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lhardy's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating. It was so interesting learning about the technologies that have the potential to completely change our world for the better. Obviously each come with potential downsides but it was refreshing to read a well researched book that focused on the positive and hopeful side of things. This book WAS written over 5 years ago so I’m curious to see the progress between the publication date and now.
tygaribay's review against another edition
5.0
the author of "Abundance", Peter Diamandis, is also the founder of the X Prize and Singularity University...his whole life revolves around helping people create a better future. in this book, Diamandis lays out a techno-optimist view of how humanity can solve many of its problems permanently as we continue to develop technologies that are well within our reach over the next 20 years. as a techno-geek, i loved the author's vision of a possible future where abundance is the solution to our problems, and i was excited by the descriptions of the fascinating technologies that can create this future: like new battery technologies, desalination, truly safe nuclear power, artifical protein growth, and many others. if you need another point of view to contrast to the daily doom and gloom that the 24 hour news cycle provides in the media, i highly recommend reading "Abundance" and thinking about a better future.
ashleyboggs's review against another edition
5.0
I think everyone should have to read this to understand how technological advances can really help a variety of global issues. This was a largely positive take on the future which you don't see too much of these days! While Abundance is clearly skimming over some potentia negativel issues, it does a great job of getting your head out of the sand, to look around and see the possibilities. It highlights innovation in water, food, healthcare, energy, education, and freedom.
aaravbalsu's review against another edition
3.0
Faced with a deluge of increasingly disillusioning news these past few years, it's easy to forget the remarkable strides we humans have made along the way. Abundance is a reassuring work: Diamandis and Kotler point out key areas in which we've made huge amounts of progress in. They argue that the common thread resulting in this drastic, exponential improvement is our ability to innovate. According to them, technology can be leveraged into a tool that will allow everyone on this planet to live in abundance. For the most part, I found their analysis of human activity, economic optimization, and innovation-historiography to be realistic, and their forecasts for the near future of technology to be prescient (given what I know now in 2019, as compared to what they knew in 2012).
My dissatisfaction rests primarily on these points:
- Throughout this book, I think there's an overt fetishization of technology. Yes, it's been used for great good, but sometimes, human inertia is too great to adopt new technology. Sometimes, moonshots are just moonshots. Technology can't be the end all solution; it's more than likely a band-aid for more pressing issues lurking beneath, which brings me to:
- They skirt around the real issue: capitalism and its rapacious model of consumption is the reason for the exhaustion of the Earth's resources. In one chapter, they blatantly venerate the robber barons (Vanderbilt, Carnegie, etc.) , who they see as the precursors of the modern technophilanthropists (Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, etc.). They never truly address the issues undergirding the rise of such a billionaire class, instead insisting that their largess will be one of the primary avenues for the development of the denizens of the developing world.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but it's a bit too starry-eyed for me. Not that there's anything wrong with optimism, but it must be tempered with the pragmatism of understanding human fallibility and the rot of consumption-driven economics.
My dissatisfaction rests primarily on these points:
- Throughout this book, I think there's an overt fetishization of technology. Yes, it's been used for great good, but sometimes, human inertia is too great to adopt new technology. Sometimes, moonshots are just moonshots. Technology can't be the end all solution; it's more than likely a band-aid for more pressing issues lurking beneath, which brings me to:
- They skirt around the real issue: capitalism and its rapacious model of consumption is the reason for the exhaustion of the Earth's resources. In one chapter, they blatantly venerate the robber barons (Vanderbilt, Carnegie, etc.) , who they see as the precursors of the modern technophilanthropists (Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, etc.). They never truly address the issues undergirding the rise of such a billionaire class, instead insisting that their largess will be one of the primary avenues for the development of the denizens of the developing world.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but it's a bit too starry-eyed for me. Not that there's anything wrong with optimism, but it must be tempered with the pragmatism of understanding human fallibility and the rot of consumption-driven economics.
vlj1120's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating book, but skip the audio version. The narrator sounded like Thurston Howell III after a bout of bronchitis. Regardless, this optimistic book gave me a lot to be excited about and that's rare when you're talking about the environment and our global future. Yay for vertical farming, desalination efforts, savvy DIYers, and exponential technology.
bookaneer's review against another edition
3.0
It was good and enlightening at first but it really bores me at the second half. Sick and tired reading about X Prize and stuff. Hence, it took me four months to finish it.
aryadeschain's review against another edition
4.0
I think the title of this book is slightly deceptive. While it does have an extremely optimistic view of the future of the world, I'm not quite sure it relates to abundance. What exactly is there in abundance? Resources? Qualified professionals? Goodness in the world? Because, regardless of how optimistic the book is, there still doesn't seem to be evidence of abundance of any sort in either of those. Still, it was fun to listen to the evolution of technology, what good things awaits for us in the future and how we can improve the world as we know it.
alexmonegro's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent introduction on how the world is changing, and to the idea of exponential technologies and how it's hard for humans to understand their impact since it's a little bit like the frog being boiled in water, once you know for sure, it's too late.
gdlutz's review against another edition
5.0
I had the good fortune to read Abundance with a group of people who enjoy in-depth discussion, and that made this book all the better. The authors have collected on what is going right in the world and shared it in an engaging and understandable way. I was inspired to do further research, looking up inventions and discussions mentioned in the book.
Of course the future is unknown, and technology can be used for ill just as easily as for good, but Abundance highlights the possibilities and how they can be used for good. We must all use our minds and souls to guide ourselves to a better world, and Abundance offers information to help in that journey.
Of course the future is unknown, and technology can be used for ill just as easily as for good, but Abundance highlights the possibilities and how they can be used for good. We must all use our minds and souls to guide ourselves to a better world, and Abundance offers information to help in that journey.