Peter H. Diamandis

It's optimism unbridled by any sort of criticism. The irony that in this same book the author warns against confirmation and availability bias is sublime. The level of delusion is explained by the author's position. He is an extremely intelligent man who routinely hangs around the smartest people on the planet and spends most of his time on pioneering projects so obviously his world view is a little skewed. He also uses the line that should be a capital offence: "this is already possible to show more do with off-the-shelf components". And OLPC was not a success regardless of how many times the author repeats the claim. A few other projects he mentions were also less successful than the book's description would lead you to believe. All this is needlessly dishonest. show less

Perhaps not a bad book, but definitely not what I was looking for.

I'm sympathetic to the book's thesis: that technological and social progress can overcome many of the seemingly insurmountable problems facing the world today, such as hunger, illiteracy, and above all resource scarcity.

But ultimately I found this to be a thin, too-breezy take on this vital question. The authors offer a relentless array of examples and anecdotes about dramatic advances that are *just around the corner* from show more transforming the world, but not a rigorous argument as to why the massive changes they predict will actually occur. Objections, pitfalls and side effects are ignored or waved aside in a few passing remarks and a brief appendix. Too much of the book seemed to be Diamandis and his techno-philantropist friends talking about all the cool things they're doing.

At the root of my distaste for the book is probably a disconnect between the authors' goal and my goal as a reader. They were trying to inculcate optimism in readers and counter pessimistic, Malthusian takes on modern society. I wanted a serious discussion of ideas: what does history show about human socioeconomic progress? To what degree can we expect those trends to continue into the future, and to what degree can we expect something different? What have been the costs of "progress" in the past and what does this teach us about what we can expect going forward? How does technology affect, and how is it affected by, culture and politics? What new breakthroughs will likely have the biggest impacts, or could have such an impact if things previously thought impossible become possible?

If you're not looking for a book of intellectual futurism, "Abundance" may be more to your liking than mine. As it happens, I've read a number of books that were more in line with my desires (something that probably contributed to my dislike of "Abundance" — I might have liked it more if I'd read it at the beginning of my education). Among those still very accessible books I'd recommend for readers with an interest in the subject: Alvin Toffler's [b:The Third Wave|67482|The Third Wave|Alvin Toffler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387744496s/67482.jpg|65446], Steven Pinker's [b:The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined|11107244|The Better Angels of Our Nature Why Violence Has Declined|Steven Pinker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1311281857s/11107244.jpg|16029496], Robert Wright's [b:Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny|1124380|Nonzero The Logic of Human Destiny|Robert Wright|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320391999s/1124380.jpg|820748], Amartya Sen's [b:Development as Freedom|173961|Development as Freedom|Amartya Sen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320411543s/173961.jpg|168039] and [b:The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better|10276354|The Great Stagnation How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better|Tyler Cowen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1296495889s/10276354.jpg|15176955]. show less

Providing an idealistic outlook of how life looks like on the horizon, this book talks high-level about many technologies in a very optimistic way. I found 'high-level' part to be both good and bad - good for people who need an introduction on what can be done with putting technologies together and bad for those 'techie' people who go, "Hmm.. now how exactly does a self-driven car know what time I'll step out of my home for it to be waiting for me?". If you belong to the first category, show more you'll absolutely love this book.

Convergence of technologies is the core of the book. I found the impact of such a convergence on finance, banking, healthcare to be extremely innovative.

As mentioned above, the authors paint a very cheerful picture with the possibilities of the new tech, but don't talk about the issues that is brings along with it. A refrigerator placing an order for food? Wow, but what about the security issues? Nevertheless, I found the book to be a very interesting read.

Don't plan with what you can do with existing abilities, imagine something that's way beyond what is possible; convergence will definitely help your perseverance - is my take away from this book. show less

I have almost been persuaded by the author that the future is promising. But it's an illusion to believe that the advances of technologies alone would be able to save humanity. You cannot save the poor people by just giving them plenty of fresh water and by selling them cheap phones. These ideas are just rich people's wishful thinking. To have a better life for those poor people, the whole structure of their society has to be changed.