Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think

Whenever you feel like the world is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket, come back to read this book. It points at all the good ways in which it's changing, and how despite all our challenges, it's not as bleak as some might be led to believe. Not a feel-good book, but after you realize how we're advancing in a number of fields, you will feel better.

Peter Diamandis reports on, and believes in, the medical, technological and societal changes that every now and then pop above the line of invisible development to disrupt and upend, in a positive way, many of the things we took for granted that would forever be this way.

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 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 show more 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 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 show more 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

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.

Weird time to read a book that is so optimistic about the future, given the current dire state of affairs politically, where a fascist like Donald Trump may become President, and at the bookstore and cineplex, where people who don't even really know what dystopia means other than as a genre to be capitalized (I like Dystopian....) flock to the latest fiction where the world has Done Gone To Hell in record numbers. Not sure if I'm totally buying it, but then again, as a human, I'm wired to engage in any number of pessimistic and illogical misperceptions of reality, according to the book. This why people say the world is going down the tubes when it is not, the book argues. I hope the state of abundance comes true.

Well, this was a hopeful book about the triumphant potential of human technology - it has continually proven the Malthusians wrong. Some of the examples are amazing, like the device that can make pharmaceutical grade water from a dank ditch or chemical run off and a future Tricorder for medical assessment in the field. I found intriguing the proven success of prize motivations as a way to leverage public money, not surprising since the author is one of the people behind the xprize.

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 show more 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. show less