Adapted from the book "Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think" by Steven Kotler and Peter H. Diamandis. http://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/145161683X/

2. IT’S A BLIZZARD OF BAD NEWS OUT THERE:
an ongoing economic crisis, a burgeoning education crisis, healthcare
turmoil, energy poverty, water scarcity—to name but a few of our fears.
So pervasive is our sense of doom and gloom, that those telling a
different story can rarely be heard.
AND THERE’S A VERY DIFFERENT STORY
WORTH HEARING.

3. PROGRESS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ROBOTICS,
INFINITE COMPUTING, UBIQUITOUS BROADBAND
N E T W O R K S , D I G I T A L M A N U F A C T U R I N G ,
NANOTECHNOLOGY, SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY, AND MANY
OTHER REVOLUTIONARY FIELDS WILL ENABLE US TO
MAKE GREATER GAINS IN THE NEXT TWO
DECADES THAN WE’VE MADE IN THE PREVIOUS
TWO HUNDRED YEARS.

4. 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 ACTUALLY WITHIN OUR GRASP.

5. EXPONENTIAL
TECHNOLOGIES
FOUR EMERGING FORCES
ARE CONSPIRING TO SOLVE
OUR BIGGEST PROBLEMS:
THE DIY
INNOVATOR
THE
TECHNOPHILANTHROPIST THE RISING BILLION

6. 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 ACTUALLY WITHIN OUR GRASP.

7. The true promise of abundance was one of creating
A WORLD OF POSSIBILITY:
A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE’S DAYS ARE SPENT
DREAMING AND DOING, NOT SCRAPPING AND SCRAPING.

8. EXPONENTIAL
TECHNOLOGIES

9. • EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES •
RIGHT NOW, ALL INFORMATION-BASED
TECHNOLOGIES ARE ON EXPONENTIAL GROWTH CURVES—
MEANING THEY’RE DOUBLING IN POWER AND HALVING
IN PRICE EVERY 12 TO 24 MONTHS.
THIS IS WHY AN $8 MILLION DOLLAR COMPUTER FROM TWO
DECADES AGO NOW SITS IN YOUR POCKET AND COSTS LESS
THAN $200.
This same rate of change is also showing up in networks, sensors, cloud
computing, 3D printing, genetics, AI, robotics, and dozens of other industries.

10. BECAUSE OF THIS, AFRICA HAS SKIPPED
A TECHNOLOGICAL GENERATION,
by-passing the landlines that stripe our Western skies for the wireless
way. Mobile phone penetration is growing exponentially,
FROM 2 PERCENT IN 2000, TO 28 PERCENT
IN 2009, TO 70 PERCENT IN 2013.

11. ALREADY FOLKS WITH NO EDUCATION AND LITTLE TO
EAT HAVE GAINED ACCESS TO CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY
UNHEARD OF JUST TWO DECADES AGO.
Soon, the vast majority of humanity will be enmeshed in this same World Wide Web
of instantaneous, low-cost communications and information. In other words, we are
now living in a world of information and communication abundance.

12. THE DIY
INNOVATOR

13. • THE DIY INNOVATOR •
DIY INNOVATORS ARE INDIVIDUALS AND SMALL GROUPS
EMPOWERED BY EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES
AND DRIVEN BY THE DESIRE TO TAKE ON HUMANITY'S
GRAND CHALLENGES.

14. A DIY REVOLUTION HAS BEEN STEADILY
BREWING THESE PAST 50 YEARS, BUT
LATELY HAS BEGUN TO BOIL OVER.
Today, backyard tinkerers has moved from custom cars and
homebrew computers into once esoteric fields like neuroscience,
biology, genetics and robotics.
THESE GROUPS NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO TACKLE PROBLEMS THAT
WERE ONCE THE SOLE DOMAIN OF GOVERNMENTS AND MAJOR
CORPORATIONS AND NGOS.

15. THE AEROSPACE GIANTS FELT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE,
BUT BURT RUTAN FLEW INTO SPACE.
CRAIG VENTER BEAT THE MIGHTY US GOVERNMENT IN
THE RACE TO SEQUENCE THE HUMAN GENOME.
RIGHT NOW, HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE
USING THE TOOLS OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY TO COMPLETE
REAL WORLD PROJECTS THAT RIVAL THE OUTPUT OF MAJOR
BIOPHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES.

16. THE
TECHNOPHILANTHROPIST

17. • THE TECHNOPHILANTHROPIST •
TODAY THERE ARE MORE THAN 1,400 BILLIONAIRES AND 93,000
"ULTRA-HIGH-NET-WORTH" INDIVIDUALS.
MANY OF THESE ARE YOUNG, ENTREPRENEURS WHO HAVE MADE
THEIR MONEY IN TECHNOLOGY AND ARE INTERESTED IN USING THAT
WEALTH TO SLAY SOME OF THE WORLD'S GRAND CHALLENGES.
WE CALL THESE INDIVIDUALS
TECHNOPHILANTHROPISTS.

18. WHILE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION FOCUSED PHILANTHROPY
LOCALLY, THE HIGH-TECH REVOLUTION INVERTED THE EQUATION.
IN THE PAST, THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN AFRICA OR CHINA,
YOU DIDN’T REALLY KNOW ABOUT. TODAY YOU KNOW
ABOUT THEM INSTANTLY.

19. OUR PROBLEMS ARE MUCH
MORE INTERRELATED AS WELL.
EVERYTHING FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO
PANDEMICS HAVE ROOTS IN DIFFERENT PARTS
OF THE WORLD, BUT THEY AFFECT EVERYBODY.
IN THIS WAY, GLOBAL HAS
BECOME THE NEW LOCAL.

20. “AS SOME OF THE SMARTEST PEOPLE LOOK AT WHERE TO
FOCUS THEIR ENERGIES NEXT,”
says PayPal cofounder Elon Musk,
“THEY ARE NOW ATTRACTED TO THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS
FACING HUMANITY, PARTICULARLY IN AREAS SUCH AS
EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE, AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY.”

21. THE RISING BILLION

22. • THE RISING BILLION •
THESE ARE THE POOREST PEOPLE ON EARTH,
THE SO-CALLED "BOTTOM BILLION."
WE HAVE RENAMED THIS GROUP THE "RISING BILLION" BECAUSE,
THANKS TO THE EXPONENTIAL SPREAD OF COMMUNICATION AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES (LIKE THE SMART PHONE),
THESE PEOPLE ARE COMING ON
LINE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.

23. THEIR VOICES, WHICH HAVE NEVER
BEFORE BEEN HEARD, ARE SUDDENLY
JOINING THE GLOBAL CONVERSATION.
Aided by these technologies, the Rising Billion are beginning to
PULL THEMSELVES OUT OF POVERTY.

24. FOR THE FIRST TIME, NOT ONLY ARE THEIR VOICES BEING HEARD,
THEIR IDEAS— IDEAS THAT WE’VE NEVER HAD ACCESS TO BEFORE—
ARE JOINING THE GLOBAL CONVERSATION.
What will these people desire? What will they create? If for no other reason than
the law of large numbers and the power of their potential, this puts the Rising
Billion in the same category as exponential technology, the DIY’ers and the
Technophilanthropists: as a potent force for abundance.

25. ACTING ALONE, EACH OF THESE THREE FORCES
H A V E E N O R M O U S P O T E N T I A L .
BUT ACTING TOGETHER, AMPLIFIED BY EXPONENTIALLY
GROWING TECHNOLOGIES, THE ONCE UNIMAGINABLE
BECOMES THE NOW ACTUALLY POSSIBLE.
Where there is vision, the people flourish. The impossible becomes the
possible. And abundance for all becomes imagine what’s next.

26. VIEW ON AMAZON MORE FROM
STEVEN KOTLER