The new book Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think is both a case for optimism and an examination of scientific innovators working to improve people’s lives around the world.

Hardcover, 400pp

Free Press, February 2012

ISBN-13: 9781451614213

Barnes & Noble online price: $15.53

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SYNOPSIS

Providing abundance is humanity’s grandest challenge, and this is a book about how we rise to meet it.

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. 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 roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism.

Examining human need by category — water, food, energy, healthcare, education, 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 and Craig Venter, among many others.