Book Review: Abundance--A Must Read for Any Futurist

Authors Peter H. Diamandis and Steve Kotler have created just about the perfect handbook when it comes to envisioning a technically advanced, democratic and thriving society. Written in 2012, this book is still an important read for anyone who’s interested in a technical future where humanity finally rises above the mire it has been tethered to for millennia.

Much can be said about the book, but there are two aspects that put Abundance at the top of my recommended reading list. First, Diamandis starts out by addressing the most obvious elephant in the room when it comes to hindering progress: our Cognitive Biases. We tend to be negative creatures, programmed from birth to fear our world and each other. Scarcity is driven into our minds, from supply-side economics to original sin. The media focuses on bad news because that’s what the human mind responds to. While we claim to desire happiness and peace, most people simply don’t believe that they, or anyone else, deserve it.

Diamandis goes straight to the heart of the matter by addressing this flaw, and why it holds us back. The reason technology hasn’t lived up to its promise is because we’ve been thwarting progress with our negativity. In order to free technology and allow it to evolve, we too must free our own minds and evolve from our reptilian, amygdala driven patterns, to higher order thinking and use of the frontal lobes of our brains. This is not a simple task, but in the grand scheme of things, there’s nothing more important than for us to realize that life is actually much better than it’s ever been and that the future will serve us even more when we trust in the abundance of both the Earth and our capabilities.

Basically we need to rewire our brains. We’re still heavily relying on a hardware platform designed to keep us safe from wild animals, weather and other threats our ancient ancestors had to deal with. As Diamandis writes,

“…our early warning system evolved in an era of immediacy, when threats were of the tiger-in-the-bush variety. Things have changed. Many of today’s dangers are probabilistic—the economy might nose-dive, there could be a terrorist attack—and the amygdala can’t tell the difference. Worse, the system is also designed not to shut off until the potential danger has vanished completely, but probabilistic dangers never vanish completely.”

Physically our brains have grown in size, particularly in the frontal lobe, since the days of the caveman. We have an entire neurology we can embrace, and with it, a totally different perspective of life. Essentially we’ve evolved the hardware to be capable of seeing the systems before us and know that scarcity is something we can overcome, if we chose to believe in it. There’s really no other way.

As long as we remain stuck in the endless negative threat loop, our technology will be held hostage by fearful minds.

Diamandis goes on to point out,

“For abundance, all this carries a triple penalty. First, it’s hard to be optimistic, because the brain’s filtering architecture is pessimistic by design. Second, good news is drowned out, because it’s in the media’s best interest to overemphasize the bad. Third, scientists have discovered an even bigger cost: it’s not just that these survival instincts make us believe that the hold we’re in is too big to climb out of, but they also limit our desire to climb out of that hole.”

What follows after this realization is an attempt by the authors to show your logical brain, that part of you that thinks beyond threat, why you can believe in a better future, using both science and personal stories to prove their point. It’s a brilliant exercise in cheerleading for their cause: an abundant future for all Earth’s citizens.

The second reason I recommend this book is because of its treatment of the BOP, or the over four billion people on our planet who live at the Bottom of The Pyramid, on less than $2 a day. Imagine it, four billion of us live in extreme poverty. Many of us spin our wheels trying to figure out how to get our resources to this group. This book actually gives us a blueprint that doesn’t merely suggest we share our resources with these folks, rather that we make the resources of the Earth and technology available to them in a variety of ways. From Technophilanthropists to the effects of putting cheap Smartphones in the pockets of villagers in West Africa, the possibilities to liberate half the world from poverty are literally in the palm of our hands.

For example, we in the west often look at our Smartphones as luxuries, but to someone in the BOP, it’s a way to share goods with others, discover information about clean water sources, and inform the world when violence erupts in the middle of the night. As they come online, they become a part of the global economy, which changes everything.

Not enough is written about the BOP as a group of consumers. Recipients of charity, yes. But as the old saying goes, “You can give a man a fish, but better to teach him how to fish,” the same holds true for the BOP and technology. This is the market place where solar paneled eco-friendly housing and inexpensive water filtration systems will come to be. Food distribution and agriculture as we know it will dramatically change when we invest in the BOP, which in turn will teach us how to manage the world when 9 billion of us roam the streets.

Abundance—The Future is Better Than You Think was a great read, and belongs on home bookshelves everywhere. Next on my reading list, BOLD, the authors how-to-guide follow up. If anyone can inspire us to make a difference, it’s Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. 

One Planet, Many Policies

“Policy is largely set by economic elites and organized groups representing business interests with little concern for public attitudes or public safety, as long as 

the public remains passive and obedient.”

~ Noam Chomsky on the Transatlantic Agreement and US Policy

The news and I have an on-again-off-again relationship. For the most part, I strive to surround myself with positive elements. After over forty years on this Earth, I’ve learned that worrying about something that hasn’t yet happened, or might happen, or is happening but there’s nothing I can do about it, is actually a waste of time. Right here, right now, in my life, wonderful things are happening and those are the things I do not wish to miss, simply because I was stressed about something that’s completely out of my control. In spite of the fact that I'm writing a dystopian trilogy,  I truly believe that the world is NOT out to get me.

Yet, as a writer of science fiction, I do a lot of research, and the news is a part of that. Particularly political news, since that is where the power lies—in the hands of those who work in our governmental agencies.

This morning, I found the quote above from Noam Chompsky very telling. It sums up the entire attitude of governance in America at this moment in time. Decisions are not made in the name of the people, but rather for those who have an economic hand in them. These decisions are being made daily, behind closed doors. However, given the fact that we are one human race, sharing one atmosphere, one biosphere and one planet, any decision made behind closed doors affects all of us, whether the politicians realize it or not.

It has long surprised me that most people refuse to believe that their government would hurt them. Folks like to complain about the government, but suggest that decisions might be made intentionally without regards to our safety, and people cry, “CONSPIRACY THEORY!” and tune you out.

“That’s impossible! The government would never do that.”

Is it? Take Chomsky’s quote above. I agree it’s a stretch to believe the government would kill citizens intentionally, but when economic powers are concerned, our governments already have a track record of disdain for our safety and our freedom. Take the nuclear testing in the 1960’s, which released new forms of radioactive carbon into the air we all share, and thus into all of our bodies. Remember Erin Brockovich? PG&E knowingly spewed carcinogenic waste into a town’s water supply as a way to cut costs.

And today, as I read Charles Eisenstien’s latest article for The Guardian, I learned that, “the US National Research Council endorsed a proposal to envelop the planet in a layer of sulphate aerosols to reduce solar radiation and cool the atmosphere.”

This plan, also known as geoengineering, is an important one because it involves changing our atmosphere without our consent. One country has decided to spray a layer of sulphate aerosols across the planet, without any testing of the long term effects on human and planetary health. Why would we rush to this type of solution for the environmental crisis we’re in? And why do we, the people, sit back and let it happen? Why are we so obedient?

Let me be clear, I don’t think this is a conspiracy to wipe out humanity, but for some strange reason, we’ve all been trained by the media to think that. Most people won’t discuss it when I bring it up, and I know I risk being seen as “out there” for mentioning it. But hear me out. Geoengineering our skies has been an idea for quite some time. Most likely it started out as a really cool patent that would help some company make a lot of money. It wouldn’t be too hard to figure that one out, there are many patents registered under this category. They’ve been testing and spraying since the late 90’s. Money is the driving factor here.

But now we’ve got a real climate change issue on our hands and geoengineering has yet another reason to be pursued—saving humanity. We must cover our atmosphere in a layer of metals so that we can cool the planet. It will save all of us! Yet will it? I’d like to see some answers first.

What is the impact on human health to be breathing in sulphates? How about animals, or insects? How cool do we want to go? What if we get too cool, how do we heat things back up? What do we spray then? The Earth naturally cools and heats over centuries, in patterns we don’t really understand, so are we sure we know exactly how to do this right?

The questions are endless, yet many aren’t asking them, for fear of being seen as crazy. Instead we look to the skies and say the grid like cloud patterns are normal, and that they’ve always been there. That’s only true for people born since the early 90’s. The rest of us know better, yet we don’t question. It’s as author Miguel Angel Ruiz said, “We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.”

For me, the real reason we need to wake up and ask the hard questions of those making policy is because both business and government have shown us that they don’t understand the web of life in which we live. Policies are short sighted, profit driven and made without regard to safety and wellbeing. A new perspective must enter our leadership. As Eisenstein puts it so well...

“The quick fix mindset behind geoengineering must be transformed to one that seeks a humble partnership with nature if we are to address climate change.”

I’d go even further to say we need to stop assuming that business and government will fix the problems we see, and seek our own humble partnerships with one another, as we begin to make the difference locally. The age of the quick fix has dominated us economically and politically for centuries, but in the larger scope of things, humanity knows instinctively that all is connected and that what we do to our skies will affect every creature on the planet. We’ve been here before, and it’s time to stop being passive and demand that our solutions take into consideration the wellbeing of not only our economy, but life on the planet as a whole.

I'm a Believer

I haven’t blogged in a while, mostly because I’ve been busy writing the sequel to eHuman Dawn. It seems I can’t write two things at once, or at least, I don’t believe I can. The sequel has been exciting to create and while I’m pleased to announce the first draft is finished, the final product is far from complete. Now comes the time for editing and rewriting, for pulling out scenes, adding new ones and reshaping worlds, as well as words.
   
While writing the second eHuman novel, a new thought began to circulate through my head:

“How do our beliefs shape the world as we know it?” 

At the end of eHuman Dawn, the female lead, Dawn, announces that she’s about to take on a quest to search the world for humans--those who remained in the flesh after the rest of the population Jumped into eHuman bodies. (Sorry readers, if you haven’t read the book, this might not make sense. You can remedy that unfortunate situation by purchasing it at Amazon, using regular currency, or from me using Bitcoin! Just click the appropriate button above.)

Dawn believes that someone must have avoided the Great Shift, and she’s willing to give up the role of World Leader to pursue her goal of finding what’s left of carbon based humanity. Like the whisper of a grand conspiracy theory, Dawn’s belief sets the course for the rest of her life, taking her from the victorious, immortal eHuman world into the unknown, and because he believes in her, her beloved Adam follows.

Belief is defined as, “Trust, faith or confidence in someone or something” and in my opinion, is the driving force of human life as we know it. Once, we believed that the world was flat, until someone began to believe it might be round, and set out to prove the rest of us wrong.

Once we believed that illness was literally a curse, or the devil inside of us, and healthcare was practiced accordingly. With time, curious minds began to wonder, thus believe, that perhaps something else was causing the illness. Eventually a new way of curing disease was created, but it would take decades for enough people to believe in them before antibiotics were accepted as normal.

Belief guides the scientist to invest his time into finding a new solution. Belief guides the investor to give his money to a new technology. Belief guides the population to purchase and use the innovations at hand. Any marketer knows that the adoption of a product requires teaching the consumers why the product is important before they’ll buy into it.

Belief has driven men to war against others, and encouraged humans to destroy or continue practices that are harmful. Belief is the driver of all evolution and devolution. We believe in the “survival of the fittest” and therefore have created entire economic systems based on such a belief--money that rewards the “strong” and destroys the “weak.”

My eHuman novels deal with the intersection between belief, immortality, and technology. When people ask me, “Will AI destroy us?” I answer, “Only if we believe it necessary to destroy one another.” As long as we believe some of us are good, and others aren’t even human, then there’s a good chance our AI will behave the same way.

Other readers ask me, “Could we really live forever?” I answer, “Do you believe we can?” My dear Transhumanists, here is the crux of the issue--as long as we accept that an average lifespan of seventy-six is an achievement, we’ll never live forever. Hell, we won’t make it past one hundred. Before the government will invest in life extension technologies, we the people must believe it possible. We must believe the human being has only just begun it’s ascent, and that we’re at the point where we can indeed inherit our true potential as peoples of the Earth.

Of course, immortality isn’t appealing to everyone. That’s fine. I’d reckon though that most of you reading this would like to live as long as possible, and in health and wellness. If this is true, then the place to start is your belief. Seventy-six really isn’t that long. Why not expect to live to be one hundred? Why not believe that fifty is just the half way point, instead of the end of your life? Why not live as though you’ll be on this planet forever, even if no one you know personally has done it? How many decisions would be different if you believed you’d be here for a lot longer? What would you do now to live a more meaningful life? Would we, as a race, continue to destroy the environment if we believed we’d be around for a long, long time?

Whatever we believe in, we become. Whatever we believe in, we invest in. Whether it’s a government or an individual, the choices we make are based on our beliefs about ourselves, our world, and one another. 

If we begin to believe that every human being is worthy, then our AI will do the same. Perhaps then our technology will serve us and help create a cleaner, greener, more prosperous world.

If we begin to believe that one hundred is the new seventy, perhaps it would be so. What if we age merely because we expect to age, whether consciously or not?

Well, that would be something, wouldn’t it?