Abundance (Harper Collins Publishers)

Imagine 6.8 billion people with clean water, nutritious food, affordable housing, personalized education, top-tier medical care, and non-polluting and ubiquitous energy. Since the dawn of humanity there has always been a privileged, prosperous few living in stark contrast to the majority struggling with disease, starvation and poverty. At first glance it seems that we'll never close this gap. With wealth now concentrated in the upper two percent of society - and serious concerns about population size, global warming, energy shortages, water shortages, food shortages, material shortages...this list goes on - alarmists are having a field day. And an impact. For the first time in a long time, parents are predicting a worse life for their children than their own. But none of this is accurate. We are now entering a period of radical transformation in which, because of the exponential growth rate of technology we will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Making this happen is humanity's grandest challenge - this is a book about how we can meet it.