Many people believe that we’ve run out of ideas and that the future will be one of bleak shortages of food, energy, and water, after all, the cancer death rate has barely changed since 1971
A nomad herding his cattle on the savannahs of East Africa with a mobile phone has better communications than President Reagan did 25 years ago; And, if he were on Google, he would have access to more information than President Clinton did just 15 years ago. We are effectively living in a world of communications and information abundance. This same cattle-herder can access: a GPS locator, local weather forecasts, video tele-conferencing, an HD video camera, a stills camera, translators, vast library of books and multi-media. All these devices come standard with a smart phone.
In a short 15 years, the Internet has changed the way we work, communicate, and think. Knowledge, which used to be available only to the elite classes through books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, is today abundant and free.
In the past decade, Do-It-Yourselfers (working both in small teams or collectively, via crowdsourcing) have made major contributions to fields like healthcare, energy, education, water, freedom—areas that were once the sole province of large corporations and governments. This means that whatever challenges we face in the world—climate change, AIDS in Africa, energy poverty—more than ever before, we are now empowered to individually help solve these problems. And it’s now within our ability to do so.
The online community is projected to grow from two billion users in 2010 to five billion by 2020. Three billion new minds are about to join the global brain trust. What will they dream? What will they discover? What will they invent? These are minds that the rest of society has never had access to before and their collective economic and creative boost becomes our final force: the power of “the rising billion.”
In an emerging field called digital manufacturing, 3D printers enable the production of physical mechanical devices, medical implants, jewelry, and even clothing. These printers use something like a toothpaste tube of plastic or whatever that squirts out thin layers of tiny dots of material that build up, layer by layer, to produce a 3D replica of the computer-generated design. Soon, we will have printers for this price that can print household goods. Within this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. In the next decade, we can expect local manufacture of the majority of goods; 3D printing of buildings and electronics. Nanotechnology is also rapidly advancing. New types of materials such as carbon nanotubes, ceramic-matrix nanocomposites (and their metal-matrix and polymer-matrix equivalents), and new carbon fibers. These new materials enable designers to create products that are stronger, lighter, more energy efficient, and more durable than anything that exists today.
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (or MEMS), which make it possible to build inexpensive gyros; accelerometers; and temperature, current/magnetic fields, pressure, chemical, and DNA sensors. Imagine iPhone cases that act like medical assistants and detect disease; smart pills that we swallow and that monitor our internals; and tattooed body sensors that monitor heart, brain, and body activity. And then there is Artificial Intelligence, which has advanced to the point at which computers can perform medical diagnosis, and drive autonomous cars.
Advances in medicine where we can grow replacement bladders, veins, arteries, esophagus, kidneys, and even starting with hearts now. Medical treatments becomes restorative.
In the upcoming years robots and computer programs can substitute for human workers in jobs, automation eventually take over for humans in many industries. Unpleasant wage- labour no longer a necessity. People can take jobs that may never be automated, or even if they could be, consumers will want humans in those positions. Artists, entertainers, teachers, and others provide a “human touch” in their work that is unlikely to be achievable by any but the most impressive of artificial intelligences. A return to the craftsman's skill and aesthetic.
We 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. We are living in a time of unprecedented opportunity. But it won’t happen without your help. Technology is not enough on its own to bring about this golden age. In this and the next decade, we could begin to make energy and food abundant, purify and sanitize water from any source, cure disease, and educate the world’s masses. The best part: it isn’t governments that will lead this charge; it can be the people themselves.
For people who don’t know what post-scarcity is, in a nutshell it entails everything being free (the abolition of money). Everything being free occurs due to superabundance of goods and services. Superabundance will be created via AI, nanotechnology (nano-assembly nanobots), and 3D printing. Things only possess monetary exchange value due to scarcity. Prices are required to restrict limited supplies in situations of scarcity. Scarcity is artificially imposed by market forces or distribution factors which the markets impose. We can achieve a future where all available resources are effectively limitless. Capitalism is holding back innovation and slowing down the very technologies we need to save the planet.
A nomad herding his cattle on the savannahs of East Africa with a mobile phone has better communications than President Reagan did 25 years ago; And, if he were on Google, he would have access to more information than President Clinton did just 15 years ago. We are effectively living in a world of communications and information abundance. This same cattle-herder can access: a GPS locator, local weather forecasts, video tele-conferencing, an HD video camera, a stills camera, translators, vast library of books and multi-media. All these devices come standard with a smart phone.
In a short 15 years, the Internet has changed the way we work, communicate, and think. Knowledge, which used to be available only to the elite classes through books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, is today abundant and free.
In the past decade, Do-It-Yourselfers (working both in small teams or collectively, via crowdsourcing) have made major contributions to fields like healthcare, energy, education, water, freedom—areas that were once the sole province of large corporations and governments. This means that whatever challenges we face in the world—climate change, AIDS in Africa, energy poverty—more than ever before, we are now empowered to individually help solve these problems. And it’s now within our ability to do so.
The online community is projected to grow from two billion users in 2010 to five billion by 2020. Three billion new minds are about to join the global brain trust. What will they dream? What will they discover? What will they invent? These are minds that the rest of society has never had access to before and their collective economic and creative boost becomes our final force: the power of “the rising billion.”
In an emerging field called digital manufacturing, 3D printers enable the production of physical mechanical devices, medical implants, jewelry, and even clothing. These printers use something like a toothpaste tube of plastic or whatever that squirts out thin layers of tiny dots of material that build up, layer by layer, to produce a 3D replica of the computer-generated design. Soon, we will have printers for this price that can print household goods. Within this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. In the next decade, we can expect local manufacture of the majority of goods; 3D printing of buildings and electronics. Nanotechnology is also rapidly advancing. New types of materials such as carbon nanotubes, ceramic-matrix nanocomposites (and their metal-matrix and polymer-matrix equivalents), and new carbon fibers. These new materials enable designers to create products that are stronger, lighter, more energy efficient, and more durable than anything that exists today.
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (or MEMS), which make it possible to build inexpensive gyros; accelerometers; and temperature, current/magnetic fields, pressure, chemical, and DNA sensors. Imagine iPhone cases that act like medical assistants and detect disease; smart pills that we swallow and that monitor our internals; and tattooed body sensors that monitor heart, brain, and body activity. And then there is Artificial Intelligence, which has advanced to the point at which computers can perform medical diagnosis, and drive autonomous cars.
Advances in medicine where we can grow replacement bladders, veins, arteries, esophagus, kidneys, and even starting with hearts now. Medical treatments becomes restorative.
In the upcoming years robots and computer programs can substitute for human workers in jobs, automation eventually take over for humans in many industries. Unpleasant wage- labour no longer a necessity. People can take jobs that may never be automated, or even if they could be, consumers will want humans in those positions. Artists, entertainers, teachers, and others provide a “human touch” in their work that is unlikely to be achievable by any but the most impressive of artificial intelligences. A return to the craftsman's skill and aesthetic.
We 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. We are living in a time of unprecedented opportunity. But it won’t happen without your help. Technology is not enough on its own to bring about this golden age. In this and the next decade, we could begin to make energy and food abundant, purify and sanitize water from any source, cure disease, and educate the world’s masses. The best part: it isn’t governments that will lead this charge; it can be the people themselves.
For people who don’t know what post-scarcity is, in a nutshell it entails everything being free (the abolition of money). Everything being free occurs due to superabundance of goods and services. Superabundance will be created via AI, nanotechnology (nano-assembly nanobots), and 3D printing. Things only possess monetary exchange value due to scarcity. Prices are required to restrict limited supplies in situations of scarcity. Scarcity is artificially imposed by market forces or distribution factors which the markets impose. We can achieve a future where all available resources are effectively limitless. Capitalism is holding back innovation and slowing down the very technologies we need to save the planet.
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