Proof of Abundance… And How to Survive It
We forget the world is getting better on so many levels…
Back before “Abundance” was a buzzword, in 2012, I co-authored the NY Times bestselling book Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think. The book foretold the implications of exponential technologies that we’re experiencing today.
This coming week, my next collaboration with the amazing Steven Kotler is being released (April 14th) called “We Are As Gods: A Survival Guide for the Age of Abundance.” We Are As Gods tells the continuing story of Abundance, both the upside and the downside, but most importantly provides a survival guide on how to navigate the decade ahead.
In 1968, Stewart Brand declared: “We are as gods – and we might as well get good at it.” Half a century later, that prophecy has come true. This book offers a sweeping exploration of our species’ next great transformation. Blending hard science with vivid storytelling, charting humanity’s ascent from scarcity to “superabundance”… and the psychological, ethical, and existential challenges that come with it.
Ray Kurzweil put it best: “We Are As Gods is more than a survival guide – it’s a manual for optimizing our destiny, connecting the speed of technology to the unlimited potential of the human mind.”
I hope you’ll pick up a copy and give us your feedback. Steven and I put our heart and soul (and four years of research) into this book. And by the way, if you’d like to hang out with me, Steven Kotler, Ray Kurzweil, and the Moonshot Mates on May 4th at MIT, consider this offer.
Now Let’s Talk About Some New “Proof of Abundance”
I’ve started doing something new on my Moonshots podcast: searching for and discussing recent breakthroughs or announcements that indicate how we’re transforming scarcity into superabundance on an ever-increasing basis.
This week, five stories caught my attention. Not because they’re flashy. Because they’re undeniable.
1. Renewables Hit the Halfway Mark
Renewables just crossed 49.4% of global electricity capacity. Let me say that again: nearly half of all electricity generation capacity on Earth is now renewable. Solar drove 75% of new additions, bringing the total to 5.15 terawatts. We’re at the halfway mark and the curve is accelerating. This isn’t some future projection. This is today. The energy transition is already here.
2. Lithium Battery Prices: Down 99%
In 1991, a lithium battery cost $10,000. And today? Less than $100. That’s a 99% price drop. Remember all those conversations about whether we could afford enough batteries to electrify transportation? Those are ancient history. The market solved it. Scale solved it. Technology solved it. And we’re not done: new battery chemistries are coming that will drive costs even lower. Every electric vehicle on the road is proof that Abundance doesn’t require central planning. It requires innovation and competition.
3. Lab-Grown Diamonds Below $1,000
The average price of a two-carat lab-grown diamond has fallen below $1,000: down 80% since January 2020. Compare that to a natural diamond at $22,000 to $28,000 for the same size. So much for De Beers. And yes, De Beers’ 3-months-salary campaign was one of the most successful PR brain-washings in history. They convinced generations that scarcity equals value. But technology doesn’t care about marketing. Lab-grown diamonds are chemically identical, optically perfect, and produced without child labor. Abundance wins.
4. AI Created 640,000 New Jobs
AI created 640,000 new jobs in the United States between 2023 and 2025, mostly in categories that didn’t exist three years ago. Not replacing jobs. Creating jobs. This is the pattern we’ve seen with every major technology transition: short-term disruption, long-term expansion. The printing press, the steam engine, electricity, the internet – all of them were supposed to end work. All of them created more opportunity than they destroyed. AI is no different. The question isn’t whether jobs will exist. It’s whether you’re building skills for the new categories or clinging to the old ones.
5. Robots + AI = Energy Abundance / The Maximo Robot
I LOVE this story… four Maximo robots are installing 100 megawatts of solar capacity in the California desert at one panel per minute. Think about that for a second. Robots deploying renewable energy autonomously, at scale, faster than humans ever could. Once you get robots, energy, and AI all reinforcing one another, Abundance stops being theoretical. It becomes mechanical. Inevitable.
And this isn’t just a Western phenomenon. Pakistan is now generating most of its energy via solar. Solar is exploding across Africa. This is global. This is real. This is happening whether you’re paying attention or not.
The Pattern
Abundance is a pattern across multiple domains: Materials. Manufacturing. Employment. Computation. Every one of them follows the same trajectory: exponential improvement, collapsing costs, expanding access. That’s not coincidence. That’s the signature of our exponential times, the signature of increasing Abundance.
But here’s perhaps the most important question:
How does society design institutions that distribute this Abundance in a reasonable way?
Technology creates Abundance. Institutions decide who captures it. Markets, governments, legal frameworks: those are the systems that determine whether Abundance pools at the top or spreads broadly. We have the technology.
Do we have the wisdom to build institutions that match it?
The Choice
Abundance isn’t coming. It’s in the data, right now. Renewables at 50% capacity. Batteries down 99%. Diamonds at $1,000. AI creating jobs. Robots building infrastructure.
The only question is whether you see it or whether you’re still watching the Crisis News Network.
I choose to see it. I choose to build for it. I choose to believe that we’re living through the most extraordinary moment in human history – not in spite of the challenges, but because of them.
This is what breakthroughs look like. This is what the future arriving ahead of schedule looks like. And if you’re paying attention, you can see it everywhere.
- Peter
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Peter
Brilliantly spoken. We need you, the Moonshots (with a capital M), to get on every network in the World, to talk about the positives, of what AI can do for everyone. Take the data centers: people don't want them because they don't have the "REAL TRUTHFUL" information. They need to have "in writing ", that their electricity bills won't go up, and "will" go down. There's enough money going towards AI in this world, so let's put some of that money buying time in every news and opinion channels, to start a campaign to get the real thruth out there. They need to know that, and along with the electricity not going to impact them, they need to hear about what the data centers are doing for the communities.
I'm so grateful for everything that you and the people who are like you.
Some how, we need to make "getting the truth" out to everyone as important as AI is itself.
The world is getting better, and the possibilities are amazing. Yet the real issue is becoming more and more glaring. There are many people who want to capitalize on these benefits just for themselves and don't want or care if other people benefit. In fact, many people feel that if other people gain something, then they themselves won't be able to gain, or they are losing something. Essentially still operating from a perspective of lack, there is only so much to go around.
It's time we really take a hard look at the foundational perceptions that people operate life from and through as their reality. Individuals who know that they are innately interconnected with all people, basically, all of life, tend to want all people to benefit and tend to want nobody to suffer.
While individuals who operate through an erroneous perception of being separate or disconnected from all other people or the planet or life itself tend to just look for what they can gain for themselves (exclusively self-serving desires), they would rather withhold from other people so that they can try to make sure they gain more for themselves.
With AI coming online as rapidly as it is, this foundational perception situation is becoming more and more an important factor in individual and societal behavior. How an individual sees themselves in the world affects how they operate in the world. Exclusively self-serving and divisive behavior is not going to carry forward very well. It can be the basis of new technology being used in exclusively self-serving, abusive, harmful, and destructive ways, as we have seen tools used in such ways in the past.
While technology has the potential to be highly beneficial to human beings, we can overwrite it and use it selfishly and destructively. Mental health and the perceptions that we operate life through are becoming more and more important to pay attention to.