All around us we are told that things are bad and the future looks bleak. The news reports the dangers of the world around us, the difficult economy and how things are getting worse by the minute. This is one perspective.

Peter Diamandis has another.

According to Peter Diamandis we are living in an age of Abundance and the future has never looked brighter.

This viewpoint is all based on perspective. When looking back over the past 100 years we now possess greater luxuries than even the most powerful men and women had 100 years ago. Our basic day-to-day living conditions exceed that of monarchs and captains of industry of the past.

Here are a few examples of our present Abundance:

-Greater amounts of electricity are available at lower cost
-A wider variety of entertainment is available on-demand at lower cost
-Once secret knowledge is now widely available on-demand through online education at low cost (and often no cost)

These are just a few examples. The idea of Abundance may seem counter-intuitive, but makes sense upon further consideration. Think about it. What other time in history have we had so much available at so little cost?

In the future this Abundance is expected to continue, mainly on an exponential basis through exponential technologies. Exponential technologies are technologies that are doubling in power on a regular basis. In the past 100 years technology growth was swift, over the next 100 years it is expected to accelerate at an even faster rate.

Abundance is not without its challenges. One challenge (and opportunity) is to bring the global population online. Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson are working on this and are planning on building a global Internet through a constellation of hundreds or thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth. Bringing the population of the world online will provide a massive customer base to entrepreneurs who operate online businesses seemingly overnight while increasing the quality of life of this same potential customer base.

Another challenge is the displacement of existing workers, particularly in the blue collar fields. As advances are made across robotics, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and other exponentials – these technologies will continue to replace workers and drastically alter the employment landscape. In Abundance, Peter Diamandis discusses how we may need to rethink what defines us as there simply will not be enough work for everyone, but these technologies will create more than enough for everyone to meet their basic needs. When a car can be 3D printed in 15 minutes and a house in about an hour these items will not be scarce. However, there is a risk that limiting scarcity beliefs may hold us back through scarcity-based social constructs.

The concept within Abundance is fascinating. Basically Peter Diamandis proposes that we embrace these technologies and accelerate their development and deployment to increase the global living standard across the board. As individuals are freed from the concerns of meeting basic needs (food, water, healthcare, etc.) they can focus their energy on meeting the next level of global challenges. Who knows? The next Nikola Tesla may be currently in a developing nation and once connected, may move us all forward with their creative genius.

The overall concept of Abundance is to use exponential technologies to address problems at each global level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and work our way up the pyramid. This in turn creates even greater levels of Abundance which begins to fuel its own growth.

Again, many of these ideas may seem strange at first but I highly recommend reading this book so you can gain an appreciation of the entire Abundance concept. Abundance is one of those life changing books that has the potential to change the way you view the world.

For more on Abundance visit the Abundance section of Peter Diamandis’ website.

Photo Credit: Abundance