This excerpt from ’Abundance: Why the Future Will Be Much Better Than You Think’ (Free Press, 2012) by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, appeared in the Feb. 13 edition of FORBES magazine.
A quick glance at the headlines lets us know the score: dark days ahead. With growing concerns about population size, economic meltdowns, energy shortages, water and food shortages—this list goes on—alarmists are having a field day. For the first time in a long time parents are predicting a worse life for their children than their own.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth. We are now entering a period of radical transformation. Progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials, synthetic biology and many other breakthrough technologies will let us make greater gains in the next two decades than we’ve made in the previous 200 years. We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp.
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