropists and entrepreneurs who can and are willing to provide funding. But challenges remain. There is no certainty that they'll be overcome. Admittedly, it seems likely, but it's far from certain. It's not really the advancement of technology that I think may be our greatest stumbling block. For example, solar energy CAN provide far more energy than we'll ever need, but will we exploit it? That's not a technological challenge. It's one of culture, politics, and economics. These fall outside the scope of this book and may be, I think WILL be, more difficult to overcome than the scientific and technological issues.

    I can recommend this book to anyone interested in an overview of emerging technology and its potential. I enjoyed it.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    That way by far the most educational and inspirational book I have read
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I thought this was going to be an overly optimistic, rose-colored view of the world. After the first chapter I was proven incredibly wrong. Diamandis creates a compelling and provocative argument as to what technologies are just over the horizon, and what things people across the world should be focused on in order to develop the resources to support our future growth.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book can change the world! A must read for everyone. Fantastic, amazing, optimistic!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved the stories of success with in the DIY section.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Exceptional book! Gave me great ideas for projects to work on immediately. So glad I found it and read it !
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely amazing book on new inventions. The writer shows why people are pessimistic and why we live in the best time ever.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well written and good ideas. It just wasn’t as inspiring as other “future” books
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    the future is brighter than you think!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As impossible as it may seem, Utopia is within a couple of generations of reaching all of humankind! It’s hard to believe, isn´t it? With all the problems in the world that seem insurmountable, with all those lunatics out there poised to wreak havoc, the special interests, the rooted prejudices, and so on… Yet, we can’t deny that most of us in the First World enjoy a level of prosperity or, at least, basic comforts that were unthinkable throughout human history up to as recently as 100 years ago. The premise of this book is that one of the main engines of this progress has been technology, and that that prosperity will continue to spread as the exponential advancement of technology continues in sync with its ever diving costs. Energy alternatives, water supply, food scarcity, diseases, overpopulation and so much more, are challenges at the brink of being conquered, and with them the evils they spur. If you want some good news for a change, read this book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In this surprising book the authors look at many aspects of modern technological development and predict enormous positive changes in the coming few decades.As they say, "When seen through the lens of technology, few resources are truly scarce they´re mainly inaccessible. Yet the threat of scarcity still dominates our worldview.", and they go on to look at new cheap seawater purification, the falling costs of solar electricity, smart grids, open source maker groups, the democratization and cost reduction of publishing'/advertising (eg. Craig´s list) and education (eg. Khan Academy), mobile phone banking in Africa, etc. etc.Overall, their conclusions are very convincing, and they devote an interesting section to cognitive biases, particularly the natural tendency to focus on threatening situations combined with an inability to appreciate their probability. Modern information overload presents a multitude of possible threats = anxieties while in reality lives are safer and more uneventful than ever before.I would have given the book 5 stars if it weren´t for their finessing of the issue of robotic AI on employment. They say, ".... The old lower skilled jobs were replaced with higher skilled jobs, and the workforce was trained to fill them." They know that there is is world of difference between the introduction of farm machinery and new intelligent agent computers that can fly aircraft or provide advanced medical diagnosis. There´s an interesting discussion of this problem in Martin Ford´s, "The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future."

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is a hopeful and encouraging look at a possible future we never hear about via the mainstream media. A great cure for Armageddonitis. Highly recommended. The only fault I found with it is the gawdawful cover. As with websites, it's best not to use family members to design for you; go with the pros. Perhaps the paperback will have a professionally-designed cover.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you love technology and the breathtaking exponential pace in which technology changes the world, this book is for you! It reads like a biography of all the inventors & game-changers of the last 10 years, and many others I'd never heard of.