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Tapping technology will create bounty for all

By Jeff Hecht

15 February 2012

In Abundance: The future is better than you think, X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis creates an optimistic vision – but does it square with reality?

TECHNOLOGICAL optimism is a stepping stone to finding solutions for world problems, from poverty and disease to climate change and pollution. In Abundance, Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize Foundation, and journalist Steven Kotler argue that innovation can provide 9 billion people with a world of plenty.

That sounds good in principle. Yet as a veteran technology writer, I found the book’s cheerleading tone rose rapidly to a crescendo of irrational exuberance.

Abundance is right…

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