Our near future can be an era of abundance

A book to be released in February suggests that radical advances in technologies will improve the lives of everyone, especially the poor – Abundance – The future is better than you think.

Here’s a description from the book’s website:

In Abundance, space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials, synthetic biology, and many other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous two hundred years. We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet.

More progress in 20 years than the last 200. Cool.

A few tidbits from their website:

On the radical growth in information:

From the very beginning of time until 2003, humankind created five billion gigabytes of digital information.  In 2010, the same amount of information is created every two days; by 2013, every 10 minutes.

Would you trade living in poverty today for being the richest man in the country 80 years ago?

95 percent of Americans now living below the poverty line have electricity, internet, water, flushing toilets, a refrigerator and a television. John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, among the richest on the planet, enjoyed few of these luxuries.

Don’t know if I’d make that trade, but I certainly would not trade my middle class life today for Rockefeller’s life, who died in 1937.  I have a very large volume of servants today and pay them a pittance. We could debate whether Rockefeller or I have more servants on hand.

On the radical drop in food prices since the U.S. Civil War:

Groceries today cost 13 times less than 150 years ago, according to a study from The Grocer magazine.

I’ve discussed that idea here.

Check out the website.

I have the book on pre-order.

Hat tip: Mark Perry at Carpe Diem

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