In the forthcoming book Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, Peter H. Diamandis (chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation and cofounder and chairman of Singularity University) and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler give us an extensive tour of the latest in exponentially growing technologies and explore how four emerging forces — exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the Technophilanthropist, and the Rising Billion — are conspiring to solve humanity’s biggest problems.

“This brilliant must-read book provides the key to the coming era of abundance, replacing eons of scarcity,” says Ray Kurzweil, inventor and author of The Singularity is Near.

Matt Ridley, author of the Rational Optimist, agrees: “This vital book … gives us a blinding glimpse of the innovations that are coming our way. …” Stewart Brand, editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, describes the book as “comprehensively sampl[ing] … the profound innovations going on to improve the human condition.”

The authors make a compelling case for optimism. We are introduced to dozens of innovators and industry captains making tremendous strides in healthcare, agriculture, energy, and other fields: Dean Kamen’s “Slingshot,” a technology that can transform polluted water, salt water, or even raw sewage into incredibly high-quality drinking water for less than one cent a liter; the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, which promises a low-cost, handheld medical device that allows anyone to diagnose themself better than a board-certified doctor; and Dickson Despommier’s “vertical farms,” which replace traditional agriculture with a system that uses 80 percent less land, 90 percent less water, and 100 percent fewer pesticides, with zero transportation costs.

As a bonus, the authors provide a detailed reference section filled with 90 graphs, charts, and graphics offering much of the source data underpinning their conclusions.

Special offers to KurzweilAI readers

According to Diamandis, KurzweilAI readers who place an advance order by February 13 (at http://www.abundancethebook.com) will receive four gifts worth more than $1200: access to Singularity University’s private graduate training video library (covering AI, robotics, computing systems, neuroscience, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, energy, and innovation); a $1200 gift certificate toward attendance at SU’s 7-day Executive Program at the NASA Ames Campus in 2012; free online access to view Transcendent Man, a documentary film chronicling the life and controversial ideas of Ray Kurzweil; and an invitation to a meeting with the book’s authors via webcast.

In addition, Diamandis calls on the Kurzweil community to help ignite a new conversation around the world, and in the process enter to win a $5,000 gift (either a ticket to a zero-gravity flight, http://www.gozerog.com, or a seat at the 4-day SU Executive Program, http://www.singularityu.org).

Visit http://www.abundancethebook.com/tell-a-friend for more information.

Also see:
book | Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
Abundance Hub YouTube channel