I got a lot of useful questions and feedback on my Age of Abundance (AoA) post yesterday - thanks! Two important points to address right away are what I mean by Abundance (and why I chose that term) and what drivers are pushing us in that direction.
My basic premise is that we already have the capabilities necessary to provide everyone in the world with quality food, shelter, clothing, mobility, and access to the Internet. This requires several further steps of explanation. First, by capabilities I mean that we have the technology and resources available to make this happen (and I realize even this will require further elaboration even as I write it). That does in no way imply that we have the political or social setup today to make this a reality. Second, the list above corresponds to some degree to the bottom two rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. That is not by accident. Abundance is what happens when those basic needs are taken care of. And I don’t mean in some perfunctory way (e.g., a mud hovel) which is why I inserted the wort “quality." Third, I added mobility and access to the Internet as critical elements. In my mind these are what enable the mental and emotional components of Abundance.
This brings me to drivers. Clearly for us to achieve Abundance with limited natural resources in the world, one thing has to be true: our rate of progress has to exceed the population growth rate. Part of what I intend to show is that two trends are combining to make this possible now. First, I believe we will relatively soon reach "peak population” – the largest number of people to live on the planet and that we will eventually settle at a lower number of population. So population growth is not the issue at all. At the same time, we are experiencing an unprecedented explosion in productivity. I am not a (strict) “singularitan." I think something like the singularity could happen, but it is not a requirement for Abundance. As I wrote above, if anything we already have the capabilities today (something I intend to provide more information on), so progress from here is "gravy” so to speak.
One way to summarize the whole premise of the Age of Abundance then is as follows. The cake is already big enough for everyone (if it were more evenly distributed) AND the cake is only growing bigger AND there will be an equal or fewer number people (splitting the cake).
