Abundance

Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize Foundation, and science writer Steven Kotler argue that technology can close the old gap between a privileged few and the hardscrabble majority. They identify four forces behind that change: exponential technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and digital manufacturing; DIY innovators; wealthy technophilanthropists; and the Rising Billion, the world's poor now connected by modern communication. Taking human needs one at a time, from water, food and energy to health care, education and freedom, the authors profile innovators working on each. They also set hard targets and a plan for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, and reviewers at Time and the Christian Science Monitor praised the result.

Michael Dell called its argument that technology could raise living standards for everyone fascinating and urged skeptics to read it before disagreeing, and Richard Branson included it on his list of top 65 books for a lifetime of reading.